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Recruiting has gone national, which means the challenge of signing the best in-state talent is exponentially more difficult than, say, 30 years ago.
With that in mind, we’re building a six-man all-star in-state team of sorts for each program in the SEC, looking for more recent recruits with more options who chose to stay home.
Some teams stretch the definition of “all-star.” Not Florida, not with all of that in-state talent available.
The Gators have a Heisman Trophy winner who couldn’t make the first team on this list.
Here, then, are the best, by position, Florida kids who became Gators.
Quarterback — Tim Tebow
Home-schooled, homegrown, Tebow was the No. 1-ranked dual threat quarterback in the 2006 class. Alabama wanted him — and nearly got him.
But the five-star quarterback from suburban Jacksonville picked the Gators — and then helped them knock off the Tide en route to winning the 2008 national championship, his second at Florida.
Tebow also won a Heisman Trophy — just like another homegrown Gator, Danny Wuerffel of Fort Walton Beach, in 1996.
Tebow grew up a Gators fan and had a poster of Wuerffel in his bedroom. Now he has a statue beside Wuerffel’s outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
Via @aadelsonESPN, a fan just spread some ashes near the Tim Tebow statue. http://t.co/lZOZSHe6Xk pic.twitter.com/76E9czJYJs
— Alligator Army (@AlligatorArmy) September 12, 2015
Running back — Pick ’em
The top five running backs in program history came from Florida high schools.
Pensacola’s Emmitt Smith was the most decorated, certainly in the NFL, where he won three Super Bowl rings with the Dallas Cowboys and rushed for a record 18,355 yards.
Smith left Florida after three seasons with a record 3,928 yards, but Errict Rhett, from suburban Fort Lauderdale, stuck around another year to break it and reach 4,163.
Neal Anderson (Graceville), Fred Taylor (Bell Glade Glades Central) and Earnest Graham (Cape Coral) round out the top five.
No. 6 on the Gators’ list? Tebow, followed by four more fellow Floridians.
The Gators can’t get them all, of course. Alabama Heisman winner Derrick Henry (Yulee) is among those who escaped The Swamp.
Wide receiver — Reidel Anthony
Anthony, a star out of talent-rich Glades Central, predated the recruiting rankings, but it didn’t take him long to establish himself as a playmaker in college.
Anthony was a top target in Steve Spurrier’s “Fun ‘N’ Gun” air show, and in 1996 he set an SEC record with 18 touchdown catches.
Nobody — not Julio Jones, not Amari Cooper, not A.J. Green — has broken it yet.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Anthony with the 16th overall pick in the 1997 NFL Draft.
Defensive lineman — Alex Brown
As good as the Gators have been in signing in-state skill players on offense, several of the state’s best defensive linemen chose other schools. Most notably Hall of Fame defensive tackle Warren Sapp (Apopka).
Brown starred at Hamilton County High in Jasper before becoming a two-time All-American in Gainesville.
He still holds the program record with 33 sacks.
Dante Fowler (St. Petersburg) was a first-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.
Linebacker — Jevon Kearse
The weakest homegrown spot among the position groups. Think Ray Lewis (Lakeland) or Derrick Brooks (Pensacola) might have helped?
Kearse, from North Fort Myers, was an All-American in 1998 but he did far more damage in the NFL, where he made the Pro Bowl each of his first three seasons as a defensive end.
Kearse, 6-4, 265, helped reinvent the edge rush position and was among the first athletes to be described as “a freak.”
In fact, that is his nickname.
Defensive back — Vernon Hargreaves III
The greatest cornerback in state history — North Fort Myers’ Deion Sanders — got away, but the Gators’ homegrown group is as good as any.
Hargreaves didn’t accomplish as much in Gainesville as fellow All-American Reggie Nelson (Melbourne), but he arrived with unprecedented fanfare as the top-rated cornerback and No. 3 player overall in the 2014 class.
The Jacksonville Jaguars selected Nelson in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft.
The Jaguars again need a defensive back, and Hargreaves is a candidate. We’ll see if they go back home again to fill a vital need.
Managing Editor
A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.
