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Gators Again Among Best

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By CARTER GADDIS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 7, 2008

Updated: 02/07/2008 12:14 am

GAINESVILLE - Despite a last-minute change of heart for two of Florida's four-star commitments, Gators coach Urban Meyer was able to celebrate his third consecutive top-three recruiting class as National Signing Day unfolded.

Alabama and Notre Dame leapfrogged the Gators in the Rivals.com rankings released after the letters-of-intent were signed and faxed Wednesday.

A slew of top-rated commitments last month briefly nudged Florida to the top after the Gators were barely in the top 20 in December. Florida landed the No. 1-ranked class last year and was No. 2 in 2006.

"Not that I knew the rankings, but the competitive part of me would take a look at Rivals or something like that and see where we're at," Meyer said. "I was kind of concerned myself, we're not that highly ranked. And then all of a sudden, bang, bang, bang, five, six, seven commits later, we are ranked. At some point, we were ranked No. 1. But some guys are signing like 35 players, and we got 22. So, I'm not concerned about rankings, but there is a part of me that always checks that."

Meyer lost another potential No. 1 ranking when linebacker Ramon Buchanan of Melbourne Palm Bay and center Ricky Barnum of Lakeland Lake Gibson backed out of their commitments to UF and signed with Miami and Michigan, respectively.

For Buchanan, it was the second change of heart in three weeks. He committed to Miami last summer, backed out in favor of Florida last month, made his official visit to Coral Gables last week and re-committed to the Hurricanes.

Barnum's switch was a product of having been heavily recruited by Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez when Rodriguez was at West Virginia.

Publicly, Meyer took a philosophical approach to losing those two commitments.

"You're a competitor," Meyer said. "Every coach is a competitor. But you also understand you're not going to win every game you play. So, it happens. It's disappointing, but it happens.

"It did shock me a little bit, but I'm also very pleased with who we got."

The signing of Lakeland Kathleen receiver T.J. Lawrence took some of the sting out of losing Buchanan and Barnum. Meyer said Lawrence informed the Gators of his decision late last month.

Meyer also spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday about the revelation last month of potential irregularities involving the recruiting of junior-college receiver Carl Moore, whose girlfriend - now a UF gymnast - was quoted in a story in the Sacramento Bee as saying she had spoken on the phone with Meyer during Moore's recruiting process.

On Tuesday, the school announced Meyer and the school were cleared by the NCAA of any wrongdoing.

But the timing of the story, coming as it did during Meyer's schedule of home visits with recruits, was more than a mere inconvenience.

"When I saw that, it was one of the most disturbing things I've experienced in my life," Meyer said. "Because we take great pride - and I'm not saying we're perfect - but in trying to do it the right way. So, to see that come across the ticker, or to have your wife say, 'Hey, by the way,' yeah, I'm trying to think if I've ever been more angry, and I don't know that I have."

Meyer acknowledged that the news created extra work for him and his staff as the recruiting process came to its conclusion.

"That was about a 10-day period of putting out fires," Meyer said. "I was on the road, so I was seeing most of them. I addressed each person, each player, each coach, each family member and there's a little bit of faith involved and there's a track record involved and here, just take a look, and don't read those ... I found myself looking at some of them, those chat rooms or whatever those things are."

FLORIDA SIGNINGS

x-Early enrollee

Reporter Carter Gaddis can be reached at (813) 259-8291 or igaddis@tampatrib.com.

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