The fight for Florida: Can UF, UM and FSU turn things around against Alabama and other formidable recruiters (including UCF)? (2024)

It wasn’t too long ago college football was run by the boys from the Sunshine State.

Between 1983 and 2013, Miami, Florida and Florida State won a combined 11 national championships and went into bowl games with a shot at the national title eight other times.

It wasn’t just a lot of wins on the field. UM, UF and FSU were the hotbeds for NFL talent, too, producing a combined 118 first-round picks in the drafts following those seasons. The Hurricanes, Gators and Seminoles recruited Pro Bowl talent from around the country and made it look easy keeping a list of Hall of Famers home.

Players such as Ray Lewis (Lakeland Kathleen), Edgerrin James (Immokalee), Michael Irvin (Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas), Warren Sapp (Apopka), Derrick Brooks (Pensacola Washington), Deion Sanders (North Fort Myers) and Emmitt Smith (Pensacola Escambia).

The college football world has changed, though, and with Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State gobbling up spots in the College Football Playoff, what used to be an easy job for Miami, Florida and Florida State has become a lot harder.

The talent is still oozing out of the Sunshine State. Since 2016, no state has produced more blue-chip talent (a combined 362 five- and four-star recruits) in the 247Sports Composite rankings than Florida. No state has produced more NFL draft picks (185) or first-round picks (27), either, over that span.

But Florida, Miami and Florida State are finding themselves on the short end of the stick when it comes to keeping the best players home for college.

Alabama has pulled out nine of the 30 five-star recruits to come out of Florida from 2016 to 2021 and produced five first-round picks in Mac Jones, Alex Leatherwood, Patrick Surtain, Jerry Jeudy and Calvin Ridley.

Of the 27 Floridians selected in the first round of the NFL Draft dating back to 2016, only seven played their college ball in Florida: Gregory Rousseau (2021, Miami); CJ Henderson (2020, Florida); Brian Burns (2019, Florida State); Derwin James (2018, Florida State); Artie Burns (2016, Miami); Keanu Neal (2016, Florida); and Vernon Hargreaves (2016, Florida).

Is there a path back to recruiting greatness for Miami, Florida and Florida State? And where do UCF, USF, FIU and FAU fit in? To get an inside view into what’s happening and where the teams stand, The Athletic spoke to 10 recruiting figures from across the state, from high school coaches to the middlemen who often provide evaluations for college coaching staffs and national websites. All of the coaches have won championships or have sent players to the NFL. Their responses were kept confidential to allow them to speak candidly.

Here’s the panel:

Talent evaluator 1: a South Florida-based statewide talent evaluator with more than 20 years of experience
Talent evaluator 2: a Tampa-based statewide talent evaluator with more than 20 years of experience
Coach 1: a Fort Lauderdale area assistant coach and trainer with more than 10 years of experience
Coach 2: a Miami area high school coach with more than 15 years of experience
Coach 3: a Naples area high school coach with more than 20 years of experience
Coach 4: an Orlando area high school coach with more than 20 years of experience
Coach 5: a St. Petersburg area high school coach with more than 15 years of experience
Coach 6: a Gainesville area high school coach with more than 25 years of experience
Coach 7: a Jacksonville area high school coach with more than 20 years of experience
Coach 8: a Tallahassee area high school coach with more than 15 years of experience
Coach 9: a Panhandle area high school coach with more than 35 years of experience
Coach 10: a Tampa area high school with more than 25 years of experience

How would you describe the way Florida recruits your players?

Coach 1: I don’t think UF recruits South Florida. They’re not too good at it. Maybe that’s by design or part of the strategy. Some of the coaches down here think they’re taking a more national approach to recruiting.

Coach 2: Attentively. Thoroughly. Constantly. Dan Mullen’s staff is constantly on you. They call. They want to talk to you. ‘What are you doing?’ It’s a much more intensive relationship than you have with Miami.

Coach 3: They do their homework on our players. When they want a player, they recruit him very, very hard. (Cornerbacks coach) Jules Montinar is the recruiter in the area. Southwest Florida in general is just a very underrecruited area. I think if you ask most of the coaches in Collier and Lee County, I think it’s just very underrecruited.

Coach 4: They do a good job. They’ve got a lot of Central Florida ties here. Coach Mullen was one of my coaches in the past. So I’ve had a relationship with him.

Coach 5: Energetic. Heavily involved. They usually have the position coach recruiting the guy they want. They don’t have a regional guy. They do a good job identifying kids before showing up to campus. They’re going to call, be interactive with me, text.

Coach 6: Florida does a phenomenal job. A lot of the coaches’ kids go to our school. We’ve had several kids play over there.

