Once upon a time, the Florida Gators football program was among the best in the nation when it came to recruiting prep talent. After reaching a high-water mark in the first decade of the new millennium, UF quickly descended from its perch atop the prospect charts, giving way to a re-emerging Alabama Crimson Tide team led by arguably the greatest head coach in college football history, Nick Saban.
Nonetheless, looking back over two decades the Gators still remain a major presence in a list of the top 18 among No. 1 recruiting classes over that span published by the Sporting News on Friday. Unsurprisingly, the Crimson Tide dominate the debate holding seven spots — seven of the top nine spots, including the No. 1 position, to be exact — while Florida logged the second-highest tally with three; the USC Trojans were the only other school to earn multiple entries with two.
The Tennessee Volunteers and LSU Tigers were the other two Southeastern Conference schools with top-ranked recruiting classes, ranked at No. 14 and No. 11, respectively. Note that Alabama’s No. 1 classes from 2019 and 2021, the Georgia Bulldogs‘ class from 2018 and the Clemson Tigers’ class from 2020 are ineligible because players because they have not hit the four-year mark.
Here is a look at where the Gators placed and what author Bill Bender had to say for each squad.