UF has Dream Team south Florida recruiting team:
www.seccountry.com/florida/gators-south-florida-recruiting-star-team-nowGAINESVILLE, Fla. — One of the top storylines for the Gators on National Signing Day was their South Florida recruiting haul.
UF signed 10 prospects from South Florida — the most in school history — and won some big recruiting battles against rival Miami.
Gators coach Jim McElwain made the talent-rich region a priority in January 2015 when he hired former Miami coach Randy Shannon, who is now Florida’s defensive coordinator.
“From the time we were able to hire Randy he’s been a right-hand guy of mine,” McElwain said. “Comes with unbelievable credibility from that area as well. His name, recognition … (people) know he can be trusted.”
Since Shannon joined the staff, UF has landed a total of 23 recruits from South Florida over the last two years. And with the additions of assistant coaches Corey Bell and JaJuan Seider this month, that number will continue to grow.
Luther Campbell. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
Luther Campbell, also known as Uncle Luke, was the lead vocalist of the rap group “2 Live Crew” and has spent the last decade coaching high school football in Miami, his hometown.
Campbell is infamous for his association with the Hurricanes football program and has close relationships with Bell, Shannon and Seider.
Regrettably, he believes UF is on the cusp of dominating the recruiting landscape in South Florida.
“With those three right there, they have an all-star team now,” Campbell said. “The commitment Florida has in hiring all those guys, that shows you they want players from South Florida.
“You know me, I’m a die-hard Miami fan. But we might not have a chance to get the top players now. That’s how serious that crew will be at Florida. It’s a crazy all-star team.”
Impact of Bell and Seider
Both coaches have been mentioned as candidates to join McElwain’s staff since 2014. Campbell sent out the following tweet when Bell’s name first began surfacing.
Like Shannon, Bell was born and raised in Miami. He played for Miami Edison High School and earned a scholarship to South Carolina, where he was a two-year starter at cornerback.
In 1997, Bell became the youngest head coach in the state of Florida (age 25) when he took over his alma mater. After 10 years at Miami Edison, Bell was hired by Shannon as Miami’s director of football operations (2007-10).
Bell returned to the high school ranks in 2011 as the head coach of American Senior, spending three years there before taking a job as Florida Atlantic’s secondary coach and assistant director of player personnel (2014-16).
In all, Bell has been coaching and/or dealing with high school football players in South Florida on a consistent basis for two decades.
“I’ve been begging Miami to hire Corey Bell for years,” Campbell said. “He has everyone’s respect down here and is very well-known. He knows the city, knows the kids, knows the parents, knows the high schools, knows the little league coaches. That’s why I tweeted what I did.”
Seider was a star quarterback at Glades Central and played with Reidel Anthony, Fred Taylor and Johnny Rutledge, starters on Florida’s 1996 national championship team and first team All-SEC selections during their college careers.
Seider played his ball at West Virginia and Florida A&M, winning the 1999 Jake Gaither Award (considered the Heisman Trophy of historically black colleges) and earning a sixth-round selection in the 2000 NFL Draft.
But Seider returned to South Florida the following year and spent eight seasons coaching high school football in the area before his stints at Marshall and West Virginia. He has established himself as one of the best South Florida recruiters.
“Seider is my guy,” Campbell said. “He called to tell me he was going to Florida and that’s a game-changer. Not many people have the credibility he does. You team him up with Bell and Shannon, and that crew will get kids from Belle Glade on down.”
Campbell feels the Gators will not only take area recruits away from Miami, but they can now prevent out-of-state schools from cherry-picking top talent.
“Those three guys right there are going to put Florida over the hump,” Campbell said. “Florida won’t keep going to the (SEC) championship and getting beat by Alabama. With Mario Cristobal taking the Oregon job, Alabama has no ties to South Florida.
“Alabama isn’t going to get the kids they normally get. Those difference-makers like (Amari) Cooper, (Calvin) Ridley and Jerry Jeudy, they’ll go to Florida now. No other school in the SEC has Miami ties or credibility like Florida. It’s not even close.”
It starts with Shannon
McElwain hired Shannon with a month remaining in the 2015 recruiting cycle, and the results were immediate.
Seven of the 15 prospects UF landed in the final two weeks of the cycle were from South Florida. That includes wide receiver Antonio Callaway and running back Jordan Scarlett, who are now the top two players on offense.
Moreover, Shannon and others on the staff felt 2-star defensive end Keivonnis Davis from Miami was actually better than 5-star DE Byron Cowart — the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit — after watching both of them compete in the Class 6A state championship game.
That evaluation has been spot on thus far, according to their production. Cowart has just 12 tackles and no sacks in 23 games played, while Davis has 31 tackles and 1.5 sacks in 17 games played (5 starts).
Florida defensive end Keivonnis Davis. (David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Campbell calls Shannon his mentor and said he taught him how to coach. He explained why Shannon has a strong reputation and recruiting success in South Florida.
“Randy knows everybody,” Campbell said. “His mom knows everybody. A lot of these kids coming out of Miami, he went to school with their parents or grew up with them. That’s how Randy gets players faster than anybody. Miami is like a small town to him.”
That network gives Shannon an advantage on the recruiting trail, but it also helps him land the right prospects. He knows the 411 on their background and whether they’ll fit in at Florida.
Shannon only had one player arrested during his four years as Miami’s coach.
“Randy doesn’t need a coach to tell him about their players,” Campbell said. “He already knows if they’re a knucklehead or not because he talks to one of their family members or somebody close to them.
“Everybody isn’t ready to go to the University of Florida and play. They might be talented enough, but their mind ain’t right. He finds that information out and he’ll shoot it to them straight.”
