ESPN Recruiting Nation Football

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida lost defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday. Quinn helped orchestrate one of the best defensive line units in the SEC last season and was a big reason Florida has landed commitments from nine defensive players that are ranked in the ESPN 300.

Here is how some of those recruits reacted the new of Quinn's departure:

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- There were some big changes for Florida commits in the final edition of the ESPN 300. The Gators landed 15 players on the list, including 10 in the ESPN 150. With their success on the recruiting front, the Gators moved back into first place in the ESPN class rankings.

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- With just a player walk-through Thursday, things were relatively easy in Day 4 of practice at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports. A four-star defensive tackle gave further explanation about his decision to decommit from an SEC school, several players talked about who impressed them the most, and an ESPN 150 safety changed his decision date.

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- With a strong performance at the Under Armour All-America Game this week, five-star defensive back Vernon Hargreaves III (Tampa, Fla./Wharton) would have an opportunity to earn the top overall ranking in the ESPN 150.

However the nation’s top-rated cornerback says he won’t play for rankings, even the one held by Robert Nkemdiche (Loganville, Ga./Grayson).

“No I’m not really into the rankings and you know that,” Hargreaves said. “I only found out I moved up off of Twitter when someone told me. I just want to enjoy the great competition.”

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida is hosting its annual football banquet this weekend and as usual it will use this time to bring in several recruits. With Florida having a majority of its class already filled, most of the visitors will be committed players or underclassmen.

Linebacker commits Quinton Powell (Daytona Beach, Fla./Mainland) and Daniel McMillian (Jacksonville, Fla./First Coast) have been looking around. Powell wants to take visits to USC and Miami (Fla), while McMillian has visited Ohio State recently. Both players will be officially visiting Florida this weekend. Florida will try and reaffirm McMillian's and Powell's commitments.

Powell said he's excited to be around the other Florida commits.

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ORLANDO, Fla. -- With the addition of ESPN 150 safety Marcell Harris, Florida has moved to the No. 1 spot in the latest class rankings.

The Trojans had held on to the top spot for a while -- with 16 of their 17 commits in the ESPN 300, and 11 in the ESPN 150. But Harris becoming Florida’s 10th ESPN 150 prospect and the 16th four-star recruit in UF's 22-player class was enough to overtake USC for the No. 1 ranking.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- During the last 10 years or so, the Florida Gators have consistently ranked among teams with the top recruiting classes in the country -- and won two national championships, two SEC championships and played for another SEC championship.

This begs the question: Is Florida's success in recruiting a product of on-the-field success?

In the last seven years, Florida's recruiting classes have finished No. 1, No. 2, 4, 5, 1, 12 and 4 in the ESPN team recruiting rankings. The 2011 class that finished as the No. 12-ranked class came after Florida went 8-5 on the field, but more importantly it was the year in which Urban Meyer resigned right after the season.

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Three prospects in the top 5? Check.

Four five-star prospects overall? Check.

Fifteen prospects in the top 50? Check.

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Over the last 20 years the Tampa Bay area has grown significantly in population, and as families settled in communities around Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties, their children began to play sports. Sometimes a surge in prospects in one particular area can be attributed to the simplest things, but even with the population growth, it took a couple of programs to really help grow the area into what it has become.

The programs at Seffner (Fla.) Armwood and Tampa (Fla.) Plant can take credit for much of the success of the area. Armwood won state championships in 2003, 2004 and 2011 (the last championship was vacated by the Florida High School Athletic Association in the spring) and made it to the final game in 2005 and 2010. The Hawks had several top prospects come through the program like former Under Armour All-American Petey Smith (Alabama), Torrey Davis (Florida), Eric Smith (Auburn), Matt Patchan (Florida), Eric Striker (Oklahoma), Matt Jones (Florida), Josh Grady (Vanderbilt) and Cody Waldrop (South Carolina).

Plant won state championships in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2011 while also making the finals in 2010. Much like Armwood, Plant could not have accomplished so much without talented performers like Robert Marve (Miami, Purdue), Aaron Murray (Georgia), James Wilder Jr. (Florida State), Drew Madhu (Stanford), Orson Charles (Georgia), Eric Dungy (Oregon) and Philip Ely (Alabama).

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Back for another round of notes and going into detail this week on the spotlight area of the state: Palm Beach County and the surrounding Treasure Coast area.

Palm Beach/Treasure Coast prospects rated by ESPN Scouts: 21
Palm Beach/Treasure Coast players in ESPN 300: 6
Highest-rated Palm Beach/Treasure Coast prospect: RB Kelvin Taylor (Belle Glade, Fla./Glades Day)

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ESPN 150 cornerback Jalen Ramsey (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood Academy) committed to USC in July, but that hasn’t stopped him from taking other visits. He took his first official visit to Florida during the weekend for the Kentucky game.

“It went good,” Ramsey said. “It was a good visit. It was my first official, so it was official-like. I liked the coaching staff. It was just a good environment. I liked the fans. It was fun getting to hang with some of the players and just watching some football.”

After his visit to Florida, the USC coaches called to see how the trip went, but Ramsey said it was nothing more than the weekly call he shares with the staff.

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One week in the books for Florida High School football this year, 14 more to go.

Gators run Team Tampa: During the offseason Team Tampa became the talk of the national 7-on-7 circuit. A solid mix of ESPN 150 prospects such as Vernon Hargreaves III (Tampa, Fla./Wharton), Leon McQuay III (Seffner, Fla./Armwood) and Alvin Bailey (Seffner, Fla./Armwood) and under-the-radar recruits like wide receiver Zach Benjamin (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Catholic) and linebacker Isaac Tanner (Tampa, Fla./Freedom), Team Tampa proved to be the kings of touch football this spring.

So it's no shock that several members of the team will be playing together at the next level. For a while it looked like UCF had an exclusive pipeline to the team. First quarterback Pete DiNovo (Tarpon Springs, Fla./East Lake) committed to the Knights a couple days after the IMG National 7-on-7 tournament. He was joined (for a while) by ESPN 300 wide receiver Richard Benjamin (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Bay Techinical) and twin brothers Shaquem and Shaquill Griffin (St. Petersburg, Fla./Lakewood).

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