Coach 7: They haven’t been very aggressive, and we have a receiver Miami offered I definitely think could play for them. Today I got a text from Florida telling me to go to Friday Light Nights. Most of the relationship with them now is through text messages. I used to have more of a relationship with the previous staff. I don’t know if they look at Jacksonville as their backyard as much anymore because they can go get players elsewhere. It just doesn’t seem like they’re hammering this area, scouring to get players.

Coach 8: They’re more straight to the point. In my opinion, being an SEC school is probably why they’re more selective. They kind of march to their own drum. They do their own evaluations and offer the guys they like, and it’s not really based on the star system. (Defensive line coach) David Turner is our primary recruiter.

Coach 9: The only communication I’ve had with them is through email or sending out mail. It’s been a year and a half since they’ve been able to get out anyway. I think they’re always in communication.

Coach 10: I think it’s good. I’ve got a couple of players up there right now. I think they do a good job of getting the talent. A lot of high school coaches complain, but not everybody is an SEC guy.

How would you say Florida’s recruiting approach has changed under Mullen over time?

Talent evaluator 1: I think Mullen’s very underrated. He gets knocked because maybe they don’t go after all the elite kids. But Mullen thinks he can coach kids up and he trusts his own evaluations.

Talent evaluator 2: I think Florida has done a pretty good job recruiting the right kids. I don’t think he’s as flashy a recruiter as Urban Meyer was, but I think he’s equally effective. I think he’s done an excellent job overall.

Coach 3: I don’t think Florida’s approach has changed much. Even when Will Muschamp was there, I think they’ve always been a really aggressive school. They do a nice job of bringing their coaches around when they can, getting the players on campus whenever they can. They do a really good job communicating. We have a guy they’re calling every other day through Zoom calls.

Coach 5: I think it’s developed and grown more into a relationship between coaches since Mullen got there. They’ve done a good job making sure we’ve felt welcome and felt connected. They do a good job checking in even when we don’t have kids they want.

Coach 7: The previous staff had more consistent communication. I understand the dynamic has changed and people are using text messages more, but you’d think being 90 miles away they’d be a little more accommodating with the coaches. Granted, I know we weren’t allowed to come during COVID-19. But we didn’t get any info on their spring practices. I never spoke to anyone on the phone in the spring. It was text messages and more general ones like, ‘Who do you got?’ It doesn’t seem they’re as interested in Jacksonville. That’s why you see a lot of kids fly the coop. That’s why Jacksonville isn’t really Gator territory anymore and why Miami has come in here and gotten some really good players. I don’t know if staff turnover is the issue. It’s changed three times with Mullen in our area. Again, unless it’s a situation where you have a kid they really want, there’s not a bunch of networking going on.

Coach 8: They’re a little more exclusive. It doesn’t seem like they cast a wide net like before. They were more into the mega camp type stuff. Now, they’re really selective on the guys they take. I think it makes for less work. It has a little bit of arrogance in it.

Coach 9: Things have changed a lot because they do a lot of recruiting through Twitter. It’s been over a year since I spoke to a coach from Florida.

How would you describe the way Florida State recruits your players?

Coach 1: FSU is probably doing the best job out of the Big 3. They’re probably out front, but Miami is getting there.

Coach 2: Non-existent. The last time I spoke to Florida State was at a coaching seminar. I don’t speak to them. They don’t call me. They might talk to one of my assistant coaches. I did see Mike Norvell at a conference. He was great. He’s an A-plus person. But no one’s been on our campus for years.

Coach 3: Not as aggressive as Florida. They call. They reach out. They do inquire about our new players. But they really don’t do any follow-ups. After that initial phone call, they don’t really do much. Most of the time I think you’re getting them right after the season — November, December. Whenever they’re able to come to campuses. It kind of falls off with some schools. With other schools, they do a really good job reaching out. FSU really isn’t one of those.

Coach 4: Very similar to Florida. They’re really good, really aggressive. They’re good on the phone. I think Norvell is going to do a great job. I have a kid up there now and he was the first or second kid Norvell saw after getting the job. He hit the ground running and got on the plane and started seeing kids.

Coach 5: It’s starting to build under Norvell, but they’re slow to react, slow to pull the trigger (on offers). For me at least. We got a guy going (to a Big Ten school). He has an 1150 SAT. You can’t get much better than that character-wise and they just offered him only two weeks ago. They had two kids go up from the Tampa area there under Taggart and it didn’t last under Norvell. … I know their defensive coordinator from when he was at Marshall, but other than that I don’t have any relationships with them. I know they’re doing camps. Norvell has Southeast connections, but they don’t really include Florida. So maybe that’s why they do so much recruiting out of state.

