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When it comes to recruiting in Florida, there’s pretty much one major designation: South Florida and not-South Florida. With so much of the Sunshine State talent coming out of South Florida, it makes sense to lump together recruits from the greater Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and panhandle areas along with everything in between.
While South Florida has the “hotbed” reputation nationally, north and central Florida have produced notable SEC standouts. Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry was a five-star prospect out of Yulee, Fla., near Jacksonville.
Tampa product Vernon Hargreaves III is returning to the bay area as a Buccaneer following a decorated three-year career with the Gators. For much of the spring, Lake City’s Laremy Tunsil was expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
Here’s a breakdown of how the 2017 race for greater Florida prospects is shaping up compared with previous classes.
2017
5-stars: 2 SEC commitments out of 5 prospects
4-stars: 2 SEC commitments of 26 prospects
3-stars: 4 SEC commitments
Skinny: The greater Florida area is producing offensive linemen in this recruiting cycle. The five-star commitments are from offensive tackles Calvin Ashley (Auburn pledge) and Alex Leatherwood (Alabama).
Visit update on 5-star #Auburn OT commit Calvin Ashley (FREE) https://t.co/1hXjuHM4xV pic.twitter.com/9ncgp6TPzM
— Keith Niebuhr (@On3Keith) June 5, 2016
The Crimson Tide is doing the best among the north/central Florida recruiting, with a recent commitment from four-star QB Mac Jones to go with Leatherwood.
Alabama QB commit Mac Jones to Alabama RB commit Najee Harris — 5-star LB Baron Browning in coverage pic.twitter.com/9zsFY1nt0w
— Woody Wommack (@RivalsWoody) June 11, 2016
The only other SEC school with multiple commitments from the region is Florida, which has picked up commitments from four-star WR Daquon Green (Tampa) and three-star DT Jordon Scott (Largo). National Signing Day is a long ways off, but the region is off to a relatively slow start for 2017.
2016
5-stars: 1 signed with SEC
4-stars: 10 signed with SEC
3-stars: 15 signed with SEC
Skinny: Compared to the previous year, this was definitely a down class. The only five-star prospect from the area was Ole Miss QB Shea Patterson, a product of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., who came from Louisiana.
Of the four- and five-star signees (11), it’s an even split of three each for Auburn, Florida and Ole Miss while LSU nabbed two. Considering LSU has a virtual lockdown on Louisiana talent, the Tigers are more or less cherry picking when they come into Florida.
The Tigers grabbed four-star corner Saivion Smith, a St. Petersburg product who played at IMG.
Surprisingly absent from this large area is Alabama. Not one Crimson Tide signee from Florida came from outside the South Florida area.
2015
5-stars: 4
4-stars: 10
3-stars: 17
Skinny: The Gators were very fortunate in 2015 that after firing a head coach there were still two five-star prospects, OT Martez Ivey of Apopka and DE Cece Jefferson of Baker County, who wanted to live out childhood dreams of wearing orange and blue. New coach Jim McElwain was able to convince Ivey and Jefferson to stick with the Gators, and the five-star signees saved the class from being a total disappointment.
In four-star talent, however, Florida struggled signing only one (D’anfernee McGriff who has yet to make it to Gainesville). As far as four-stars went, Auburn came away with four, while Arkansas and South Carolina also picked up a pair each.
Expect the Gamecocks to have a notable presence in this area in years to come, as many of the Auburn and Florida signees were recruited by Will Muschamp.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
