Image Credit: @UFGatorBand / Twitter
Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen added two new verbal commitments to his first complete recruiting class over the last two weeks with three-stars offensive lineman Riley Simonds (Buford, GA) and linebacker Jesiah Pierre (Mount Dora, FL) announcing their intent to play for the program in 2019.
Simmons (6-foot-4, 324 pounds) chose Florida primarily over Virginia Tech and Missouri. Pierce (6-foot-2, 220 pounds), a former Miami pledge, announced a new commitment date last week and picked UF on Sunday over UM, North Carolina, Ole Miss and ECU.
The Gators now have 11 players committed for 2019, but with only a quartet of four-star prospects aboard and none of those players ranked among the top 200 recruits in the nation, the program sits 29th nationally in the 247Sports Composite team rankings.
The only three schools in the top 30 of the rankings that have 11 or fewer pledges at this time are Georgia (No. 13), Texas (No. 16) and Penn State (No. 20). The difference? The Bulldogs have three five-stars and seven four-stars (no three-stars), while the the Longhorns and Nittany Lions each have one five-star and seven four-stars.
Florida is currently ranked 10th among their SEC foes as well as behind rivals Florida State (No. 10) and Miami (No. 15). The only truly notable team ranked behind UF at this time is USC (No. 49), which only has eight commitments.
The Gators remain in strong contention for four of the top 150 players in the nation and a finalist for 21 more of those prospects; still, it will take a strong recruiting effort — and likely an equally strong performance during the 2018 season — to sway many of those names to Gainesville, Florida.
Commit | Pos. | Rating |
---|---|---|
We keep loading up on these three stars and we
should have fine average time and easily be able
to compete with Vandy and Tucky.
Relax folks our recruiting is doing fine. Stars don’t make the player coaching does. CWM was a great recruiter and his staff couldn’t coach a lick. Let’s give Mullen the space to get roster back up to capacity then winning and scoring will take care of recruiting
Relax? Stars don’t mean anything? Recruiting is “Fine?”
We’re fine because Mus couldn’t Coach?
The point is the roster isn’t very good and the incoming doesn’t look that great, but hey, everything is fine and dandy…..oh brother are we in trouble!!!
There IS a problem with the brand. Florida is a used Chevy while Kirby and Saban are running Maseratis. This program has been irrelevant for 9 years when these kids were 8 in 4th grade. They only know the big boys and Gators mean nothing to them.
Sad but true.
Enjoy Coach Mullen’s recruiting! From a Mississippi State Bulldog
P.S. I guess all those stories about Starkville being the reason why Mullen couldn’t get top talent to State were “misguided”. We currently have a top 10 class committed in Mullen’s first year gone.
Mullen made your program into what it is today and most if not all those current commits came because of him. You little ingrate.