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LSU TE Arik Gilbert transfers to Florida

DRU2012

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This at least the second former-5-star we’ve grabbed through the transfer-portal in the last less-than-a-week (the other was that RB, also out of the SEC)...This says a LOT of things—about the uncertainties of recruiting and rankings and the importance of “fit” every bit as much as inherent talent coming out of high school. But what we REALLY need is to grab some “5-Stars” off the lines (offense AND defense!) on first crack at ‘em if we wanna move up to the highest level; you hardly EVER see those guys move from the teams that they originally commit to: They are that rare, and commensurately valued.
They get to go to the schools of their choice—and they PLAY.
 

Escambia94

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This at least the second former-5-star we’ve grabbed through the transfer-portal in the last less-than-a-week (the other was that RB, also out of the SEC)...This says a LOT of things—about the uncertainties of recruiting and rankings and the importance of “fit” every bit as much as inherent talent coming out of high school. But what we REALLY need is to grab some “5-Stars” off the lines (offense AND defense!) on first crack at ‘em if we wanna move up to the highest level; you hardly EVER see those guys move from the teams that they originally commit to: They are that rare, and commensurately valued.
They get to go to the schools of their choice—and they PLAY.

Oddly enough, Gilbert is one of the highest rated players the Gators have ever recruited from any source. Mullen either dislikes recruiting high school kids or just has better luck in the transfer portal out of necessity.
 

DRU2012

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Oddly enough, Gilbert is one of the highest rated players the Gators have ever recruited from any source. Mullen either dislikes recruiting high school kids or just has better luck in the transfer portal out of necessity.
You may well be ON to something there, E—...though exactly WHAT (as in how that works and all it implies) is open to some extensive thought, analysis and/or debate: Therein may lie answers regarding all the questions raised BY the very “recruiting limitations” all UF Head Coaches but Meyer have found (and we have had to face) in the “most-modern era” (as in, “Post-Spurrier”).
Of course, in Meyers’ case, whatever was gained was paid for later by those left behind to deal with the resultant mess (including all of US FANS!!!); One might even surmise (certainly argue) that these may have even been factors in how things unfolded at the very end of his time here—in fact suggests a growing “PATTERN of behavior and circumstances” as time goes on—but perhaps THAT’S a discussion for another day, place and time...
Anyhow, “they” (those who rank these classes) do not figure these “grad-transfers” into “recruiting-rankings”, of course (a function as much of their uneven nature—the varied remaining amounts of eligibility left, “practically” AND “officially”, for them once they get here)...but in the present case, for example, with yesterday being the by-NOW NOT-so-important-as-it-ONCE-was “NSD”, our “2021-class”—a fairly typical, at-best “2nd Tier” number 12-ranked one—would have rated a lot higher based on the who and what we really have in the way of “ready talent coming in to compete RIGHT NOW”!
The guys on Gator Breakdown focus nicely on this exact area of discussion in this week’s entry over on YouTube, turning over and closely examining the various vaguaries, ins’n’outs of how this might affect our potential performance in the 2021 season after all!
Check it out, if you haven’t already; in my view, at least, it puts a more hopeful spin on things just looking immediately ahead, after all.
 

