At the dawn of the Jim McElwain era, things looked bleak. Sure, the new coach brought in a new outlook that seemed a lot more like championship Florida than the most recent four-year stretch. The problem, though, was that it didn’t look like McElwain and his staff would have much to work with.

We all saw how quickly that changed. Florida jumped up 45 spots nationally in 247sports’ industry composite rankings on National Signing Day, going from the bottom of the SEC recruiting to a respectable 10th, 21st overall in the nation.

Despite having fewer than 10 commits when he came aboard and losing several in the early days of his tenure, McElwain still managed to pull together a class that brings in impact players like Martez Ivey and CeCe Jefferson as well as depth, with 16 three-star players.

There are two coaches McElwain will be compared to most as a head coach: Nick Saban, his former boss at Alabama, and Urban Meyer, the last championship-winning coach at Florida. How does McElwain’s first recruiting cycle compare to those two?

Saban’s first recruiting run at Alabama looked nothing like the juggernaut he’s built in recent years. The class did rank 13th in the nation (seventh in the SEC), but lacked for the star power Alabama has come to be known for. Saban’s first class didn’t have a single five-star recruit — McElwain’s first at Florida has two — and it was light on impact players. It improved when Rolando McClain eventually came into the fold, but it certainly didn’t point to the run Alabama is currently on.

Of course, Saban’s 2008 class was transformative, headlined by Julio Jones, Barrett Jones, Mark Barron, Mark Ingram and a host of other future NFL talents who formed the core of Alabama’s championship run from 2009-12.

Meyer’s 2005 class at Florida, his first with the program, fared about the same as Saban’s first at Alabama: 12th in the country, fourth in the SEC. It featured some very nice players, like Louis Murphy and David Nelson, but it was just a start.

It was the next go-round, 2006, that was Meyer’s best haul: Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, Brandon Spikes and more came aboard for the Gators’ first title run under Meyer.

At Ohio State, Meyer flipped that script in his first recruiting turn with the Buckeyes. He got a bit of an earlier start, with his hiring announced in late November 2011, but the way he attacked the recruiting trail was unprecedented, flipping recruits from all over to reach No. 5 nationally.

The difference, of course, was that Ohio State wasn’t exactly coming off a stretch of down years, with just a 6-7 2011 season after six straight 10-win seasons. Alabama had been .500 or worse in three of the four years before Saban came aboard, while Florida’s

While McElwain’s first class doesn’t rank as high nationally as Saban’s first at Alabama or Meyer’s at Florida, he made a strong run from a weaker position. He also landed players that appear ready to be stars from day one when they step on campus.

If history tells us anything, it’s that McElwain’s next class will be his most vital. His first effort is certainly admirable, turning around a bleak circumstance and climbing out of the SEC’s basement. It’ll take an even better one in 2016 to put the Gators in the national title conversation.