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Offensively challenged Gators load up on skill players

 
Receiver Joshua Hammond, left, battling for a pass during the  Jan. 2 Under Armour All-America Game, is an early enrollee and ESPN’s No. 120 prospect in the country.
Receiver Joshua Hammond, left, battling for a pass during the Jan. 2 Under Armour All-America Game, is an early enrollee and ESPN’s No. 120 prospect in the country.
Published Feb. 4, 2016

CITRA — Even when the wins were piling up last fall, Florida coach Jim McElwain was never shy about addressing the Gators' offensive struggles.

"Obviously that's part of the side that needed probably the most restructuring," McElwain said.

The restructuring took a big step forward Wednesday when the Gators landed their most heralded crop of skill players in a decade.

UF's top-20 recruiting class featured five quarterbacks, receivers or running backs who were at least four-star recruits. That hasn't happened since 2011.

The Gators' haul also included seven offensive skill players ranked among the nation's top 500 overall prospects. That's the most since a loaded 2006 class that included Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin.

"We're all playmakers," said Freddie Swain, a four-star receiver from Citra's North Marion High. "We all can make it happen."

UF is counting on it as it tries to shore up an offense that has struggled since the Tebow era.

The Gators had the nation's No. 100 scoring offense (23.2 points per game) in 2015 and haven't finished inside the top 50 since 2010. They haven't cracked the top 90 nationally in yards per play in any of the past four seasons. In November — after the year-long suspension of now-departed quarterback Will Grier — UF ranked among the country's 14 worst teams in yards per play and total points.

"(McElwain) knows as well as anybody that the quarterback position has to be fixed," said Tom Luginbill, ESPN's national director of recruiting. "It's that simple."

The Gators have addressed that need. After not signing a quarterback last year, UF gained two early enrollees — four-star prospect Feleipe Franks and three-star recruit Kyle Trask — along with Purdue graduate transfer Austin Appleby.

"We're going to be able to complete some routes on air," McElwain said, "because these guys can throw it now."

But if UF hopes to recapture its offensive glory, the rest of its skill players have to start matching the hype.

From 2011-15, the Gators signed seven receivers who were four-star recruits. Demarcus Robinson was the most productive, finishing with nine touchdowns (and four suspensions). The other six combined for almost as many transfers (two) as total touchdowns (four).

Which leads to the importance of this recruiting class in the first full year for McElwain's staff. Immediately after UF's season ended in a 41-7 loss to Michigan in the Citrus Bowl, McElwain was already touting the importance of finding receivers to complement freshman Antonio Callaway.

"That's why I went there — for early playing time," said Swain, 247Sports' No. 126 overall recruit.

If the recruiting rankings are correct, Swain will have plenty of company in his own class. Fellow early enrollee Joshua Hammond is ESPN's No. 120 prospect in the country. Jacksonville Raines' Rick Wells rebuffed a late push from USF and others to stick with the Gators.

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But the biggest get of all came more than 800 miles away, when four-star recruit Tyrie Cleveland walked onto a stage at Houston's Westfield High wearing ripped jeans and a Gators sweatshirt. The one-time Houston commit and Duval County native is the No. 2 receiver in the country in 247Sports' composite rankings; UF hasn't landed a receiver that highly touted since Andre Debose in 2009.

"For him, it's a little bit of a homecoming," McElwain said.

UF can only hope that homecoming becomes part of a restructured offense that can get the Gators back into national relevance.