Back in 2007, then-Florida assistant Dan Mullen helped sign a handful of star recruits from Lakeland, Florida, who played key roles as the Gators won the BCS national championship the following year.

When Mullen signed a trio of Lakeland blue-chippers as Florida’s head coach Wednesday, it was hard to ignore the connection.

Mullen was asked about using the 2007 class as a recruiting pitch to the current crop of Lakeland stars, and he believes the back-to-back state and national championship teams had a huge influence on them.

“They were guys that were young and growing up and looking up to guys like Chris Rainey and the Pouncey brothers and Ahmad Black and all the success those guys have,” Mullen said. “And now they are carrying on the tradition to come here to Florida and hopefully they get the opportunity to win a national championship here, as well.”

There’s already one similarity between the two groups of Lakeland products — this year’s team featuring Deyavie Hammond, Lloyd Summerall and Keon Zipperer also won a state championship. All three 2019 prospects pointed to a feeling of family at Florida as a big factor in their recruitment, which Mullen also addressed Wednesday.

“Hopefully it’s real,” he said. “That’s one that’s important to me and guys within our program. That’s a big thing for me hiring coaches and as we put a staff together and that’s one thing we talk about, we want you to treat players like you would treat your own son.

“We want coaches’ families around, wives around the program as much as possible and not just recruiting, but around all of our players on the team.”

That culture helped get the Lakeland trio to Gainesville. Now we’ll have to wait and see if they can reach the same heights as those who came before them.