Sunshine State Recruiting Is About To Be Fun Again

If you've been paying attention for any amount of time in the last decade, recruiting in the state of Florida has been a sad state of affairs.

The relative down period that the "Big 3" programs of Florida, Florida State, and Miami have experienced in that time frame has created somewhat of a vacuum, allowing out-of-state powerhouses like Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio State, among others, to come in and raid the cupboards.

It wasn't always like that, though.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the Sunshine State belonged almost exclusively to the Big 3, and it showed in their dominance on the field.

From 1991—2010, the Big 3 programs in the state of Florida accounted for roughly a third of every national championship won.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that recruiting all the best athletes in one of the most talent-rich states in the country would result in consistent winning.

READ: 17 Years After Tim Tebow's 'Promise,' Florida Gators Are A Program In Limbo

And the good news for at least two of those three powerhouse programs in Florida is that the good times may be returning ever so slowly.

Let's start with Miami.

The Canes are coming off a season in which they were a Carson Beck interception away from winning their first national championship since 2001, and that may lead to a historically dominant recruiting class for Mario Cristobal and crew.

Miami already has two top-50 prospects in their class, which sits at 7th on Rivals currently, and they picked up another blue-chip offensive lineman earlier Friday afternoon in four-star Sean Tatum.

READ: Mario Cristobal’s Miami Isn’t Chasing The Past

The excitement for the Canes comes as much from whom they are projected to land, though.

The Hurricanes are in the running for consensus five-star offensive tackle Mark Matthews, another homegrown product from South Florida, and should be the odds-on favorite to land his services by the end of this recruiting cycle.

Other five-star prospects like linebacker Kaden Henderson and even the No.1 prospect in the nation, five-star defensive tackle and Texas Tech pledge Jalen Brewster, are thought to be serious options for Miami.

When it's all said and done, the Canes could end up signing the top-ranked class in the country, something that hasn't happened in South Florida in too long.

Not to be outdone, the Florida Gators, led by first-year head coach Jon Sumrall, are starting to wake up after a relatively dormant period of recruiting under the past few coaching staffs.

The Gators have had top 10 classes under the last two recruiting staffs, but it took them a little longer to get up and running, and they were never able to sustain success in the long term.

Since he's been in Gainesville, Sumrall has hit the recruiting trail hard, and this week, his efforts are starting to pay off.

Florida landed a five-star offensive lineman, Pennsylvania prospect Maxwell Hiller, for the first time in more than a decade on Wednesday, a clear sign of change in The Swamp.

READ: Florida's Jon Sumrall Wins The Fanbase Over With A Single Press Conference

They followed that up a mere 24 hours later with a commitment from four-star quarterback Davin Davidson, beating out programs like Notre Dame, Georgia, and Auburn in the process.

From everyone I've talked to close to the program, it sounds like the Gators are just getting started.

Florida's spring game will be taking place Saturday afternoon, with many of the top prospects on their recruiting board in attendance, and word is the staff is expecting a few more pledges to go public before the weekend is over.

The Gators already hold a top 10 class on Rivals, and some of the names being linked to their growing class (Frederick Ards, Aamaury Fountain, Layton von Brandt, and Elias Pearl, to name a few) almost guarantees Sumrall will be ending year one with all the talent he needs to establish a championship foundation.

If you're a Florida State fan and you're feeling left out by all the recruiting wins your two biggest rivals are experiencing, don't fret.

The Mike Norvell experiment is almost over in Tallahassee, and if being a Gator fan has taught me anything, it's that a proud football fan base will only tolerate subpar results for so long.

The colossal failure of the Norvell tenure, outside the 2022 and 2023 seasons, may end up being a blessing in disguise.

Once Norvell hits the road, I have a strong inkling that the powers that be in the state's capital will make a serious commitment to funding a winner.

But for now, it looks like the Canes and Gators have found their footing again in terms of talent acquisition.

One is using proof of concept and surging momentum to build a monster in South Florida.

The other is using the powerful drug of optimism coupled with a legitimate coaching staff and newfound resources to help restore a dormant power to glory.

Will the good times last? Who's to say?

Miami looks to have firmly planted themselves as a power in both the ACC and national landscape.

Florida has work to do, but the early returns point toward a changing of the guard in Gainesville.

Time will tell if Sumrall really is the man for the job.

One thing is for sure, though: Recruiting in the Sunshine State is about to be a whole lot of fun again.