HOW THEY WERE RANKED
5-stars: Cornerback Vernon Hargreaves and linebacker Alex Anzalone
4-stars: The class had 14 four-stars: LBs Daniel McMillan and Matt Rolin, wide receivers Demarcus Robinson, Ahmad Fulwood and Alvin Bailey, safeties Marcell Harris, Keanu Neal and Nick Washington, defensive tackles Caleb Brantley and Darious Cummings, defensive ends Jaynard Bostwick, Joey Ivie and Jordan Sherit and running back Kelvin Taylor.
3-stars: There were 11 three-stars in the class: offensive linemen Trenton Brown, Roderick Johnson, Cameron Dillard, Octavius Jackson and Trevon Young, WRs Marqui Hawkins and Chris Thompson, DEs Antonio Riles, RB Adam Lane, LB Jarrad Davis and quarterback Max Staver.
2-star: Punter Johnny Townsend.
RERANKING THE CLASS
5-stars: Alex Anzalone was originally a five-star; however, he is not one in this re-ranking.
Anzalone flashed five-star ability when he was on the field, but unfortunately for him and the Gators, that was few and far between. For that reason, he falls out of five-star status.
His inability to stay healthy is what ultimately kept him from reaching his full potential. Hargreaves, on the other hand, remains a five-star due to the excellent body of work he put out while he was at Florida.
He racked up 121 tackles (81 solo), 27 pass breakups and 10 interceptions over his three-year Florida career that saw him selected as a two-time first-team All-American and eventually the No. 11 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
4-stars: As previously mentioned, Anzalone dropped to four-star status, and he is joined by several others that remained four-stars, like Keanu Neal, Marcell Harris, Demarcus Robinson, Caleb Brantley, Kelvin Taylor and Jordan Sherit.
And there are a couple of three-stars that got the bump up to four-star status due to their solid careers; those players are Jarrad Davis and Trenton Brown.
Neal, Harris, Robinson, Brantley, Taylor and Sherit where all multi-year starters for the Gators and contributed greatly to the team that they were on. All but Sherit made an NFL roster out of college, and all but Sherit and Taylor are still currently active; highlighted by Keanu Neal, who was the No. 17 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft and made the Pro Bowl in 2017.
As for the three-stars that got the bump, it’s pretty easy to understand why.
Davis was a three-year starter for Florida at the middle linebacker spot, where he recorded 201 tackles (106 solo), 20 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks and an INT over the course of his career. He was then taken No. 21 overall in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions.
As far as Brown goes, the mountain of a man was a mainstay along the offensive front for the Gators, playing both guard and tackle in his two years after transferring in from Georgia Military College.
Brown started 11 games, but played in all 23 over the course of those couple of years; but what’s more impressive than that is that he has become one of the premiere tackles in the NFL, and is now the highest-paid offensive lineman in the league.
3-stars: Several prospects from this class did not live up to the hype and others I believe were just rated too high at the time, so they have now dropped from four-stars to three-stars because of it.
Those prospects are Alvin Bailey, Daniel McMillian, Ahmad Fulwood, Nick Washington, Joey Ivie and Darious Cummings. The players that remained three-stars were Cameron Dillard, Antonio Riles, Roderick Johnson and Chris Thompson.
One player made the jump up from a two-star to a three-star, and that player is Johnny Townsend. Honestly, if I could give a punter four stars, I probably would for Johnny; that’s how much of an impact he had during his time at UF, but that just doesn’t happen.
Bailey, McMillian, Fulwood and Washington all came in to Gainesville with high expectations and, for several different reasons, it didn’t happen as we had all thought.
With Bailey, he never saw much playing time at UF and eventually transferred to Youngstown State, where he didn’t exactly light it up. For McMillan, he got some playing time here and there, but could never consistently stay on the field in his four years at UF before being arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and kidnapping/false imprisonment.
Fulwood had moments where he flashed the ability to be a big-time pass catcher with his size and speed, but never seemed to put it all together as he totaled just 499 yards on 42 catches and three TDs over his four years. And Washington struggled with injuries for a good portion of his career; in his five years at Florida, three of them were cut short due to season-ending injuries.
As far as the guys that remained three-stars, they had a solid impact but didn’t outperform their ranking. The one that could have gotten the bump up to a four-star had he not run into a very unfortunate circumstance was Roderick Johnson.
Johnson redshirted his first year, but saw action in all 12 games as a RS Freshman that included a trio of starts against Alabama, Kentucky and East Carolina. Going into his RS Sophomore season, he was the unquestioned starter at right tackle and was poised to have a breakout season, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.
Johnson was diagnosed with congenital cervical spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the spinal canal that prevents enough fluid from gathering around the spinal cord to properly protect it) after a hit in a spring scrimmage that ended up cutting his career short.
2-stars: Two prospects fell from three-star status to become two-stars in the reranking, RB Adam Lane and QB Max Staver. Of the two, Lane, showed the most promise early on, running for 109 yards and a TD and winning Birmingham Bowl MVP as a true freshman, but that’s where the production stopped.
Just after his freshman year, Lane announced he was transferring due to “family issues” and made his way to Eastern Kentucky, where he played just one year and had almost 300 yards rushing before dropping football all together.
Staver transferred from UF after his freshman season, where he redshirted; he then landed at Tyler Junior College in Texas, before transferring to Houston Baptist and then University of Maine to round out his college career.
N/A: This group is definitely larger than you would ever hope for in one recruiting class as it consists of Matt Rolin, Jaynard Bostwick, Marqui Hawkins, Octavius Jackson, and Trevon Young.
Young never saw the field in Gainesville and left after his freshman season, transferring to Eckerd College (Division 2) to play basketball. Octavius Jackson also never touched the grass of Steve Spurrier Field in a game before he was forced to medically retire after his freshman year.
Hawkins moved back and forth between WR and safety at UF before deciding to transfer to UAB after his freshman season. While sitting due to transfer rules, Hawkins was forced to transfer again when UAB shut down their football program. Marqui was finally able to find a home at Indiana University, but his only career stats were a pair of tackles on special teams.
Jaynard Bostwick and Matt Rolin both came to Florida as four-stars with high expectations and, unfortunately, both were a letdown. Bostwick redshirted his first year and then saw action in a handful of games as a RS Freshman, recording 3 tackles.
After that season, Bostwick left the team due to “personal issues” and didn’t put pads on again. In Rolin’s first two years, he suffered season-ending injuries before he even got to step on the field.
During his RS Sophomore year, he saw action in three games, starting two of them, recording 11 tackles before medically retiring after the season, thus ending his football career.
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