DRU2012

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(God knows I am looking, searching for SOMETHING—a “LIFELINE” of HOPE I can grab to rekindle a sense of excited optimism after the way that “2020 HINDSIGHT of a Season” sort of deflated all of that when it came to my sense of this program, regime and where we and it seemed headed, after all.)
Don’t know about y’all, but (even BEFORE that fiasco of a last-game against the Sooners) I sure as HELL NEEDED something LIKE it!
I would just LOVE a sound set of reasons to wipe away all those “bad feelings of doom and gloom” and just MOVE ON!
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
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Depending on which garbage story you believe, either he failed to make the grades or Dan Mullen sucks at recruiting. It is always nice to collect a 5-star, but the Gators are fine at TE.
Yeah, but a big deal was made of this “portal grab” when it seemed to drop in our laps a little while back—“immediate recharge of ‘Kyle Pitts quality’, another 5-star no-less—just when we needed it, at a position we just took a big step-down in quality at”, supposedly...
As for this being “one more eg of Mullen’s lack of recruiting savvy”, I just don’t know WHAT to think—only that knowing as little as I do from a stark “outside-looking-in” viewpoint, it strikes ME as being just as likely as much a sign of this kid’s immaturity as more evidence of our COACH’S weakness in this regard.
But it IS disappointing, no matter what. More than ever now, I guess we’re left having to “just wait and SEE”: what HAD begun to TIP towards “guarded optimism” has for me now returned to “Uh oh—Who-the-f-KNOWS???!!!”
If Emory comes through and our D makes it at least past “the Mendoza-line” on its way to not-quite-greatness from the abject-zero-level CRAP-FEST that was last year’s onfield product, then all in all beyond that we should be ok...That is, have some idea of where we’re headed and how likely we are to get there, and how soon.
That’s the most (and frankly, the BEST) I can honestly say in clear-eyed judgement of our team and program for now.
I was STARTING to dare to feel better, more hopeful, but yes, now must admit this latest has thrown me some.
It strikes me that if our talent, elusive at best once more, therefore continues to lag, more than ever it will be coaching that makes the difference—or does NOT.
It certainly failed us on defense last season—all the more reason drastic change seemed required. Regardless of how all THAT, its problems AND to what degree it has and/or WILL BE addressed, fair or not, judgement, credit or blame, will now more than ever rest on Dan Mullens’ shoulders.
It seems to all be coming to a tense and dangerous threshold faster and sooner than I felt was or would be the case not so very long ago.
I would caution Gator Nation to try to find and maintain a certain balance of patience and realism as to the things that are and aren’t, have been and may or may not REMAIN within his control over the coming months. This very kind of thing, in this case what seems immature emotional “flip-flopping” on the part of what by all accounts is a talented young athlete whose apparent INNER balance may be lagging far and confusedly BEHIND his physical development—and the very nature of college football is therefore promoting its effects out of all reasonable proportion. Frankly (and personally), at this point I wish we’d never even HEARD of this kid!
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
Yeah, but a big deal was made of this “portal grab” when it seemed to drop in our laps a little while back—“immediate recharge of ‘Kyle Pitts quality’, another 5-star no-less—just when we needed it, at a position we just took a big step-down in quality at”, supposedly...
As for this being “one more eg of Mullen’s lack of recruiting savvy”, I just don’t know WHAT to think—only that knowing as little as I do from a stark “outside-looking-in” viewpoint, it strikes ME as being just as likely as much a sign of this kid’s immaturity as more evidence of our COACH’S weakness in this regard.
But it IS disappointing, no matter what. More than ever now, I guess we’re left having to “just wait and SEE”: what HAD begun to TIP towards “guarded optimism” has for me now returned to “Uh oh—Who-the-f-KNOWS???!!!”
If Emory comes through and our D makes it at least past “the Mendoza-line” on its way to not-quite-greatness from the abject-zero-level CRAP-FEST that was last year’s onfield product, then all in all beyond that we should be ok...That is, have some idea of where we’re headed and how likely we are to get there, and how soon.
That’s the most (and frankly, the BEST) I can honestly say in clear-eyed judgement of our team and program for now.
I was STARTING to dare to feel better, more hopeful, but yes, now must admit this latest has thrown me some.
It strikes me that if our talent, elusive at best once more, therefore continues to lag, more than ever it will be coaching that makes the difference—or does NOT.
It certainly failed us on defense last season—all the more reason drastic change seemed required. Regardless of how all THAT, its problems AND to what degree it has and/or WILL BE addressed, fair or not, judgement, credit or blame, will now more than ever rest on Dan Mullens’ shoulders.
It seems to all be coming to a tense and dangerous threshold faster and sooner than I felt was or would be the case not so very long ago.
I would caution Gator Nation to try to find and maintain a certain balance of patience and realism as to the things that are and aren’t, have been and may or may not REMAIN within his control over the coming months. This very kind of thing, in this case what seems immature emotional “flip-flopping” on the part of what by all accounts is a talented young athlete whose apparent INNER balance may be lagging far and confusedly BEHIND his physical development—and the very nature of college football is therefore promoting its effects out of all reasonable proportion. Frankly (and personally), at this point I wish we’d never even HEARD of this kid!

