I know that
@RVACane is going to appreciate what I'm about to do, since I tend to go "long" when these Gators go on their misguided rants.
But I'll make this simple. And short.
The Gator fans are FIXATED on class rankings. Fixated. And before anyone starts thinking I'm saying something that I'm not saying (this is not a pitch to sign more "diamonds in the rough"), allow me to explain.
The Gators act as if CLASS RANKING should automatically equate to "outcome". And it doesn't.
There are two primary areas where "class ranking", in and of itself, can become a worthless metric.
First, you can choose the WRONG talented players. Let's call this the "Cormani Index". I don't give a **** what Cormani's high school class ranking WAS, in the past tense. Some people thought he was skinny. Some people thought he was flaky. But he has equated to NOTHING in the way of output for the past 2 years.
So this whole "we got 5-star Cormani" brag underlying the "we've got talent" myth is incredibly laughable. Don't forget, I've already posted a few things about how LITTLE the Gators actually got out of the Portal this year. Therefore...WHO GIVES A **** what the class rankings and blue chip indexes are saying, when 5-star Cormani is unplayable.
Second, you can NOT DEVELOP these talented signees. And this, ALONG WITH CHOOSING THE WRONG TALENTED PLAYERS, is also on the coaches. I don't care if you sign the #1 class every year. If you pick all red-flag players (which is the ORIGIN of this very thread, two Gator coaches ago), and you have ****** coaches who fail to develop them, you have turned gold into lead. And lead will drag you down.
It's really quite simple. Over and over and over again, Gator fans will brag about their recruiting class rankings. Or point out how good DJ Lagway is. Hey, if you can recruit (and pay for) 105 DJ Lagways, then DO IT. JUST DO IT. But if you start reaching for talented/troubled players that nobody else will touch, and you assign them to terrible coaches for mentorship, then you might as well wipe your *** with the recruiting class rankings.
Sorry,
@RVACane , I went a bit overtime on my initial promise. But it's a tight 10 minutes...