Coach 6: I think Norvell has turned over a new leaf in his attempt to recruit the Gainesville/Ocala area a little bit better.

Coach 7: They’ve communicated a little bit more with my staff. Still pretty guarded with offers. I know them a little bit better. They check in a little bit more than Florida. Odell Haggins and Ron Dugans used to have Jacksonville. Since they moved out, FSU has turned (the area recruiting job) over a few times. It feels a little neglected by both Florida and Florida State. They don’t follow up with you as much. It just isn’t the same. Recruiting was much more personal when I first started coaching. I think a long time ago, Florida State and Florida would cut up the better players in this area. This area has become more like South Florida where kids are open to going to other places. It has to do with those schools not prioritizing the players as much.

Coach 8: It seems like if there is a top guy everybody is after, they’re after them. They’re great with relationships. More so than recruiting players, they do a good job recruiting and building a relationship with the high school coaches even if we don’t have a player they are after. … Sometimes they’ll like a kid and not offer him because they don’t want some of the other schools to jump in and swoop those kids away. Kind of like the (Sage) Ennis kid who went to Clemson from Lincoln (last year).

Coach 9: I think they do a good job. Their coaches reached out. We get emails from them. They’ve asked about a couple of kids. Coach (Marcus) Woodson is assigned to us. He’s been with us since Norvell got there.

Coach 10: It’s gotten a whole lot better since the Taggart era end. They had their satellite camp down here in Tampa. (Norvell) is reaching out to keep in touch with coaches via email. … We had some good players come through and none of them considered Florida State. I think some damage was done, obviously. It’s going to be a couple of years before they repair that damage. Now, there’s much more of a relationship. I think they’ll rebound or be back where they need to be. FSU should never have a .500 team at all.

How would you say Florida State’s recruiting approach has changed under Norvell?

Talent evaluator 1: I think they’ve been more aggressive than they have been in the past offering kids and getting them to commit. They’ll get more selective once they get their players in there and then they’ll start to recruit at a higher level. Right now, they’re just trying to get whoever they can to help turn things around.

Talent evaluator 2: I think they’ve got a problem in Florida. They don’t really have much of a footprint here in Tampa. I don’t think they’ve got a footprint in a lot of areas. I think they’re comfortable in the areas they usually go to. They’ve got a good coach who is good in Louisiana, another in Arizona. I think they’ve got a couple of coaches who aren’t very good at all, and a couple who are excellent. It’s a very disjointed group. Overall, if you look at their class, of the 15 commits, 10 or 11 are not from Florida.

Coach 3: I think it’s pretty much been the same. Over the 20 years I’ve been here, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Florida State recruiter on our campus. They do invite us to camps. All the schools in Florida do that.

Coach 4: Their linebacker coach (Chris Marve) recruits us, and he’s been doing a really good job. The communication hasn’t changed. We have a good relationship with all of the Big 3 schools in-state. We have kids at Miami, Florida and Florida State right now. They know we’re always going to have some guys.

Coach 5: When it comes to our relationship with them, I don’t think it was necessarily better under Jimbo (Fisher). It was classier under Jimbo than it was under Taggart. This group is much more professional. They’re much more transparent with you. FSU just is not as active as Florida is. Maybe the Tampa area is something they don’t want to do? I don’t know.

Coach 7: FSU has had three head coaches in five years. They don’t seem to have that drive to get into this area and win a lot of battles.

Coach 8: The on-field (struggles) have not been a big issue for the kids because of their reorganization. I’ve been to so many schools on recruiting trips, unofficials and officials. Florida State’s staff is the most organized I’ve seen in a long time. They have a plan for where guys are going to go, who they’re going to meet with. It’s really efficient. Chris Thompson is our primary recruiter from FSU, but we talk to the whole staff. Coach (Alex) Atkins does a really good job, has a relationship with our guys. Even the guys who aren’t FSU caliber, coach Atkins plays video games with them, hangs out with them. All the local kids have a relationship with Atkins. They play him in Madden.

Coach 9: I didn’t hear much from Florida State when coach Taggart was there. But you go back to Jimbo Fisher and coach (Bobby) Bowden, we signed four or five kids to Florida State. That’s back when recruiting was different. It was a lot more hands-on. Not as much recruiting over the internet and Twitter and those things.

How would you describe the way Miami recruits your players?

Coach 1: Miami has T-Rob (Travaris Robinson), so at some point, they’re going to land some guys. That’s been the card everywhere he has gone.

