Gibbs ended up a composite top 100 rated player- he was 76th in the composite and the 44th highest rated recruit on 247. He did jump on 4 months prior to signing day. his lowest ever ranking was 432. mike Williams isn’t in the top 1000 at this time on 247 composite. I am sure all gator fans would be thrilled if he has a Gibbs style jump but …I am not upset with fans who are not jumping in excitement over a potential project, reach, or undiscovered gem. Fans have had years of believing every coaching staff at UF is the best and finding diamonds in the rough. All leading to back to back 6-7 seasons. If we truly had a roster of full of under rated stars we would not be losing the games we have been losing. skepticism is probably warranted. To compete with the big dogs the o line needs some blue chip infusements.
I don't purport to be a recruitnik especially compared to many in this forum but Gibbs was under the radar big time until he erupted in 19. The offers from the big boys started around October given his 2019 performance. Not saying that Williams will have a comparable senior season( performance and hype wise) but the point is Gibbs rocketed up the recruiting world late in his career and was not always valued the way you mentioned. That's all. Take Two: Can Georgia Tech hold on to RB Jahmyr Gibbs? - Rivals.com Notice the reference to him being under the radar.
Yeah Gibbs was definitely originally the bigger schools "plan B" and was slow played by a few including us. And boy was that a mistake.
I remember several wanting Gibbs and I couldn’t believe he went to GT. Not a football decision I would guess.
Now do Kyle Trask... I saw his film and didn't give a crap about his ranking. I never gave it a second thought... I wanted him. Now... can we stop the star gazing... I don't mean to say that all player ratings are bunk, but we should know by now that some ratings are more accurate than others.
fans star gaze because 1) they like to win the mythical recruiting battle. Helps when talking trash to other fans to “win” at recruiting. Some like to win recruiting more than actual games. Lol. Gives hope for the future and 2) it is a proven fact - over the last 15 or more years every single team that has won the national title has finished in the top 3 in recruiting at least once and top 5 another time at least once within a 4 year period. It is just a fact - to compete and win titles need the high rated (stars) kids. Can certainly have lower rated kids and some pan out and turn into major players. But you need to elite rated kids to win titles. No way around it.
I'm not against 5* star players... but we need to get the right ones, and that is more difficult in this NIL age of college football. But if we find 3* star players, that are in the coach's view underrated, we should not be disappointed (not that you are per se) about getting some of these underrated 3* star player/s. And I am aware of the optics of having the highest rated recruiting class as well. I also believe Napier is very aware of that too. In Napier I Trust... for all things Gator football recruiting. Like Napier says, "it's a process," and the NIL has slowed that process down considerably, unfortunately for us. .
But maybe Clemson didn’t before they won. They defy did afterward. Fact is, you have to have the talent either way and we would have to be extremely lucky to get there without top classes. A transcendent qb is the only thing that can overcome a talent deficiency.
Is this a trend with the recruits or is the staff pushing for them to shut it down? I have read on a few sights that the atmosphere and attitude of the team and recruits is very positive. If so does it fall on BN recruiting his “type” of player, or is it just the culture change on the team? They compliment each other. I like it looks like they are really comming together!
I think its both. There is a culture change on the team because BN is recruiting those types of dudes.
