Florida added two quality recruits Friday when four-star defensive end Zachary Carter and three-star linebacker Ventrell Miller gave the Gators their verbal commitments.

Both Carter and Miller were leans to Florida, so the commitments themselves weren’t too surprising, but the bigger story behind this is that Carter and Miller are prospects in the Tampa Bay area. The Gators’ coaching staff has made an effort to re-establish their presence in an area that used to be a Gators stronghold but has slipped away in recent years.

Carter attends Hillsborough High School in Tampa. Florida has a former Hillsborough High product, Jordan Sherit, on the roster and has had relative success at the school going back to the days of Shannon Snell in the early 2000s. Florida’s also had success at Armwood High School over the years with players like running back Matt Jones and offensive lineman Mike Pearson.

And Florida had success in the area early in Will Muschamp’s era with Dante Fowler, Vernon Hargreaves III and Joey Ivie among others.

But Tampa has become saturated with recruiters from out-of-state programs and they have taken advantage of Florida’s slippage in the area. Clemson received verbals from athlete Ray Ray McCloud and wide receiver Deon Cain in the 2015 class to the shock of many. McCloud was especially thought to be a Gator lean while Cain was a big target and considered to be the top player in the area.

In the Class of 2016 it was Auburn that burned Florida by signing defensive lineman Byron Cowart and wide receiver Nate Craig-Myers. The Tigers also signed safety Jayvaughn Myers, who had given a verbal commitment to the Gators earlier in the recruiting cycle.

Charles Fishbein, the operator of Elite Scouting Services, said that the current Florida staff ran into a little bad luck but brighter days are ahead.

“If you look at a player like Nate Craig-Myers, that’s the sort of prospect Florida should land in the Tampa area,” Fishbein said. “They didn’t, but the staff has stayed aggressive. They got a verbal from Daquon Green early in this cycle and sent a message that they were going to keep working.”

Green, a wide receiver from Tampa Bay Tech, and defensive lineman Jordan Scott, from Largo in Pinellas County, are the other two Tampa Bay-area prospects in the Gators’ 2017 recruiting class.

Miller comes from Kathleen in Lakeland, the same program that produced Ray Lewis, Freddie Mitchell and Desmond Clark among others.

Lakeland used to be Gators town. From Wayne Peace and David Williams to the Pouncey brothers, Chris Rainey and Jason Watkins. The Gators were often the only choice for the top players from Lakeland and Polk County.

But things changed and it wasn’t an out-of-state program that did it but rather the rivals two hours northwest from Florida State.

The Seminoles flipped the script when they got the commitment of five-star athlete Karlos Williams, who is from the Haines City/Davenport area and followed it with a commitment from super prospect Derwin James when he was just a freshman.

Williams and James were the top players in the county, if not the state during their respective classes. FSU also signed fullback Freddie Stevenson out of Bartow, fullback Chad Abrams and wide receiver Ja’Von Harrison, both out of Kathleen. In the 2016 class FSU signed offensive lineman Baveon Johnson, the top center prospect in the nation.

“Behind the recruiting efforts of Odell Haggins, FSU has gone hard in Polk County for the past five years,” Fishbein said. “Not every Polk kid is going to be a superstar, but they are double tough prospects that are good program kids and contributions. Abrams was a great fullback that scored a touchdown in the national championship game against Auburn. Stevenson is a great fullback. James is a superstar. Florida needed to get back into Polk because that’s one of their hot areas.”

The addition of defensive backs coach Torian Gray gave the Gators a coach with experience recruiting in the county and played football in Polk.

If Florida is going to get back to a championship level they have to recruit well in the western corridor of I-4 and I-275 through Pinellas County. They also have to land the top prospects along I-75 from Lake City through Ocala.

The four commitments from the Tampa Bay area are a good start to what should be a top 5-10 Gators class by the time February rolls around.