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National Signing Day coverage
NEW YORK
Florida landed the top-rated recruiting class in the country
Wednesday, the first and by far the busiest day of the national
letter of intent signing period for high school football players.
"The key to recruiting is a lot like the keys to making a great
sale," said Meyer, who has won two national championships in five
seasons with the Gators. "The first one is having a great product
and we obviously have that here at the University of Florida."
As usual, national signing day was mostly about the rich getting
richer.
While Florida took the mythical recruiting national championship
-- all the notable ranking services had the Gators on top -- Alabama
and Texas, the teams that played for the BCS title last month, also
loaded up for future runs.
Southern California and Tennessee withstood late coaching
changes to land highly regarded classes. And Auburn showed it's not
about to concede the state of Alabama to Nick Saban and the Tide.
But the big winner was Florida, a program that seemed on the
verge of disarray six weeks ago.
A day after Christmas, Meyer resigned to deal with health
problems. The next day he decided instead to take a leave of
absence -- but not until he had locked up a recruiting class loaded
with many of the bluest blue chippers in the land.
At the top of Florida's class is Ronald Powell, a 240-pound
defensive end rated the No. 1 prospect in the country by
Rivals.com.
Residing in maybe the most fertile football state in the
country, the Gators always stock up on homegrown talent. Sixteen of
Florida's 28 signees are from the Sunshine State. But Meyer and his
staff showed off their range, too.
"They do have that reach. They do have that appeal," said
Jeremy Crabtree, national recruiting editor at Rivals.com. "If
you're a hot recruit, you're going to have Florida at the top of
your list."
Powell is from Moreno Valley, Calif., near Riverside, and highly
rated defensive back Joshua Shaw came to Florida from Palmdale,
Calif., about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The Gators ventured into the Northeast for two of the
most-wanted defensive linemen in Sharrif Floyd of Philadelphia and
Dominique Easley of New York City.
"I think that's a class people are going to look back a couple
of years from now and say, 'Wow, this is once-in-a-lifetime type of
class,"' Crabtree said.
ESPNU, Scout.com, SuperPrep Magazine and MaxPreps all ranked
Florida No. 1.
Texas made a strong case to be No. 2. The Longhorns class
included two of the nation's highest-rated players in defensive end
Jackson Jeffcoat from Plano, Texas, and the son of former Dallas
Cowboys defensive lineman Jim Jeffcoat, and linebacker Jordan Hicks
from West Chester, Ohio. Both committed to Texas late last week.
In the state of Alabama, Saban restocked the Tide with another
class the recruiting gurus loved. No surprise there.
But it was Auburn and second-year coach Gene Chizik that made
the biggest splash, securing a class rated in the top 10
nationally.
The headliner came from junior college. Former Florida
quarterback Cameron Newton, who left the Gators after getting into
legal trouble off the field, could start for the Tigers this fall.
New USC coach Lane Kiffin got a late start on recruiting for the
Trojans, hired away from Tennessee less than a month before signing
day to replace his former boss at USC, Pete Carroll.
Kiffin and his staff made up for lost time and then some.
"They did a years' worth of work in about two weeks," Crabtree
said.
Not only did Kiffin lock up the top prospects who had given
nonbinding verbal commitments to Carroll, but he strengthened the
class by luring a few others that seemed headed elsewhere. Most
notably, Seantrel Henderson, a 330-pound offensive lineman from
Saint Paul, Minn., picked USC over Ohio State, Notre Dame and
Florida on Wednesday.
"Despite the coaching, I always liked USC, period," Henderson
said. "It's a great school and great education."
"As far as football goes, Lane Kiffin recruited me when he was
still at Tennessee."
Allen Wallace, national recruiting editor for Scout.com and
SuperPrep, compared Henderson to former NFL greats such as Jonathan
Ogden and Anthony Munoz.
"Seantrel Henderson went a long way toward showing USC fans
that Lane Kiffin can be the kind of recruiter that Pete Carroll
was," Wallace said.
One particular USC signee will no doubt have Volunteers fans
cussin' Kiffin -- again.
Wide receiver Markeith Ambles from Georgia had committed to the
Vols, but pulled back on that commitment after Kiffin bolted and
ultimately signed with the Trojans.
Kiffin's departure sent Tennessee fans into a frenzy and caused
a few Volunteers recruits to reconsider their verbal commitments.
But much like Kiffin at USC, new Tennessee coach Derek Dooley
made a late save. The Volunteers ended up with a top-15 ranking
from all the notable recruiting services.
Brian Kelly's first recruiting class at Notre Dame didn't draw
big raves, but it got a late lift Wednesday when highly rated
offensive lineman Matt James from Cincinnati chose the Fighting
Irish over Ohio State.
Click on the links below to see a list of individual school's football signees:
