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Florida Jumps To No. 1 In Recruiting Rankings

By CARTER GADDIS The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 28, 2008

TAMPA - As January began, the Gators - in theory, at least - ere looking up at Florida State and Miami (and 13 other schools) in the Rivals.com recruiting class rankings.

How, then, did Florida jump from No. 16 to No. 1 in three short weeks after months of relative mediocrity?

It started with Armwood OL Matt Patchan's verbal commitment to the Gators on Jan. 5 and picked up steam from there. He was UF's second high school five-star recruit (joining athlete Will Hill of St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City, N.J.), and the player who put the Gators over the top this past week was former a Notre Dame commitment, five-star DT Omar Hunter of Buford (Ga.) High.

Rivals.com ranks recruiting classes based on a points system, assigning each player a value. When a player commits to a school, that school receives his points to boost its ranking.

Hunter's addition put the Gators 11 points ahead of Notre Dame and 222 points ahead of No. 3 Alabama. Florida's class doesn't rate as high with ESPN (No. 7, up from 10th last week) or Scout.com (tied for sixth with Texas A&M), but the Gators have reason to be optimistic they might be able to come away with their second consecutive No. 1 class in the Rivals.com rankings on National Signing Day Feb. 6.

The reason? Florida reportedly remains very much in the running for four-star LB William Green of Spain Park (Ala.) High, and the nation's top WR, Julio Jones of Foley (Ala.) High has Florida on his list of finalists, along with Florida State, Oklahoma, Alabama and Texas Tech.

MISCELLANEOUS: Jones made his official visit to Oklahoma over the weekend and still reportedly plans to visit Texas Tech next week. He is scheduled to announce his decision on ESPNU during that network's National Signing Day special on Feb. 6. ... As the Gators begin to look ahead to next year's recruiting class, among the three or four dozen underclassmen scheduled to attend Florida's Junior Day this past weekend were Armwood DE Ryne Giddins and Plant QB Aaron Murray.

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