Coach 2: I would say lackadaisical or very laid back. Not as aggressive as others. You’ll have to wait until signing day to see if that approach works.

Coach 3: I think Miami’s pretty aggressive. They’ve done a really good job in the past of getting kids on campus whether it be a Junior Day or whatever it is. They’ve always recruited our kids hard. They send their coaches our way and their coaches are usually on point.

Coach 4: My buddy is there, T-Rob. He’s amped it up a lot. But before that, they did a good job. They recruited our linebacker. They were recruiting him before T-Rob got there.

Coach 5: It’s almost non-existent. I took our running back who committed elsewhere as a sophom*ore down there to a camp a few years back. Al Golden offered him there. That’s the last time I’ve been down there and the last time I’ve been asked to go down there by Miami. Now, there are Tampa kids that go down there for camps. But here’s my opinion: I think Dan Mullen does a better job recruiting football players and figuring out how to fit them into a system. We had a defensive lineman who was 6-2 1/2 not 6-4 and Miami told me they were not offering him. That’s Miami. They’re much more numbers-based.

Coach 6: I think they’ve done a good job recruiting our players. We’ve had three or four kids play at the University of Miami over the years. So, obviously, they’ve done a good job coming into Gainesville and getting talent when they really want it.

Coach 7: When (Georgia assistant Todd) Hartley was there, I thought Hartley did an awesome job. For years, kids from this area wouldn’t go to Miami. There were one or two kids in the early 2000s who went down there and didn’t do very well, and it became a cautionary tale that if you go to Miami they’ll favor the South Florida kids. You won’t get the same opportunities as the kids from Dade, Broward or Palm Beach. But once they got (Shaq) Quarterman, (Michael) Pinckney, (Kendrick) Norton and (Will) Mallory and they were successful, Miami started making in-roads in Jacksonville.

Coach 8: Our primary recruiter was Mike Rumph for years and now DVD (DeMarcus Van Dyke) has taken over. One thing I’ll say about DVD, I’ve had his number since he was down at ASA College in Miami. He’s been the same recruiter since then. He was a hard recruiter back then and he is now. We don’t have a lot of dealings with them now because we don’t have anybody they want now. But they do keep tabs and invite us to camps and stuff. Our relationship with them and the distance isn’t a problem. They’re always accessible. My coaches, I’ve got a couple of guys who talk to their guys on staff. We’ve known T-Rob since he was at South Carolina and (tight ends coach Stephen) Field was a high school coach before. They really do have an ace recruiting staff.

Coach 9: We don’t see much of Miami. They have checked in on a few kids and evaluated a few kids through the years. Again, we haven’t had a lot of big-time prospects in two or three years. That’s just the way it is. Even from the (Dan) Mullen staff, back when they could get out, we would see them every spring. Miami, we probably don’t see them much. But I have seen ’em some.

Coach 10: They do a good job, too. They’re going to get on guys before anybody else. If I’ve got a dude, they get on them before Ohio State or Michigan or Alabama. They’re proactive with how they recruit and I think they do a good job. Manny (Diaz) does a great job contacting coaches and letting them know what’s going on.

How has Miami’s recruiting approach changed since Diaz took over as coach for Mark Richt?

Talent evaluator 1: They’ve definitely been more willing to get into battles. They went after Leonard Taylor and James Williams, stayed on them and were able to land them. I think Manny is doing the right thing by being more selective. You can’t catch up to Clemson or Alabama with the guys they’ve had. You have to recruit better.

Talent evaluator 2: They’ve gotten a lot more aggressive, especially with local prospects. The coach Richt replaced in Al Golden was intimidated to go into those neighborhoods and win. You’ve got to get through people to get some of the elite kids. I think Manny is willing to take that challenge on. Could they do better? Sure. But they got Leonard Taylor and James Williams last year. They’re in a good spot with Wesley Bissainthe this year. They’re getting kids now they wouldn’t have gotten under Al Golden — kids who can change the program. It takes time. You’re talking about a decade of coaches who lost.

Coach 2: They’re similar. Manny is very personable, very amicable. It’s like, “We have a relationship. We’re old friends. Nice to catch up with you,” kind of thing. I don’t know how much Richt’s group bought into recruiting. Manny always has. He volunteered to be a guest speaker at a function at my previous school and they got a kid from there probably in part because of it.

Coach 5: I think they were a little more involved under Richt in our area and a little less involved under Diaz now. Rhett Lashlee, I think, is the one who recruits our area. He was the last guy I saw anyway. We talked about bringing our quarterback to him. Then COVID hit. After that, they just didn’t respond. We didn’t even get a film eval. It’s all hit or miss. At least Florida State will say we’re not taking him. Miami goes to text messages. You just don’t get responses.

