ITG Mailbag: Subscriber Q&A about Florida Gators recruiting (Part II)

While there's a bit of a natural lull in the recruiting process while Florida's staff mostly concentrates on the team's improvement during spring football practice and the start of the spring evaluation period in mid-April, there's still some movement happening.

With that in mind Inside the Gators Recruiting Analyst Blake Alderman asked for subscribers to submit their recruiting questions in the Alley.

Here are his answers in part two of two...

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What are the biggest needs and who could possibly fill them, as well as possible five-star surprises and more in *ITG RECRUITING MAILBAG PART I *

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2blupits: With Luke Del Rio having three yrs of eligibility how does it end up affecting Jake Allen's commitment?

How's the recruiting different than last year? Seems like we had a few more three-star commits at this time last year. Is it by design this year?”

Alderman's Answer: Allen is locked in with Florida so there doesn’t seem to be any worry of him not sticking. As a matter of fact, he will be in town for a couple of days later this week.

Recruiting is different than last year because the coaches have had a lot more time to build relationships with the kids in this class. The staff is also being a bit more selective this early in the process and looking to take top tier guys. Most of that has to do with the fact that this class will also very likely be smaller in number as compared to last year.

FresnoGator: What does our defensive line board look like and how do we feel about our chances?

Alderman's Answer: I touched on some of the top defensive tackle targets in Part I. As for the entire line, Florida is still putting together their board, but the top defensive tackle target the have their sights set on is Rivals100 Aubrey Solomon. After a visit to Florida at the end of January he said the Gators were his leader. Four-star M.J. Webb is another guy UF has hosted on campus in the last few months as well. Florida is a player but Auburn and South Carolina are probably in a better place. Florida has also recently offered three-star South Florida tackle Kivon Bennett. Florida has also looked into Florida State commits Ja’Len Parks and Cory Durden from just up the road in Newberry.

As far as defensive ends, the board isn't quite as expansive right now. Of course the top defensive end is Zachary Carter and then there's Jarez Parks. Other than those two we'll have to wait to see how things play out this spring to see who the Gators are legitimately in the running to land. The need here isn't as great as it is inside.

USMCGators: Which out of state targets do you feel we have the best chances to land?

Alderman's Answer: A few that stick out early (and remember, it is still very early) are linebacker K.J. Britt, wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones, corner Elijah Blades, defensive tackle Aubrey Solomon, safety Xavier McKinney and corner William Poole III.

Bkurtz34: I would assume a good bit of the recruiting also gets done by players already on the team. Which of the current guys on the team tend to get more visitors that stay with them or get mentioned more often as guys the recruits have talked to most?

Alderman's Answer: The two guys that immediately jump out are Nick Washington and Jarrad Davis. Washington was a big time recruiter for his class in 2013 and has kept up his efforts since arriving on campus. Just this past week Washington had a top 100 recruit shadow him in a class on campus and in team meetings with the coaching staff. Davis is who is very highly talked about by prospects when official visits are finished. With him being a focal point on the defense - it really helps to have him in front of recruits, especially this year with the Gators looking to find a replacement for Davis with his final year of eligibility looming. A few other players that do a good bit of recruiting when prospects are around are Quincy Wilson, Alex Anzalone, Marcus Maye, Tyler Jordan, CeCe Jefferson, and Antonio Riles.

Greyghost14: “Who is going to be the rabbit Mac pulls out of the hat this cycle?

Alderman's Answer: It’s still really early to even begin to pick who that might be because if we knew already, then it wouldn't really qualify as a surprise. A few guys that I would consider as rabbits would be if Florida was able to land William Poole III with his family being full of Georgia Bulldogs fans or Trevon Grimes after Ohio State was the team to beat for so long.

CoachChip23: Two questions...

1. Was Kirk Callahan really that bad of a recruiter or were there other reasons for his dismissal?

2. Do recruits seem more open to UF this cycle after the Gators made the SEC Championship Game?

Alderman's Answer: I don’t think it was so much of Callahan being a bad recruiter as much as I just think he was being out-recruited by other SEC coaches. The SEC is a tough conference to play and recruit in and I think that Callahan just was getting beat up, which can’t happen covering as big and important of an area as he was for the Gators.

Recruits do seem more open this cycle. Last year when the new staff was brought in I don’t think a ton of recruits were all that familiar with McElwain, other than knowing he’d been at Colorado State and Alabama. Now kids have a chance to know what he's about. Then of course, after playing in the SEC title game last year I have heard a lot of recruits mention Florida being a program on the rise. Keeping most of the staff from last year is also a big help because it helps keep relationships in tact.

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