The Florida Gators football program has been down the last four years but head coach Jim McElwain is determined to turn things around and while that won’t be over night, the Gators need to show improvement this year.
One big thing is for McElwain is to show prospects around the country that the Florida Gators offense is getting better and that the defense is going to continue to be a dominating force in the country.
While the Florida Gators have 20 commits in the class of 2016 they are still after some big time playmakers and those are guys who are going to be watching this season closely.
The question of whether prospects care more about Florida’s record than they do how much improvement they show has been posed to me several times by Florida Gators fans, so I decided to ask prospects around the country what they want to see more.
I went into this poll thinking that prospects would be split, but I was wrong and out of the 101 prospects I asked, the overwhelming response was that recruits want to see improvement the most.
Here are what are some of the prospects had to say about the question.
Receiver Binjimen Victor- “I’m looking at the offense to see how much they improve under Coach McElwain.”
Tight end Nick Eubanks-“The coaches have told me that they are improving so I want to see how much they have improved. That’s important to me.”
Florida Gators running back commit Mark Thompson- “I want to see the improvement, speaking from my standpoint if the offensive line has really good play that’s definitely convincing enough to me that I can come in and make an instant impact.
Offensive lineman Marcus Tatum-“I’m looking forward to seeing the improvement more than the record.”
Florida Gators athlete commit Tyrek Tisdale-“I want to see how much the offense improves from last year to this year. What will they show?”
Florida Gators offensive line commit Stone Forsythe-I know they will improve a lot because with that coaching staff there is no way they can’t improve. so I know they show improvement and with that improvement the better record will come along.”
Miami Hurricanes commit Josh Uche-“I want to see their record this year more than improvement.”
After Gator Country asked this question to the players we followed it up by asking what their expectations were for the 2015 season for the Florida Gators.
Here are some of the predictions we got from prospects.
Offensive tackle Marcus Tatum-“I think they will have a good year! I expect them to prove a lot of people wrong this year.”
Florida Gators athlete commit Tyrek Tisdale-“I predict us to do well and win at least eight games. I feel Coach Mac is going to turn it around.”
Florida receiver commit Isaiah Johnson-“I’m going to say they go 9-4.”
Florida Gators quarterback commit Kyle Trask-“I definitely think they will do better this year than last year because of Coach Mac.”
Defensive tackle Antwuan Jackson-“I think Florida is going to be hard to beat this year.”
Florida Gators running back commit Mark Thompson-I don’t have any expectations or predictions for the family but to just win games and get better as a unit offensively and defensively. I predict them causing havoc in the SEC and opening eyes to the doubters on any given Saturday.”
2017 offensive lineman Kai-Leon Herbert-“I expect nothing but great things from Coach Mac and his staff.”
2017 WR commit Daquon Green-“My expectations are very high and I know the Gators are going to go far this year.”
2017 cornerback William Poole-“I expect them to have the best secondary in the nation of all aspects and as a team overall they went 7-5 last year and this year I expect them to be in that double digit wins category.”