Coach 7: Manny has put a focus on Jacksonville. The problem (receivers coach Rob) Likens had is when he got the job, COVID-19 hit. What Miami does a better job of than others is listening to what the high school coach has to say and taking that evaluation seriously. They don’t patronize you. What pisses a head coach off more than anything is when you ask for an opinion and you aren’t really listening. I see the talent that goes Division 1. We played Columbus, St. Thomas Aquinas. I have a firsthand seat. I think the Florida and FSU guys don’t pay attention to what we say because they don’t think you can make the assessment or you are just fighting for your kid. Miami just seems more down-to-earth. Sometimes these coaches can get high and mighty on you. They don’t. Miami seems to network a little bit better, and whatever coach has this area values what the coaches here have to say.

Coach 10: My only in-person experience with Manny was at a clinic. He seems to be a high-energy guy that wants to bring them back to a level where Miami was in the 1980s and 1990s. I think they’ll get there, too. They just need to keep plugging away. With some of those previous staffs, the recruiting was taken for granted and it showed. Miami wasn’t able to get to where they were in the past. Same with Florida State. With all the talent down in South Florida, they should always be good.

Between UCF, USF, FIU and FAU who would you say recruits the best and why?

Talent evaluator 1: UCF under Gus Malzahn is recruiting at a Power 5 level. After them, USF and FAU are right there as far as the next tier and who they’re recruiting. USF got some kids last year that probably would have gone Power 5, but because of COVID, they were able to land a very good class.

Talent evaluator 2: UCF by far, and I don’t think it’s close. After that, FAU is second. USF should be second, but they’re going through a transition right now and need to upgrade their facilities. UCF is 1, 2 and 3. UCF has hit on its last three coaches. Scott Frost brought an identity to how UCF was going to recruit in-state. Heupel was a better game day coach. He didn’t do anything to ruin the machine that got rolling. Gus Malzahn loves recruiting Florida. Coming here gives him an opportunity to recruit what he loves. It’s a massive school with a lot of students. It’s easy to get to Orlando. I think they’re doing the best job. I think they’ll have a top 25 class this year. When the playoff opens up to 12 teams, they’re the best team to be in line with what Boise State was the previous decade. It’s a Big 4 now really.

Coach 3: UCF. As soon as Gus Malzahn got the job, I got a call immediately. It seemed they were much less aggressive under (Josh) Heupel. That could be because we didn’t have anyone they liked when Heupel was there. In terms of FIU and FAU, I think a lot of Collier (and) Lee County kids fall into their category of maybe not a Power 5 guy but maybe in that other group. And I really don’t hear from those guys. I might get a phone call from someone in their recruiting department introducing themselves, but it ends there. I had some players go to FIU’s camp this year. But that was the school reaching out to the kids. I never got any information on it. They never called me.

Coach 4: I would have to say UCF and that might be because I’m here in Orlando. Their facilities are top-notch. Even before coach Malzahn got there, they did a good job. They’ve amped up, though, under him, making sure they do a good job getting guys in the area to come to camps and be on campus. But I know somebody on all four of those staffs. FIU is the team I hear from the least.

Coach 5: None of them. Can I say that? USF is right here, so I guess they’d have to be No. 1 in that group. They’re just slow to take a local kid. There are always reservations. It’s slow in the process. Once we were able to get back on campus, it picked up. UCF is cool, but we don’t have a relationship because (Gus) Malzahn just got there. I think he’s going to blow up there. They’ve done a lot to make that place pop. He’s brought an SEC appeal. They’ve got to win football games, obviously. But if you ask Scott Frost now, he’d probably tell you he’d rather be at UCF than Nebraska. FIU, it’s really about how often they leave Dade County. Coach (Butch) Davis and his son (Drew) have done well recruiting us. Coach (Tim) Harris, who is now at UCF, always recruited us well. FAU, we just have a bad relationship with Willie Taggart.

Coach 7: (Former FIU assistant) Aubrey (Hill) was doing a good job before he got sick (and passed away in August 2020). Ever since (Jim) Leavitt’s been gone, I don’t know what’s happened at USF. And it’s been nine years. His guys were coming in here hard. USF’s staff is doing a better job now. If I had to rank these four, FIU and USF recruit the best among our area. (USF offensive coordinator) Charlie (Weis Jr.) is going to check in with you. He’s not going to offer every kid. I couldn’t tell you who recruits in this area from FAU. UCF has the best product to sell. Malzahn just got there. (Offensive coordinator) Herb Hand, who used to be at Texas, has recruited this place for other schools. But I’ve only had one interaction with him since he got the job. UCF will do a good job around here eventually. Malzahn’s name will allow him to get some kids.