To be fair, it was a great portal grab. Arik Gilbert did not do his part by making the grades required to play at UF. Remember that UF is a member of the Association of American Universities (along with Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, and Missouri), which means that there are additional academic requirements.

I am not making excuses for Dan Mullen, but he has to not only recruit 5-star athletes just to keep the idiot fans off his back, but also find recruits who can meet academic requirements at UF. That is no easy task. Ohio State is the only AAU school that has been able to recruit in the top 10 year after year.
 

DRU2012

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I just take that “higher academic standards at UF”-thing as an assumed “given”—and once again am somewhat “blindsided” by the truth that so many of our fans (especially “from the area”, as opposed to alumni—though there seem no shortage of grads who appear to have forgotten this all-important truth as well!)...I personally have always taken pride in this: Even when it bites us (AGAIN!), I wouldn’t change it... it’s part of what made MY having chosen to go to UF one of the best decisions I ever made—and as a post-adolescent, the best BY FAR!!!
Anyway, it’s “just one of those things”, a cross we bear as GATORS, right?
What is galling (if also laughable, in a dark, ironical sort of way) is inadvertently exposing myself to this sort of thing on YouTube:
The guy from 24/7 on with one of his regular “guest/consultants”, some “expert from UGA” (making him, not surprisingly, an apparent ignoramus when it comes to anything else—in THIS case for some reason to present his “views” regarding Dan Mullens’ supposed “self-inflicted troubles this past season at Florida”, to the point of actually proposing that “he’s hanging by a thin string at UF now, even with the administration as WELL AS THE FANS”... that this could actually “be his last year with them coming up”!!!
I gave his site a thumbs down this time and am thinking of dropping its “subscription” entirely...I don’t mind, even relish an outside P.O.V. among the voices I gather to follow our program—but there’s a limit: If this is the level of “unbiased, fair and penetrating insight” that this guy is apparently applying in his overview of the SEC, then I say “F-Him!!!”: We don’t NEED a “Squish-faced Dog’s-view” of our program—least of all from a site purporting itself to be an “All SEC/open overview” of our Conference bringing one in to pass judgement on our Coach’s future here (the very guy who just finally knocked THEM AND THEIR GUY OUT OF THE TOP SPOT IN THE EAST!).
And by the way, while we’re on the subject, MIGHT wanna look to yer OWN yard, UGA-boy—I mean, I ask my fellow GATORS who’d YOU rather have, the hot-handed recruiter who can’t seem to DO much with ‘em, or the Coach saddled with a history of sketchy recruiting before he even got here (the various once-“pipelines” having been worn out, depleted and by the time HE got here required a complete rebuild, by now well-in-progress BTW), and meanwhile having a maverick’s seeming “own road”-approach to the process (that so far has been judged, both from within AND without, as “good but not “GREAT”—which is what you’re gonna hear when you are regularly netting plenty of 4-Stars but very few 5-Stars!)—but on the other hand is known far and wide, more than EVER for “absolutely EXCELLS at coaching ‘em UP!”.
All in all, I’ll take OUR guy, the latter of the two here: Finally beating them in “The Party” this past season we are ALL feeling (“wishin’ and HOPIN’ !”) was merely “Step 1” in a larger, deeper, LONGER TREND!
OK. I unloaded MY “rant”. I NEEDED that.
 

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