Jim McElwain is about to sign his third recruiting class at Florida.

The first class was ranked No. 21 nationally and No. 10 in the SEC by the 247Sports Composite. With McElwain only having been on the job since December, it was written off as a typical transition class. The next year, McElwain signed a class ranked No. 12 nationally and No. 6 in the SEC, which is certainly better, but subpar when compared to his predecessors’ second-year classes.

On Friday, Florida’s class sits ranked No. 23 nationally and No. 9 in the SEC. The Gators can certainly pick up some commitments before National Signing Day, but a third class outside the top 10 has many fans and media members wondering what’s going on with Florida’s recruiting.

ESPN’s Derek Tyson talked to some of the Florida high school coaches about what McElwain and his staff aren’t currently doing and what they can do better.

“From what I can see, they have to do a better job of identifying the younger studs and kind of lovin’ on those guys really early the way the other big dogs do like Florida State, Alabama, Ohio State,” Trinity Christian (Jacksonville, Fla.) assistant coach Gerard Ross said. “They identify those young kids pretty early on and do a good job making sure that ‘hey man, we love you, we want you to come here.’ From my experience and how [Florida has] been around us, they tend to wait until that kid has those big-time, Power 5 offers and then they try to sneak in.”

Ross’ theory was supported by Randy Wade, father of Ohio State CB Shaun Wade, a former 5-star recruit at Trinity Christian.

“My family really liked Florida,” Randy Wade said. “The only reason Florida missed out on Shaun is because they recruited him late. Trust me, my family would have loved for Shaun to go to Florida but Ohio State’s Tim Hinton was on him in the 10th grade …

“Florida did everything they needed to do … I really felt sorry when Shaun called (McElwain) to tell him he was not coming. In Shaun’s recruitment I just felt Florida should have hit us up more so we could have told them earlier Shaun really didn’t want to stay in-state or recruited him earlier so we would have initially picked Florida first instead of picking OSU because they recruited us from the very beginning.”

Tyson also spoke to Armwood High School coach Sean Callahan, father of former UF assistant Kirk Callahan, about Florida recruiting while down two assistants on its staff. Callahan also called out McElwain’s current staffers who are unable to land commitments.

“I think if you are head football coach, you have got to be able to hire a coach that is capable of coaching at a high level and recruiting at a high level,” Callahan said. “If you get a good coach that can’t recruit, or a good recruiter that can’t coach, then you are putting yourself in a bad bind. At the University of Florida, you should be able to get anybody you want, or pretty close to that. That has to be done and right now it’s kind of hit or miss. There are some coaches that are not pulling guys in, it’s very obvious who they are, and there some that are.”