Shannon alluded to that in 2015 when asked about his relationships in South Florida and why they’re so effective.
“The one thing you have to do when you’re in recruiting — it’s not just South Florida, it’s everywhere — is be honest,” Shannon said “That’s the biggest thing that I am as a person. I try to be upfront and honest with all the coaches and all the parents and all the kids. Sometimes a coach may say, ‘Hey, you’re not giving this kid a proper chance.’
“But if he doesn’t fit what we’re trying to do, I’ve gotta be honest with them. I think that’s the one thing that coaches respect about me, I’m going to be honest.”
Eye for talent
In addition to his recruiting approach and connections, Shannon also excels because he’s simply a great talent evaluator.
He showed that with Davis and again the following year with another Miami prospect, linebacker Vosean Joseph.
Campbell became the defensive coordinator at Miami Norland, Shannon’s alma mater, in 2014. That year Campbell coached linebacker Rayshad Jackson, a late commitment to Florida’s 2015 class.
When Shannon was evaluating Jackson, he also checked out rising senior linebackers Vosean Joseph and Emmett Rice. At the time, Rice was a 4-star prospect and Joseph had a 3-star rating.
In February of 2015, Rice made an early commitment to Florida State and also received offers from Alabama and Miami. Shannon opted to go with Joseph, landing his pledge that same month.
“Every year Randy’s been at Florida, he’s taken a linebacker from me,” said Campbell, who coached UF signee Lacedrick Brunson at Miami Jackson in 2016. “Look at Vosean Joseph. He didn’t have the big stars, but Randy liked Joseph better than my other linebacker.
“Emmitt Rice was one of the highest ranked recruits in Miami, but Randy said, ‘I’ll let him go to Florida State. I’m getting Joseph.’ It was a no-brainer for him. That’s why I tell all my linebackers, ‘Go to Randy.’ Because he will put them in the NFL.”
Randy Shannon targeted Vosean Joseph (middle) early in the 2016 recruiting cycle. (David Lake/247Sports)
Alabama offered Joseph at the end of his senior season and pushed for a flip, but he stuck with the Gators after officially visiting both schools. According to Campbell, Shannon will intentionally slow play some prospects to avoid what happened with Joseph.
“What’s unique about Randy is he’ll know about a kid, but he won’t offer him right away,” Campbell said. “He knows everybody follows him. Schools will jump on a kid that Randy offers. You see this all the time with him.
“So he’ll know exactly who he wants, but he won’t offer him because he knows other schools will follow. So he says, ‘I’ll come in late.’ That’s what he does. He’s been doing that for years.”
According to South Florida recruiting analyst Larry Bluestein, that’s how Shannon handled the recruitment of Brunson.
“I believe, this is what was told to me, Florida watched him (on Oct. 21) and kind of kept it quiet. When the time was right, they put the full-court press on him (Jan. 27). This is a kid that should have been recruited by everybody, but not everybody does their own homework like Shannon.”
Rivalry renewed
Florida and Miami haven’t played since 2013, but they’re now competing annually on the recruiting trail with the makeup of McElwain’s staff.
In the summer of 2016, McElwain hired John Herron as his director of on-campus recruiting. The UF alum coached high school basketball in Miami-Dade County for 14 years, but has deep ties to South Florida football.
In the Class of 2017, the Gators benefited from his relationships and he helped Shannon sign 10 area players. Herron’s recruiting success — and his tweets about it — led to several unprompted attacks from Miami recruiting staffer Jorge Baez on Twitter.
Moreover, when a false rumor spread in late January about Florida committing an NCAA recruiting violation, Miami called UF commits and asked if they would reconsider the Hurricanes because of the alleged violation.
On signing day, McElwain seemingly took a shot at Miami for negative recruiting.
“I always get a kick out of that,” McElwain said. “It’s something we will never do. It’s something that we just don’t believe in. Here is the interesting stuff. Some of that catches fire and then all of a sudden the truth comes out. Then who looks like the idiot?
“The one thing is, when you’re at a place like the University of Florida, you’re a target because everybody knows the ability and what can happen as this thing keeps growing. … The guys obviously jumped back on board that they were trying to sway.”
The Gators kept their commits in the fold and also won seven of their nine recruiting battles against Miami, including the signing-day declarations of cornerbacks C.J. Henderson and Brain Edwards.
Florida cornerback signee C.J. Henderson. (Christopher Stock/247Sports)
Five of the 10 South Florida signees were Miami recruits, the most UF has landed since 1991. Steve Spurrier emphasized Miami recruiting when he started coaching the Gators, signing 13 prospects from the 305 in his first four years.
Some of Spurrier’s best players at UF came from Miami and South Florida. In addition to Anthony, Taylor and Rutledge, Spurrier also signed Teako Brown, Ben Hanks, Bobby McCray, Marquand Manuel and Lawrence Wright, who won the Jim Thorpe Award in 1996.
Florida was unable to recruit Miami under its next three head coaches and went four years (2006-09) without signing a 305 prospect. Will Muschamp, Urban Meyer and Ron Zook combined for only six Miami signees in 10 years.
But the Gators have resurged under McElwain and Shannon, landing a total of 12 prospects from Miami in the past three recruiting cycles. If that trend continues with the hires of Bell and Seider, Campbell sees championships ahead for UF.
“When you’re able to get Miami kids consistently, it takes your program to another level,” Campbell said. “That’s why Howard Schnellenberger wanted to build a fence around Miami. Look what it led to (a 1983 national title).
“When you look at the NFL, there are more players out of Miami than any other city in America. Fort Lauderdale is second. That’s why Florida made these hires. And guess what, these dudes have been in the area. This isn’t New Jack City.”