For some schools, their success can rest in one incredible recruiting class where the stars aligned. Usually for schools like Florida, the stars line up to play for you.

At the moment, the gravity in Gainesville isn’t the same undeniable force that tugged at that talent and made it succumb like leaves to a rake in September.

However, in an alarming number of instances, the Gators have unwittingly let some of the most elite slip from their grasp or have simply gotten unlucky.

You hear it all the time. “Florida hasn’t had a good QB since Tim Tebow.” Well, a player who produced one of the finest seasons in college football history was sitting on its roster at the same time Tebow was.

Cam Newton earned a backup role behind the Heisman Trophy winner in 2008 before three felony counts accusing him of stealing a laptop led to a suspension from the university (academic cheating was later reported). Newton transferred to Blinn College in Texas before landing at Auburn, where he went undefeated and won a national championship in 2010.

In that case, it was the player, Newton, who hurt Florida’s chances of — not just surviving, but thriving — in the post-Tebow world, swinging from one high branch to another over the SEC’s landscape. Going from “Golden Boy” to “Superman.”

Other times, it was the Gators who shot themselves in the foot or misfired on the recruiting trail. Here are just a few in-state stars who got away.

Derrick Henry

Of course, you have the rumors that former Florida head coach Will Muschamp only recruited Henry to play defense, but there’s no proof to that. What we do know is that Henry, a Yulee, Fla. native, grew up a fan of the Gators and Tebow.

Playing less than two hours from Gainesville, Henry set the national career high school rushing mark with 12,124 yards. However, his high school running backs coach Pat Dunlap said Henry never built a strong relationship with Muschamp.

Henry went on to set the single-season SEC rushing record with 2,219 yards on the way to a Heisman Trophy last season to go with a national championship at Alabama.

Dalvin Cook

Cook spurned then burned Florida for three consecutive seasons. In those games, Cook has racked up 545 yards from scrimmage (181.7 yards per game) and is one of the main reasons the Seminoles have a four-game win streak against the Gators.

The Miami Central High School standout flipped his commitment from Florida to Florida State in December 2013 after being committed to the Gators for about eight months.

Cook was a Heisman candidate in 2016 and was a First-Team Associated Press All-American after leading the ACC with 1,620 rushing yards and 18 TDs.

Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports

Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports

Lamar Jackson

The Gators also had a shot at the player who did win the Heisman this season. In fact, one other thing connects each player mentioned so far: They either won the Heisman or were a candidate.

Jackson won this year after becoming just the third player in FBS history to throw for at least 30 touchdowns and rush for at least 20. The other two? Tebow and Newton.

The Boynton Beach (Florida) Community High School product visited Florida days before National Signing Day, and according to ESPN’s Jeremy Crabtree, nearly flipped to the Gators. He even wore a Florida Gators backpack to his signing ceremony before sticking with Louisville. UF was also pursuing Deondre Francois but didn’t sign him, or any QB for that matter, in that Class of 2015.

Paxton Lynch

Lynch wasn’t a Heisman candidate, but he was a first-round NFL Draft pick of the Denver Broncos this year. Lynch completed 66.7 percent of his passes for 3,778 yards, 28 TDs and 4 INTs (and picked up a win vs. Ole Miss) last season at Memphis, but he was darn close to playing at Florida.

Lynch, a Class of 2012 product from Trinity Christian Academy, 30 miles north of Orlando, was recruited by then-Florida offensive coordinator Charlie Weis. According to Lynch’s father, after Weis took the head coaching job at Kansas, new OC Brent Pease called Lynch to visit Lynch’s house.

However, Lynch’s father said Pease only came to inform the family that he’d instead be signing a son of a friend of his, Skyler Mornhinweg, who only played three games for the Gators in 2013 before transferring to Columbia.

Ralph Webb

The other theme among these players is that they’re all from the Sunshine State (with the exception of Newton, born in Atlanta). Well, Webb was right out of Gainesville High School.

While Webb was only a 3-star recruit (according to 247Sports’ composite rankings), any Florida fan in Gainesville knows Webb was a big deal around town. That’s because he led GHS to the state championship game for the first time in 32 years.

Webb, a junior, just passed Vanderbilt running back Zac Stacy to become the Commodores’ all-time leading rusher.

Calvin Ridley

While we’ve been looking at quarterbacks and running backs to this point, Florida also whiffed on several receivers on the recruiting trail.

The Gators were in the running for Ridley, a Pompano Beach, Fla., native, but then-wide receivers coach Joker Phillips committed an NCAA infraction by having impermissible contact with a recruit during a mandated dead period, and that was widely reported to be Ridley. That led Phillips to resign not long after on June 11, 2014.

Last season, Ridley was named to the All-SEC Second Team by the Associated Press after setting the Alabama freshman record with 1,045 receiving yards. This season, he has 66 catches for 727 yards and 7 TDs.

Nelson Agholor

Agholor chose Southern Cal after strongly considering Florida and Florida State in the final moments. The Gators were closest in proximity to Tampa Berkeley Prep than any of his finalists, but Agholor instead continued his football career clear across the country.

Among other factors, Agholor said playing alongside Heisman candidate QB Matt Barkley and receivers Marqise Lee and Robert Woods was a big reason for his decision.

Agholor was a first-round NFL Draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015. In that same recruiting class in 2012, the Gators also struck out with Stefon Diggs, who chose Maryland. Diggs was a fifth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings.