Urban Meyer learned the hard way that lumbering quarterback Chris Leak wasn’t the perfect fit for his spread offense, despite the Gators’ 9-3 season. So imagine what Florida will do with the perfect spread quarterback Meyer landed Wednesday on national signing day.
Not to mention the perfect receiver. And two great offensive tackles.
That is why Florida came away with the top recruiting class in the country, according to the composite polls of four recruiting websites. SuperPrep, ESPN.com and CSTV gave Florida their top ranking.
Rivals.com gave Florida second place to Southern California when four-star Woodland Hills, Calif., athlete Jamere Holland signed with the Trojans.
Heading into his second season coaching Florida, Meyer made a huge impact with his first full recruiting season.
“I expected it,” said Allen Wallace, the Laguna Beach, Calif.-based publisher of SuperPrep and national recruiting editor of Scouts.com. “Why not? Look what he did at Utah. He recruited well enough at Utah. How well would he do sitting in Gainesville, where prospects are all over the place?”
The biggest reasons for the Gators’ No. 1 national ranking are quarterback Tim Tebow and wide receiver Percy Harvin. Wallace ranked Tebow as the No. 3 quarterback in the country behind Springdale (Ark.) High School’s Mitch Mustain and Highland Park (Texas) High’s Matthew Stafford. At Nease High in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Tebow completed 214-of-338 passes (.633) for 3,324 yards and 31 touchdowns with just four interceptions.
Most important for the Gators’ spread offense, however, Tebow ran 183 times for 1,150 yards and 20 touchdowns.
“Some teams get momentum later, some earlier,” Meyer told reporters in Gainesville. “Ours came with the win over FSU and then when Tim Tebow said he was going to be a Gator. It knocked probably 10 to 14 guys in the hole right after that.”
Tebow helped Florida get Harvin, considered by some the best recruit in the nation. He had 68 catches for 1,236 yards and 13 touchdowns for Landstown High in Virginia Beach, Va., along with returning three kickoffs and two punts for touchdowns.
Despite losing the national title game, USC nearly won the national recruiting title. Wallace said the Trojans signed six of the top 10 prospects in California, and Rivals.com’s Jeremy Crabtree said they landed three of the top five.
“It helped them a lot with elite kids nationally down the stretch,” Crabtree said. “Instead of coming here and sitting on the bench, now there are certain positions where they said, ‘Hey, running back is wide open.”‘
Topping the list is Vidal Hazelton, the only player who could challenge Harvin as the nation’s top receiver. At Hargrave Military in Chatham, Va., Hazelton caught 41 passes for 922 yards and 13 touchdowns. However, his dad wants him to attend Penn State and won’t sign the letter of intent. Along with David Ausberry of Lemoore (Calif.) High, USC corralled two of Rivals.com’s top five receivers.
They also signed ESPN.com’s No. 2 running back in Stafon Johnson of Dorsey High in Los Angeles. It didn’t hurt that USC lost Reggie Bush and LenDale White early to the NFL draft.
Disappointing classes, insiders say, were at Tennessee, Miami and Virginia Tech, which failed to sign a top receiver though three of the nation’s top six were from Virginia.
Footnotes
One of the surprise recruiting classes came at Mississippi, where second-year coach Ed Orgeron, USC’s former recruiting coordinator, signed a potential top-10 class, including the top defensive crop in the nation. … Nebraska signed only one prospect in ESPN.com’s top 150. … Louisville coach Bobby Petrino, who flirted with the Auburn job two years ago behind coach Tommy Tuberville’s back, beat Tuberville on top-tier defensive linemen Kareem Crowell of Godby High in Tallahassee, Fla., and Deantwan Whitehead of West End High in Birmingham, Ala.
John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
