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The nation’s top recruit, quarterback Arch Manning, committed to the University of Texas on Thursday, and that means it’s time for recruiting rankings to get an update. Unfortunately, Florida was left outside of ESPN’s ranking of the top 25 classes in the 2023 recruiting cycle.
That may not come as much of a surprise with just seven commitments and news trickling in of top targets looking elsewhere (quarterback Jaden Rashada is trending toward Miami among others), but a lot was expected of Billy Napier in his first full year with the Gators. There’s still time to leapfrog a few teams and get into the top 25 though with over two-thirds of the top 300 players still being uncommitted.
While the current list doesn’t go past the top 25, we can look at the five teams from the Southeastern Conference that did receive a ranking to gauge how far out Florida is. No. 2 Georgia is building another top-5 class filled with five-star recruits; No. 8 Arkansas has 14 commits already, seven of which are rated four stars; No. 13 Tennessee has 10 commits, four four-stars and six three-stars; No. 17 Alabama has just five commits, all four-stars and inside the ESPN 300; and No. 19 LSU has five four-stars and one three-star recruit.
That’s a lot of numbers, but it does make the criteria a bit more clear for the top 25 at this point. Alabama will eventually catch up and compete with Georgia, but the Gators are expected to be competing with Tennessee and LSU at this point. The Volunteers have the same amount of four-star recruits committed as the Gators do, but they’ve added twice as many three-stars to give the class some depth.
Landing five-star cornerback Cormani McClain could give Florida a similar boost to the one Texas just got after landing Manning, but Napier has to prove he can close after failing to do so with several early targets that have since pledged elsewhere.
It’s not all gloom and doom for the Gators, but a big commitment needs to happen soon for the class to be where the fanbase expects.
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2023 Recruiting Profile: QB Jaden Rashada has 5-star potential
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2023 Recruiting Profile: CB Cormani McClain is Florida’s top defensive target
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2023 Recruiting Profile: QB Arch Manning is as good as they get
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