Coach Muschamp spoke to media yesterday at the end of National Signing Day and here are some of the things he had to say about this recruiting class:

Will Muschamp’s first real class at Florida is now in the books, as 23 high school seniors signed their National Letters of Intent to join the football program today.

By all accounts this is very good group of players that Muschamp and his staff have recruited. Scout.com says the Gators have the fifth best class nationally. Scout.com’s top five are Texas, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan and Florida.

Rivals.com, has the Gators ranked third nationally. Rivals.com’s top five are Alabama, Texas, Florida, Ohio State and Stanford. ESPN.com ranks UF’s class fourth in the country. ESPN.com’s top five are Alabama, Florida State, Texas, Florida and Georgia.

So, overall, looks like this group of players is probably the fourth-best group in the country if you combine the three major recruiting sites.

University of Florida Class Of 2012

To win some and you lose some on national signing day, and that is certainly the case for the University of Florida today.

Earlier I wrote that five-star defensive end Dante Fowler Jr had picked Florida over Florida State, but those good feelings soon dissipated with the news that that Lane Kiffin and his USC Trojans had nabbed two top Florida prospects from the Gators when No. 5 defensive tackle Leonard Williams (Daytona Beach, Fla./Mainland) and No. 6 wide receiver Nelson Agholor (Tampa, Fla./Berkeley) both signed with USC. Each was thought to have Florida and USC as their final two schools.

Agholor is particular is big loss as he had a good chance of coming in and starting this fall considering Florida’s lack of depth and quality at wide receiver.

Florida have to hope now that the No. 3 ranked athlete Stefon Diggs (Olney, Md./Our Lady of Good Counsel), who will make his college decision on Feb. 10, will pick Florida.

The Gators only have two wide receivers in their 2012 class, in No. 24 WR Latroy Pittman (Citra, Fla./North Marion) and No. 152 Raphael Andrades (Tallahassee, Fla./Lincoln).

Good start to national signing day with the news that five-star defensive end Dante Fowler Jr had picked Florida over Florida State.

Fowler Jr. had been committed to Florida State but Will Muschamp and his staff were able to flip him.

According to ESPN, Fowler who is 6’3″, 236lbs is “an athletic defensive end prospect with the tools to be a productive pass rusher. He has good size. He will need to work to add more good bulk and improve strength, but is a kid that is pretty well put together”.

So far Florida has 15 signed commitments and that number is expected to grow to 23 by the end of the day.

Philadelphia quarterback Skyler Mornhinweg has been a Penn State commit since last July, but on Friday that changed when a source told GatorCountry.com he became the 21st commitment in the Gators’ 2012 recruiting class.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound quarterback became interested in Florida after the hiring of Gators offensive coordinator Brent Pease.

Pease and Mornhinweg’s father, Marty Mornhinweg who is the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive coordinator, played college football together at Montana and that connection allowed Pease to come in late and snag the commitment of Mornhinweg.

Mornhinweg is one of those smart quarterbacks that offensive coordinator’s love. You know he has been watching film with his dad since he was little, and he will have seen probably every kind of defensive front imaginable.

Mornhinweg is a Rivals three star recruit, and is 6’3″ 215 lbs

While all eyes are on Florida’s 2012 recruiting class, Will Muschamp this weekend landed his second 2013 recruit as defensive tackle Caleb Brantley became the second verbal commitment for the Florida Gators’ Class of 2013.

The 6-foot-3, 285-pounder pulled the trigger on his pledge after the first of UF’s two junior days on Saturday. Brantley could not wait to accept Florida’s offer saying:

“I love Florida,” Brantley said. “My whole family has been Gator fans, and since I was little, I was, too.”

Brantley joins running back Adam Lane, who committed to Muschamp during an unofficial visit to Gainesville last Saturday.

Not only is Florida getting a life long Gator’s fan (hopefully that will cut down the number of students who leave the school after a year), but they also get a player who reported scholarship offers from Florida State, Miami and South Florida. The more times that Florida can beat the other Florida schools to in-state recruits, the better it is for the program in the long-term.

Coach Will Muschamp and his staff have been working hard to pull in some of the top recruits throughout the state of Florida this offseason.  Unfortunately, with the departure of Urban Meyer and most of his staff, recruiting efforts have to rebuild connections with the local Florida high schools and it is not a quick turnaround process.

The current Gator roster has roughly 60 returning players and the team just came off of a 7-6 record.  Gator Fans across the state of Florida were less than pleased with the 2011 finish except that it came with a bowl victory over Ohio State – Urban Meyer’s new team.

With this in mind, Muschamp and staff need to do whatever they can to recruit the top talent to the Florida Gators football team.  In this offseason, this means that Florida is a pipe dream for recruiting and the staff must seek elsewhere to find the talent they need to be competitive in 2012.

According to Rivals.com’s Chris Nee, “the two states that have been the most kind to the Gators are North Carolina and Georgia.”

