While we were all concentrating on recruiting and Gator roundball, a hugely important hire was made in the Gator football office this week: Jon Haskins was hired to replace Pantoni (who followed Urban Meyer to Ohio St.) as Director of Player Personnel--the full-time, year-round "pointman" in consulting with the staff, from the Head Coach on down, as to what their needs and preferences are in future recruiting classes, then finding, researching, and opening contact with the coming years' pool of prospective recruits.
Talk about an "upgrade": we "lose" the guy who planned and oversaw what have turned out to be some of the worst recruiting classes in more than a decade-and-a-half at UF (a tale in itself: seemingly using only the "experts' ratings" and the recruiting-services as guidelines, he recommended a lot of these young men--but Meyer & Co. vetted and pursued them without question, apparently); we GAIN a "wizkid" who oversaw Stanford's great recruiting classes of mid-to-late decade, including the one that has Luck and 3 or 4 other members going in the 1st round or early 2nd of the next NFL-Draft, then spent one year at Nevada (2011, just past) where his freshman class immediately brought that team from nowhere to some big wins and contention at the top of their conference.
Jon, originally from Florida (he has family here; it's home) and here for the long haul, will contribute what he can to closing things out with this class, but it is with next year's prospects and beyond that he'll really make a difference, help to make sure we stay consistently at the top.
Talk about an "upgrade": we "lose" the guy who planned and oversaw what have turned out to be some of the worst recruiting classes in more than a decade-and-a-half at UF (a tale in itself: seemingly using only the "experts' ratings" and the recruiting-services as guidelines, he recommended a lot of these young men--but Meyer & Co. vetted and pursued them without question, apparently); we GAIN a "wizkid" who oversaw Stanford's great recruiting classes of mid-to-late decade, including the one that has Luck and 3 or 4 other members going in the 1st round or early 2nd of the next NFL-Draft, then spent one year at Nevada (2011, just past) where his freshman class immediately brought that team from nowhere to some big wins and contention at the top of their conference.
Jon, originally from Florida (he has family here; it's home) and here for the long haul, will contribute what he can to closing things out with this class, but it is with next year's prospects and beyond that he'll really make a difference, help to make sure we stay consistently at the top.
