If you are a fan of the Florida Gators, you’ve heard it from rival fans. “ It’s all over after Tebow leaves.” Or “you guys are losing an awful lot of players this year. You’re going to lose at least dour games next year.” I hear that and I just sit there and smile. I smile because I know what they don’t know. The truth.

If you look at rivals.com during recruiting season like many of us do, you know next year is not nearly as bleak as some people think. This year’s (2010) recruiting class is ranked #3 in the Nation (so far). Rivals rates players on a numerical basis. A 5* player is at the top. Then it goes to 4*, 3* etc. The average Florida commit for this year is 3.79. To give you some perspective, there are only 22 players in the entire nation rated at 5*. So almost everybody is at 4* or lower and Florida is averaging a four star for every player. 7 of rivals top 100 players are committed to UF already. There are still 30 payers who are undecided. So Florida has 10% of the top 100 players that have committed. So playing the odds UF should expect to get 3 more.

Last year’s class (this past season’s freshmen) averaged 3.94. It was the highest average in the nation. Almost none of these guys have seen the field yet. A few got in during the fourth quarter of the blowouts.

The 2008 class was ranked in the top 3 also. They averaged 3.82 for that year. Most of those players have still not seen the field much. The only ones who have are Jeff Demps, Janoris Jenkins, and Will Hill are about the only ones who have seen significant playing time.

These will be your 2010 Gators. They will be young. They will be inexperienced. But they will be talented. So when you hear the usual drivel coming out of Athens , Knoxville , and Tallahassee , just smile.

By: James Folsom