This shows that Florida is still a highly attractive school and program for athletes from outside the state – but what does it say about their attractiveness inside the state?

Many of the top recruits from Florida are now traveling outside the state to continue their careers at the college level instead of staying home at schools like Florida and Miami University.  This begs the question, is Muschamp really able to get the nation’s top talent – or are they just trying to fill the roster at this point?

It is amazing how much can change for a football program in just two years.  Goodbye Tim Tebow.  Goodbye Urban Meyer.  Goodbye Gator Football!  Muschamp has perhaps the most difficult challenge in all of football as he attempts to rebuild a program and redefine what Florida Gator football is all about.

Watching Florida play last season it was clear that the Gators needed to get bigger, tougher and more athletic on the defensive line. So it is not a surprise to learn that Florida has added seven defensive lineman to its class of 2012.

The latest lineman to commit to Florida is Alex McCalister, a three-star defensive end from Clemmons (N.C.) West Forsyth. McCalister is the 20th member of Florida’s class of 2012.

He became commitment No. 20 for UF in 2012 and the second defensive end commitment in three days. Bryan Cox Jr., a fellow three-star end from Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas, committed to Florida during his official visit on Saturday. He then hinted at the end of his visit on Twitter that he knew McCalister would soon be a Gator as well.

“He’s always felt comfortable with the coaches,” West Forsyth head coach Adrian Snow said of the Gators. “Those guys are good people, and they’ve done a heck of a job recruiting him.”

Here are some highlights from Alex McCalister senior season:

University of Florida added two more verbal commitments and interestingly one is for 2013.

Committing to Florida for 2012 is defensive end Bryan Cox Jr, a three-star recruit from Fort Lauderdale.

The 6-foot-3, 230-pounder, who could also play Florida’s buck position, is the 19th commitment for the 2012 class. He is the son of former Miami Dolphins outside linebacker Bryan Cox, who worked alongside Quinn in 2007 with the New York Jets. The two have maintained a close relationship since and have a “brotherly bond,” according to Cox Jr.

Also on Saturday, the Gators picked up their first verbal commitment for the 2013 class from Winter Haven running back Adam Lane (5-foot-8, 210 pounds), who sat out his junior season because of a broken fibula. As a sophomore, Lane rushed for 1,000 yards on 80 carries.

With over a year still left in his recruitment, why did he pull the trigger for Florida?

“The atmosphere, the coaching staff and how everything is put together, especially the education,” said Lane, who was in Gainesville on an unofficial visit. “All of it played a part, and I just wanted to be a Gator.”

Florida will likely sign two running backs in 2013 and the top four remaining candidates are in-state prospects Greg Bryant (Delray Beach/American Heritage), Ryan Green (St. Petersburg/Catholic), Derrick Henry (Yulee) and Kelvin Taylor (Belle Glade/Glades Day), the son of Gator great Fred Taylor.

This is a really big weekend in the Will Muschamp era at Florida as a three elite prospects highlight a group of 10 recruits coming for an official visit.

Wide receiver Stefon Diggs, cornerback Tracy Howard and defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. are all considered blue-chip recruits and play at positions of need for UF.

“This weekend is huge for Florida,” said 247Sports national recruiting analyst Barton Simmons. “The class is great as it is. It’s a top-five group right now, but it can become a very strong group, particularly at the receiver position. That’s a position of need and the one thing that really must be added on to. Stefon Diggs is a big piece to that puzzle.”

Diggs, along with Tampa Berkeley five-star receiver Nelson Agholor, are perhaps the two most coveted prospects remaining on UF’s board.

The Gators’ receiving corps does not return one wideout in 2012 that caught more than 16 passes last season.

“This is a big weekend for Florida and Diggs is a major part of that,” said ESPN southeast recruiting analyst Corey Long. “Between Diggs and Agholor, Florida has to get one of those top receivers.”

UF has one receiver in the class already on campus in Citra North Marion’s Latroy Pittman. The early enrollee is a four-star prospect, according to Rivals.

The Gators also don’t have a cornerback on their roster that opposing quarterbacks try to avoid. In 13 games last season, UF intercepted eight passes. That’s a number Howard could help the Gators improve upon in the fall.

“They need a big-play receiver and an elite cover corner,” said Rivals.com’s state of Florida recruiting analyst Chris Nee. “Adding Diggs and Howard could really help turn things around there. Getting a pair of players the caliber of those two would take the class from a very good group to arguably the best in the nation. This is an essential time for Muschamp to begin to put a bow on this class.”

Fowler could help solve UF’s pass-rush deficiencies. The Gators finished in a three-way tie for 44th place in sacks among NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision schools this past season. However, Fowler has been committed to FSU for over a year. Although he has taken several unofficial visits to Florida, flipping Fowler might be Muschamp’s toughest challenge this weekend.

“Anytime you get a prospect on campus this late in the process it means something,” Simmons said. “You always want to be the school that makes the last impression.”