Coach 8: FIU recruits the best around here. I’ve talked to a lot of people on their staff and had a lot of face time with (defensive line coach Deke) Adams. (Quarterbacks) coach (Bryn) Renner is very active. He reaches out every now and then. (Cornerbacks coach Brandon) Harris, we hear from him a lot. I think they’ve offered four or five of our guys. USF has Ernie Sims, who is from Tallahassee. So we hear from him quite a bit. He’s really locked in. I don’t know if it’s because (FAU) coach (Willie) Taggart is mad at Tallahassee, but I don’t hear much from him, honestly. … UCF is kind of trying to get its footing. We hear from (UCF co-offensive coordinator) Tim Harris Jr. quite a bit. He’s recruiting one of our guys currently. But FIU is probably the most active.

Coach 10: It’s FAU. The reason is because they’re active. They actively come out and look at your guys. They won’t get the four- and five-star guys, but they do their homework and evaluate. I don’t know how UCF does in the Orlando area, but I think USF could do a better job in their backyard. There’s a lot of talent in Tampa and Orlando, and for those kids to be going off elsewhere, there’s something wrong there. … FIU, you’d think would be as active as FAU. But I think FAU does a little better job. FAMU, I think I’ve seen a coach at our school twice in my 25 years. I think Bethune-Cookman does a better job.

How would you describe the way top schools from outside the state recruit your players? Who does it the best?

Talent evaluator 1: Alabama and Georgia obviously are the best at getting kids to leave Florida. Indiana has come a long way. They’ve got (19) kids from the state of Florida on their roster now.

Talent evaluator 2: Alabama is just killing it in Texas and Florida. All the receivers, defensive backs they get out of South Florida. When you look at the list now, you can see Alabama has done a great job getting what it wants out of Florida. For the most part, it’s the same powers in the SEC. I don’t see Oregon in it right now, but with Mario (Cristobal) coaching there, they’ll always have their eye on a player or two.

Coach 1: Alabama lined up with an entire South Florida secondary when they were on their way to a championship. Alabama is king, and Nick Saban has managed to perfect the formula. And Georgia does whatever they do to get guys.

Coach 2: Ohio State, Clemson and Georgia recruit our area the best among the out-of-state schools. Alabama, their mentality is we can jump into the fray at any point and jump automatically to the top. And they usually do.

Coach 3: I think Notre Dame and Ohio State would have to be No. 1 and No. 2 for us. Just over the years, watching them recruit some of our players, I’m not even sure what it is that they do differently from other schools. But it seems when our players go up for visits, they are generally blown away by them.

Coach 4: The best by far is Clemson. This is through personal relationships and coach (Todd) Bates. He’s just really genuine. He doesn’t tell the kids what they want to hear. He tells them what they need to hear. He calls on Father’s Day. They send stuff in the mail, flyers, posters, whatever Clemson can get out.

Coach 5: The SEC schools, Clemson, Ohio State, North Carolina and Penn State. I think when you fly into Tampa, we’re one of the schools they’re always going to come by. Group of 5 schools, it’s a budget thing. They’ve got to budget out time and get bang for their buck.

Coach 6: Penn State lately. That’s the first school that comes to mind.

Coach 10: Right now, I’d have to say Iowa probably recruits our school the best. I’ve had a few players play for Kirk Ferentz. So maybe I just have a good relationship with them. But I just like the job they do up there. It’s not all glitz and glamour up there. They’re not going to change. Virginia Tech is doing a good job. They’re pretty active. Virginia is picking it up.

Who is the best recruiter — assistant or head coach — you’ve experienced at any of the in-state Big 3 programs?

Talent evaluator 1: I think (Miami’s) T-Rob is a very good recruiter. At Florida State, (offensive line coach) Alex Atkins or (running backs coach/recruiting coordinator) Davey Johnson are their top guys. For Florida, it’s (Tim) Brewster. He’s one of the top evaluators in the country.

Talent evaluator 2: It’s the assistants for me. T-Rob at Miami. Rhett Lashlee is really freaking good. Kids really like him. They know what he’s capable of. Alex Atkins from Florida State is great as far as getting the job done. Larry Scott, who was at Florida (head coach now at Howard University) stands out. Tim Harris Jr. at UCF is really good.

Coach 1: I’ve heard a lot of good things about (Tim) Brewster at Florida, and I’m interested to see how he continues to do. Head coach-wise, I think they’re all neck-and-neck.

