GATORS

Gators On Top Again

By ANDY STAPLES and DAN TREAT The Tampa Tribune

Published: Feb 8, 2007

GAINESVILLE - JC Shurburtt believes any aspiring college football coach who wants to learn how to stockpile talent should look carefully at what University of Florida coach Urban Meyer and his staff did this past year.

"It's kind of a case study," said Shurburtt, the Southern analyst for Rivals.com, "in how modern recruiting is done."

When the fax machines in the football office finally stopped spitting out signed letters-of-intent Wednesday, the Gators had hauled in 27 new players in a class ranked No.1 in the nation by Rivals.com and Scout.com and second by ESPN. Most of the names weren't surprising; nine members of the class enrolled in January and endured their first "mat drills" Wednesday morning. Some prospects - Armwood defensive tackle Torrey Davis, for example - announced their intention to sign with Florida months ago.

Still, the defending national champions got a few pleasant signing day surprises. Jerimy Finch, a safety from Indianapolis, told coaches late Tuesday night he intended to sign with Florida. Deonte Thompson, a Belle Glade native who was the nation's top uncommitted receiver entering Wednesday, announced he would sign with Florida at a ceremony at his school Wednesday afternoon.

Meyer and company used all the traditional methods to land the class, including direct mail, phone calls and visits. They also built on innovations they embraced in their first year at Florida. Those included barrages of text messages - including messages to recruits from the locker room at the national title game - and a one-night camp during the summer that drew even more of the nation's top prospects in its second year.

Meyer also may have taken some advice from Gators men's basketball coach Billy Donovan, who spent six months working to become a stockbroker before he entered coaching. Meyer began the recruitment of Finch with a cold call.

"I'm sitting there after watching [former Florida safety] Reggie Nelson play and paging through the Top 100 because I'm a dot-com guy now," Meyer said. "So I'm going through the top 100 and I notice No.30 is a pretty good safety, and I want to see the highest-ranked safety."

So Meyer called a coach he knew at Finch's school, Warren Central. The coach told Meyer that Finch would be interested in hearing from the Gators. Meyer asked what other schools were recruiting Finch. Upon learning that Finch had offers from Iowa, Louisville and Michigan, Meyer offered Finch an official visit before he saw the first frame of a highlight video.

Florida staffers knew other players better. Armwood's Davis committed in August after a brief flirtation with Florida State. Wednesday, he offered a bit of surprising news. He is close to qualifying academically to play in 2007.

"I just took the SAT [on Saturday]," Davis said. "I don't know what I got on it yet, but I think it's going to be good because I've been studying real hard."

If he qualifies, Davis will join a class that includes seven players from Class 5A state champ Lakeland High, a Gatorade national player of the year (Ocala Trinity Catholic quarterback John Brantley), the nation's top-ranked defensive end (Carlos Dunlap of North Charleston, S.C.) and the nation's No.2 tight end (Aaron Hernandez of Bristol, Conn.).

Shurburtt said credit for the haul goes to Florida's coaches, who seem to have mapped out a blueprint for landing a top class every year.

"It's the energy and enthusiasm of the staff," Shurburtt said. "They're a bunch of aggressive guys on the recruiting trail."

NOTES: Meyer said LB Jon Demps and DE Darryl Gresham Jr. are not with the team at the moment. Meyer said signee Bo Williams, a tailback signee from Oakland Park who enrolled in January, had shoulder surgery to correct a pre-existing condition and will miss four months.

FLORIDA SIGNEES

*Already enrolled at UF

Reporter Adam Adkins contributed to this report. Reporter Andy Staples can be reached at (352) 262-3719 or astaples@tampatrib.com.