Florida is the national champion—of recruiting

Sporting News, The, Feb 14, 2000 by Mark Blaudschun

It's for bragging rights, of course, this business about who's the best. During the season, you can make your judgments by head-to-head competition, comparative scores, tangible stuff like that. But it's February. Groundhog Day has come and gone, and for those of us in the Snowbelt, we are told six weeks of winter remain. But that doesn't diminish the heat caused by the intensity in the second season of college football: recruiting.

Last week's letter-of-intent day is history. The experts say Steve Spurrier's Florida club is the clear No. 1 team in recruiting, with Texas, Tennessee, Florida State, Alabama and Penn State also pulling in marquee classes. If you listen to recruiting guru Tom Lemming, you see a trend that points to dominance by the SEC. Florida, Tennessee and Alabama ranked 1-2-3 in Lemming's flash analysis.

What does it mean? The people who judge high school talent--a risky proposition, at best--think those schools got the best high school players in the country. But it also means something else: Recruiting is important in the South.

It also means that Florida did what a state university must do to succeed--grab the most talented kids from its home state, which arguably is the state filled with the most talent each year.

Florida State, which was ranked fourth in Lemming's analysis, did the same thing. And Miami (Fla.), which had one of its best recruiting classes in years, also mined the fertile Florida fields. The same can be said for Texas, which did a good job of keeping the best players in the state at home.

Based on the numbers and projections, the SEC again established itself as the best, most competitive league in college football. Oh, you can argue that the Big Ten is right there. But let's face it: Football is more important in the South than it is anywhere else. It is a religion as well as a passion. Recruiting is important because college football is important. The interest level in the sport doesn't diminish like it does in some parts of the country when the season ends in early January. Instead, it remains passionate as winter sets in, building to the climax of the first Wednesday of each February. High school players become celebrities. Florida recruit Brock Berlin, who has been tabbed as the best high school quarterback in the country and already has enrolled at Florida to get a head start on competing for a job, made it clear why he came to Gainesville.

"This was a winning program throughout the '90s," says Berlin. "And I wanted to go to a place where winning the national championship is their goal."

A coach from every Top 2 5-caliber program in the country will tell you that winning a national championship is his goal. Realistically, you're talking about 10 to 12 programs that can make a legitimate run at the rifle.

So, let's sit back and see what blossoms from this recruiting class. Let's see if Berlin can one day take the Gators to a national rifle game. Let's see if wide receiver BJ. Johnson can help Texas get back to its status of a generation ago, when the Longhorns always were among the contenders for the national title. Let's see if a splendid recruiting class such as the one Bobby Williams put together at Michigan State can propel the Spartans on top in Michigan as well as the Big Ten. Let's see if the recruiting class that John Cooper brought in at Ohio State can get the Buckeyes back on track after a .500 season.

The bottom line is that no one knows. All we have right now are names, reputations and potential, which all have to be put into a mix, the results of which will be displayed on the field in the next few seasons.

Mark Blaudschun covers college football for the Boston Globe. E-mail him at blaudschun@sportingnews.com.

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Word on Brock Berlin is that he could be competing for the starting job this spring if Jesse Palmer doesn't meet the requirements Gators coach Steve Spurrier has for his quarterbacks. Berlin also could be redshirted, although that is less likely, considering the instability the Gators have had at quarterback the past few years. Palmer has exacerbated things with his inconsistency.... We all know who had the best recruiting seasons, but one of the worst may have been tamed in by Rutgers, which lost almost all of the top talent in talent-rich New Jersey. Guys such as WRs Johnnie Morant (Syracuse), Rashad Baker (Tennessee), Lorenzo Crawford (North Carolina) and Carlos Perez (Florida) said "no" to the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers coach Terry Shea was in a tough position to start with. He was given another season to save his job but with the understanding that anything less than a winning record likely would mean he would be fired. With that kind of arrangement, small wonder few recruits in the state wanted to make a commitment to a coach who could be gone by this time next season.... Ohio State, which has traditionally hit Michigan and Ohio the hardest in its recruiting, ventured into New York and took three prime prospects: RB Sam Maldonado of Harrison, OT Shane Olives of Lawrence and DL Will Smith of Utica.... The exposure Virginia Tech received for its run at a national championship is starting to pay off because the Hokies had their best recruiting class in years. The best of the bunch includes WR Richard Johnson, DB Chad Cooper, LB Mikal Baaqee, DB Mike Daniels and LB Jason Lallis.... Look for several junior college recruits to make big impacts at running back next season, including Thunder Collins (Nebraska), Rayon Anderson (Rutgers), Maurice Morris (Oregon), Rudi Johnson (Auburn) and Josh Scobey (Kansas State).... In what may be a first, OL Jonathan Colon signed with Florida and Miami. Compliance officers from each school likely will help reach a decision as to which gets Colon.