GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- When Florida parted ways with Jim McElwain last year and hired Dan Mullen some recruits decided to look elsewhere. However, that was not the case with either Ja'Markis Weston or Trent Whittemore.

“You look at Trent and you look at Ja'Markis, they were committed before I got here. It shows, they want to be Gators,” Florida head coach Dan Mullen said during his early signing day presser. “There's something about that, when you have that extra pride in there and what it means to be a Gator."

Although neither of them were highly ranked coming out of high school, Mullen did not hold back his excitement of signing both athletes.

The Florida head coach was almost giddy during his Wednesday press conference when discussing Weston.

“I'm a huge Ja'Markis Weston fan,” Mullen said. “I think he's a tremendous young man, has great potential, great athleticism, great size, but most importantly amazing character and work ethic for a young guy.

"You look at him, academically, takes care of his business," he added. "You go down and how people talk about him around the school, how he's respected in the town is pretty special. How he handled the whole recruiting process, first class, and his image, if you want to -- if you look at what your brand is, he's got a first-class brand. I'm really happy to have him part of the family. He's got potential to have a pretty special career here at Florida.”

Mullen was equally complementary of Whittemore. The three-star athlete was born and raised in Gainesville, playing his high school ball at Bucholz High School under his father, who is the head coach of the team. His mother played volleyball at Florida.

Initially recruited at defensive back, the staff told Whittemore during his official visit that they are considering him at wide receiver.

“We've got to see where he's going to end up playing for us,” Mullen said. “I have an idea where we're going to start him but it's not even fair to label that right now for him because I want to see him as he starts going through workouts and as he grows and progresses, so I think he's got a really bright future."

Whittemore told GT he is open to anything. Mullen is eager to see the new signee put through his paces with Nick Savage.

“Trent is a guy that everybody you talk to, you know, ‘boy, he's an amazing athlete’,” Mullen said. "I don't think he's probably ever lifted a weight in his life. He's going to get here and when he gets on that training program, physically going to be a different guy. He has great size and athleticism, played all over the field in football. He's a phenomenal basketball player.”

These two players did not hit the recruiting circuit hard during their respective recruitments. They were committed to a school they loved and stuck.

Although many stress recruiting rankings, Mullen and company rely on their own rankings.

"We might have guys that are ranked higher than I would have ranked them and we have guys that are probably ranked lower than I would have ranked them," explained Mullen. "Obviously there are some that are easy to figure out that, boy, this guy, the three-play guys or four-play guys, they are not to evaluate, this guy's a freak show, but a lot of the other ones are you've got to really pay attention to what's going on and your thoughts and where the development of them can come."

If he ever doubts himself, he always looks back at his 2011 class, his lowest ranked incoming class as a head coach.

"I'll go back and I remember sitting there and there was a lot, as you say, the angst with everybody, signed a recruiting class, and you know, according to rankings, it was probably one of the lowest classes I signed in my career," Mullen recounted. "I had this quarterback no one had heard of, [Dak] Prescott, and I had a running back and two-star running back, Josh Robinson, who is this Preston Smith kid, he's not a highly ranked kid on his high school team. And that's a group that went on to rebound the No. 1 team in the country for half a season"

In the end, Mullen is in search for players that want to be Gators and fit his standard.

Athletes like Whittemore and Weston.

"I think that's great to have in the program of guys that believe in that and I think that those are guys that end up being great leaders," he said. "Not just great playmakers, talented guys, they end up having a little bit of leadership in them because of what it means to put on that uniform and that helmet.”