Coach 2: I think (Miami cornerbacks coach) DeMarcus Van Dyke is going to be fantastic because of the relationships he has with people and how he knows people down here. (Miami defensive backs coach) Travaris Robinson is phenomenal. He’s very charismatic and engaging. He has enough energy to fill up two rooms. (Miami offensive coordinator) Rhett (Lashlee) is really good, too. It’s a very “old friend type thing” when he talks to you. It works for some people. For the Gators, it’s (Dan) Mullen. He carries a lot of weight, presents himself well.

Coach 3: This is from his time at Miami, but I’m going with Randy Shannon. I thought he was really personable. I thought he did a really nice job of getting to know the kids. I thought he did a nice job of being present.

Coach 4: I’ve been around a lot of guys and coaches and (former Florida coach Jim) McElwain did a helluva job. In my one meeting with Norvell, he was very impressive. He landed one of our kids. But he’s new and I’ve only sat and talked with him one time. Dan Mullen is a helluva dude. He comes out with his Jordan swag. You talk to him, a lot of kids in Orlando want to be Gators. He helps them. I haven’t talked to Manny Diaz, but I do talk to other guys on his staff. Among assistants, I’d have to give coach T-Rob the nod. He’s a young guy, played at Auburn and knows how to talk to the kids, relate to the kids.

Coach 5: I think it has to be coach Mullen, to be honest with you. He’s not scared to take football players. I’ve felt he’s done a great job connecting with people and doing the right stuff. I don’t think Miami has a relationship really with anybody in Tampa.

Coach 7: Head coaching-wise, it would probably have to be Diaz. I didn’t really dig Jimbo a lot (when he was at Florida State). I never dealt with Scott Frost (at UCF). (Al) Golden was kind of weird. I think Mike Norvell is a high-energy guy. I liked him when I met him. Norvell is trying. Mullen, I thought, did a good job recruiting one of our guys. He’s just a different dude. He’s wound real tight. All those guys have egos, but you can tell he likes the face he sees in the mirror a lot. (Will) Muschamp was cool. You could sit down and have a beer with him. I haven’t gotten that sense from Mullen. I think those guys aren’t necessarily the best guys to play for.

Coach 8: I’m going to go with Atkins (at Florida State), and we don’t have anybody he’s signed. I’ve sat in the room with him and he is the real deal. You forget it’s a business transaction. Just with the way he talks to the kids. Some of his answers may not shine the best light on Florida State, but he’ll give kids real honesty. He goes over all the options. I’d have to give him the nod on that. (Miami’s Van Dyke), he’s a professional guy when it comes to the coaches. But I know a lot of the kids, most of the kids I’ve had that have had DI offers, a lot of them are interested and want to go to Miami because of Van Dyke’s relationship with them.

Who is the best recruiter from outside the state?

Talent evaluator 1: (Penn State’s) Ja’Juan Seider and (Texas A&M’s) James Coley are the two best from out of state. Seider is from Belle Glades. Coley is from Miami. Kids have always liked them and their approach.

Talent evaluator 2: Penn State’s Ja’Juan Seider. I think he’s tremendous. Tom Allen, Indiana’s head coach, is really one of the rising stars in the coaching world. Corey Raymond at LSU is still very good.

Coach 2: (Troubled former Ohio State assistant) Zach Smith was one of the best. He was charismatic, knowledgeable and followed up. He just had a way of connecting with people and people wanted to play for him. (LSU head coach Ed) Orgeron is just phenomenal. From a personal level, (Clemson defensive coordinator) Brent Venables called me after my son passed away and left a four-minute voicemail. He cried as if it was his child. He’s the kind of person you trust your family to.

Coach 4: (Defensive line coach Todd) Bates at Clemson. He’s been coming to my school for four or five years. (Clemson defensive coordinator Brent) Venables was awesome when I talked to him. But coach Bates, he writes motivational messages all the time, texts them to the kids. The personalization he has with players and coaches is top-notch.

Coach 5: Tony Alfred from Ohio State and Tony Elliott from Clemson. They’re straight shooters. They’re great people. If a kid doesn’t go to their school, they’re not going to badmouth them. They’re in it for the right reasons. They’re first-class professionals.

Coach 7: Nick Saban. The reason I think they get a lot of kids — they do a better job of anybody on how specifically to recruit a kid. I think that’s something a lot of schools don’t get. They investigate who else around the recruit they need to get on their side. I think they really compile a lot of information and then go after a kid. Too many times a school runs into a recruiting process because of what they see on Rivals and they go and do the chest bumps and high fives. It’s all fake. Alabama just knows how to recruit players in specific ways. That to me makes the difference a lot of the time.

In the past, has negative recruiting been prevalent? Any stories that illustrate this?

