Coach Urban Meyer was asked if he wanted Florida to become a national recruiting power at his Signing Day news conference on Wednesday and he said no. He'd much rather have the Gators dominate their region and then getting the best players should take care of itself.
"That's (one reason) why our staff came here because within four or five hours of campus you have the best players in the country so our focus is here," Meyer said. "The other good thing is I think they're going to take the head coaches off the road in the spring and so we already hit a lot of the top juniors the last three weeks. We already have a good handle on next year's class. You can do that if it's regional, not national."
Meyer said being a regional power is most important even though getting into what he called 'hotbeds' like New Jersey, Texas and Georgia is also crucial. The Gators signed 22 players in their 2008 class and 12 are not from Florida. Defensive end William Green and safety Dee Finley are from Alabama, always a difficult state to recruit.
Wide receiver Omarius Hines and defensive back Adrian Bushell are from Texas. Defensive tackle Omar Hunter and T.J. Pridemore both played at Buford H.S. in Georgia. Sam Robey is from Kentucky and David Young is from Illinois. Both are offensive linemen. Defensive tackle Troy Epps is originally from South Carolina but went to junior college in Kansas.
Wide receiver Carl Moore is from California although Meyer said that state is not a real focus for Florida since there are so many talented local players. The Gators also landed safety Will Hill from New Jersey and linebacker Brendan Beal, who played his senior season in Pennsylvania but also played in Jersey. Coach Steve Addazio was credited for landing the Northeast recruits.
"That's why we don't recruit California," Meyer said. "We have two out of California on our team. Why go to California when you have Tampa and these other great areas? Take care of your backyard first.
"I've always admired Texas high school football. We're up to seven or eight on our roster from Texas. There are other areas we're going to hit harder. Georgia is great high school football. We landed two at the end, T.J. and Omar, but Georgia is going to be an area we hit much harder than we have. I'll put one coach in the south and that's his only job and one in the north and we're going to hammer Georgia really hard. It's fantastic high school football. From Texas and Georgia and Florida and New Jersey, those are really the hotbeds of high school football."
Regional recruiting seems to be the key at least for the teams who have a jumpstart on the 2009 recruiting class. USC has eight commitments already for next year's class and all of them are from the state of California. Michigan's 2009 commitment is from William Campbell out of Detroit Cass Tech. Alabama's lone commit is from Foley's D.J. Fluker.
UCLA has a commit from a California prospect. Illinois already has two in-state commits and another from Ohio. Clemson has one from South Carolina and another from North Carolina. Ohio State has five, four from the state of Ohio and another from nearby Kentucky.
Taking care of your region – or your state – first is one reason why Meyer said when his new assistant coaches are hired that he's going to place one right in Miami. It's why after Doc Holliday left for West Virginia that wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales was immediately assigned the Lake Okeechobee and Broward County areas.
Recruiting is hard work and it's a lot of traveling and developing relationships and dealing with other outside factors. If many of the country's best players live within hours of your campus, why leave? Taking care of home is important and that seems to be the plan for Meyer and his staff first and foremost.
"I'd rather have 22 in-state, saves a lot of gas money for the university and travel time for us," Meyer said. "I'd much rather do it that way. New Jersey, Steve Addazio has done a heck of a job up there. You look at who we have from there. We have Phil Trautwein and then we have Justin Trattou. We have Will Hill and Brendan Beal. That's an area we're going to continue to hit very hard. Once you get one, you'll notice you'll get a few more."