Some notes about Jim McElwain’s first recruiting class.
- The group of 23 players (not including A.J. Frieler, who was on the roster last year), comes from four states and the District of Columbia.
- California was the hotbed this year with eight recruits from there. Colorado was next with six, followed by Texas (5) and Georgia(3). That’s a departure from the past, where former coach Steve Fairchild and his staff hit Florida hard.
- McElwain said the list was made up of what the previous staff had come up with, as well as the new staff’s connections and evaluations.
- There are three players that come from the junior college ranks, two of them big linemen — Calvin Tonga out of Arizona Western and Chuck Ragland out of College of San Mateo. The third, technically, is Mister Jones, who enrolled at DeAnza College, but did not play because of injury.
- McElwain said hitting the Juco ranks will not be the norm. “This goes back to roster management. With each class you want to have balance that builds consistency throughout the organization. So what you don’t want to do is get in the (habit) ‘OK we have seven JC guys; now let’s turn them over in the second year.’ Do you understand what I’m getting at? Sometimes through attrition you need to build some depth at a certain area and that’s where you use your junior college connections.”
- McElwain talked of picking up winners and leaders. In their senior year’s, this class had a winning percentage of .724, and three played for state champions. On top of that, 13 of the players were team captains.
- McElwain said he didn’t want to put any undue pressure on any player by singling them out. Fine, but at least one of them will have to produce this year, and that’s kicker Keenan Adams with the departures of Chad Vander Molen and Ben DeLine.
- Factoring in McElwain’s stated goal of beefing up the lines, one might want to add Tonga (6-foot-3, 320 pounds) to that list. Starting tackle John Froland weighed less than 260 all last season playing at defensive tackle.
- Now that he has signed his first class, McElwain will get a chance to coach his first team. He said spring practice will begin the week of March 19.