Talent evaluator 1: There’s negative recruiting, but I don’t think those guys do too well. They don’t last long. And they don’t get other jobs.

Talent evaluator 2: I don’t know if negative recruiting is what it used to be. Coaches move around so much that they may not be at the same school by the time a kid actually signs. Also, I think right now, in-state, these staffs seem to be in such different mindsets it’s hard to negatively recruit against each other. I know Manny Diaz kind of sent out a shot we presume at Florida State with his comments about “winning the June bake-off,” but none of the kids Miami is going after except for Nyjalik Kelly are guys Florida State is really after. So, to me, they really stay out of negative recruiting because they’re all in different circles. That’s the perk of being in Florida. You have 350 DI recruits each year and can stay out of each other’s faces.

Coach 1: There have been some minor shots thrown at Miami recently because the program hasn’t been what it was before.

Coach 4: Not really. Not in front of me. You’ll have guys talking about the depth chart and “Hey, they just got two freshmen receivers.” But nothing negative.

Coach 5: Not too much I’ve experienced just because I let it be known right away I don’t like it. Come in and tell my kid what’s great about your program and not what’s bad about someone else’s. It’s not a good look in my opinion. The former USF staff used to do it. “Why are you going to this school? You’re not going to play there.” I’ve never seen it from Miami, Florida or Florida State.

Coach 6: I’ve never encountered it. All the coaching staffs I’ve been associated with, they’ve never negatively recruited. I can’t speak for everybody else, but for me and my staff, they’ve all been aboveboard and I’ve been around here for over two decades.

Coach 7: I remember when Alabama was recruiting one of our guys, Auburn came in saying “How much are they offering?” Basically. they were insinuating our kid was going to get paid off. That’s one that always sticks out to me. To me, negative recruiting really only happens with the higher-end kid schools fight to have. I think most schools only go to it if it’s one of the top five or six kids in their class. It’s like, if I’ve got to beat Ohio State, Michigan or Texas, I’ll drum up what I have to. Like, they’ll say “This coach beats his wife” or “He’ll be gone soon.” It really only happens with the high-end players.

How often have you encountered college programs attempting to pay recruits or take care of their families?

Talent evaluator 1: Nobody’s ever told me they’ve been paid, but it’s out there and common knowledge. I think it happens directly between the source and the player and his family.

Talent evaluator 2: I know some kids who have gotten things. They’ve gotten some contraband, we’ll say. Nice things like Louis Vuitton bags. Vehicles. I’ve heard many stories of coaches offering parents better-paying jobs to get their kids. I can’t say if I wasn’t a parent in that situation, I wouldn’t accept the offer. If you want proof, go on Instagram. These kids aren’t hiding this sh*t anymore. Look at the kids. They didn’t have those cars when they were (in high school).

Coach 1: Players need some things, and more times than people care to realize, that’s what ends up landing a player. Players need certain things and that school or that coach is able to provide it. Let’s not be naive. College football has a problem because you cannot police the members. Can you imagine them taking Alabama, Georgia, LSU or Florida off TV for a year? Those are your cash cows, the programs that are bringing in the millions and billions. I think there’s a lot of looking the other way and you just kinda roll with it.

Coach 3: Never in my time.

Coach 4: I haven’t seen it. I know it’s out there. I know it happens. But nothing I’ve confirmed. Orlando is big in a lot of ways, but it’s also small. If something like that happened, we’d definitely know. I don’t know of anything confirmed.

Coach 5: This might sound like I plead the fifth, but I’ve not experienced any of it. I’ve heard a bunch of stuff. But not even secondhand or thirdhand. I do know schools of that top echelon that if that topic came up, they wouldn’t talk to the kid anymore. For instance, if they hear player X has been offered money by School B, they don’t even talk to the kid anymore. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but it’s a matter of I haven’t seen it myself.

Coach 7: I’ve never really truly been exposed to that. I have some assistants that know some things that they’ve probably kept from me. I’ve never had a kid I knew was being influenced by what was provided for the family. If I go back to my toolbelt of recruiting, it probably comes into play with certain kids. I don’t think cash is flying out to every single kid going to Arkansas. But if it makes the difference between them and Texas? Sure. It may happen, but it’s going to be six or seven people from the coach. Georgia and Auburn are probably the two schools with the biggest reputations for who does it.

Coach 10: I’ve heard stuff, but I don’t have any true knowledge. It’s only hearsay. I’m not one to sling mud. You hear the rumors and this and that. But nothing is very substantiated. Those guys wouldn’t last very long if they did.

(Illustration: Wes McCabe / The Athletic)