Assessing Florida's 2016 recruiting class entering this summer

Much like Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, there’s a lot of attention on Jim McElwain’s 2016 recruiting class. It’s his first full cycle at one of the country’s biggest programs.

But unlike Harbaugh, McElwain and the Gators haven’t made much of a dent in the national psyche. No nationwide recruiting tour via satellite camps due to the SEC’s rules, no wild social media declarations pointed at other conferences — and, perhaps most significantly, no headline commitments.

Florida fans are starting to scratch their heads a bit as McElwain has landed commitments from 13 recruits — 11 of them three-star players. There doesn’t appear to be a bevy of four- and five-star players interested in the Gators as possible commitments on the horizon in the next few months, either.

McElwain has always been known as a good recruiter during his coaching career. Not a special one, but above average. At Florida, he should be able to pull in four- and five-star players by default, especially when the program can offer early playing time and the opportunity to be a part of the group that restores tradition (see: Tennessee).

Even if McElwain is an excellent talent evaluator and developer — which remains to be seen, but he did a nice job in his short time at Colorado State — it would put a lot of minds at ease if the team could add a few nationally-coveted players, as the Gators did in the rush job prior to National Signing Day in February (Martez Ivey, CeCe Jefferson).

Until then, there will be a lot of intrigue, and even some doubt, with this ’16 class.

ASSESSING FLORIDA’S 2016 CLASS

Current commits or enrollees: 13 (avg. star 3.2; last year: 3.3)
Current big-name targets: DE Shavar Manuel, WR Binjimen Victor and G Parker Boudreaux
Biggest positions of need: OL, LB and QB
National/SEC rank: 13/6

NOTABLE COMMITS