Neiron Ball (6-3, 196, Jackson, Ga.)
Dominique Easley (6-3, 270, Staten Island, N.Y./Curtis)
Sharrif Floyd (6-3, 311, Philadelphia, Pa./George Washington)
Leon Orr (6-5, 344 New Port Richey/Gulf)
Ronald Powell (6-4, 250, Moreno Valley, Calif/Rancho Verde)
Lynden Trail (6-7, 220, Miami/Booker T. Washington)
Ball was technically listed as a DE-OLB, and has played both positions at Florida (as Ronald Powell has done as well).
Overall, let's consider what this group has accomplished.
– Floyd, of course, picked up All-SEC and All-American honors as a junior on his way to being selected 23rd overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2013 NFL Draft.
– With a year of eligibility remaining for both Orr and Powell, there could be a few chapters left to write on both of their careers in Gainesville. Nonetheless, both are extremely talented physically, and figure to at least here their names called at some point during one of the next two NFL Drafts.
– After overcoming a condition known as arteriovenous malformation (AVM), that Neiron Ball is even still playing for the Gators is a miracle. The fact he's become a solid contributor with plenty of still untapped potential is even more incredible.
– Finally, that brings us to Trail. The one "bust" you could label in this class for the Gators. In that sense, Trail certainly didn't live up to the lofty expectations placed on him entering Florida. A tall, lanky and extremely athletic defensive end, many (including myself) thought Trail would come to UF, hang around on the bench for a year or two as he gained weight, then provide a pass-rushing presence similar to that of former Florida star Jarvis Moss. Things never worked out in Gainesville, as Trail quickly added the weight, but was unable to make any sort of impact for the Gators. After redshirting in 2010, he only dressed for one game in 2011 (the season-opener against Florida Atlantic) before opting to pursue a transfer after the season.
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But the story doesn't end there. Trail's journey would take him to 1-AA Norfolk State, a member of the MEAC based in Norfolk, Va. There he has excelled in 15 games with the Spartans. Playing as a outside linebacker in Norfolk's 3-4 defensive scheme, Trail led the team with 70 tackles, 17.0 TFL and eight quarterback pressures, and tied for the team lead in sacks (6.0) and fumble recoveries (2) in 2012, despite the fact he only started three of 11 games during the season.
Trail is off to a solid start this fall as well. Now a full-time starter, Trail is second on the team in tackles with 22, and has added 1.5 sacks through the first three contests of the season. While things may not have worked out for the big man in Gainesville, the now 260-pound Trail appears well on his way to playing at the pro level, just like his defensive line comrades in the 2010 recruiting class for UF who have seen their success take place in The Swamp, as expected.
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What's most interesting to me about the 2010 class, is the success Florida had recruiting on the defensive line, considering the mixed bag of evaluations for the Gators at that position from 2006-09.
– In 2006, the Gators had a need for numbers, and reeled in a group that included Brandon Antwine, Jermaine Cunningham, Corey Hobbs, Lawrence Marsh, and Terron Sanders. Cunningham would excel for the Gators, while Marsh and Sanders were more than serviceable. Antwine showed flashes when he got on the field, but injuries ultimately derailed his career. Hobbs was a bust in every sense of the word, as he would eventually move to offense before disappearing from the squad altogether. The Gators made a run at a trio of linemen who would eventually sign with Penn State – Aaron Maybin, Jared Odrick and Phil Taylor – but obviously missed on all three. However, the glaring miss for Florida in 2006 would be a guy right under their noses: Geno Atkins at St. Thomas Aquinas. Atkins would go on to have a productive career at Georgia and is now considered one of the two or three best interior defensive linemen in the NFL today.
– In 2007, Florida again signed a large and highly-touted contingent of defensive linemen that included John Brown, Torrey Davis, Carlos Dunlap, Jaye Howard, Duke Lemmens and Justin Trattou. Dunlap and Howard had fine careers in Gainesville, while Trattou proved to be an extremely versatile piece of the defensive line rotation for four years. Brown and Davis, of course, were unable to stick around at Florida for too long, although Davis holds a place in most Gators fans hearts for his big fourth-down stop at the goal line against Oklahoma in the 2009 BCS Championship Game. Looking back now, the defensive tackles that UF turned away in the 2007 cycle have to make some fans sick. Local product Linval Joseph was committed to the Gators at one point, but then dropped (ultimately to free up a slot for James Wilson). Joseph went on to become a dominant force at East Carolina and was a second-round pick of the New York Giants. Ian Williams had a solid career at Notre Dame after the Gators elected to move on from his recruitment. He's now a key contributor in San Francisco (or was until he was placed on IR a week ago). There was also Cameron Heyward, who reportedly had a high level of interest in the Gators before UF elected to move on from his recruitment as well. Heyward starred at Ohio State before becoming a first-round pick of the Steelers in 2011.
– 2008 was a mess. William Green and Omar Hunter were a pair of All-Americans who never quite lived on to their billing. Earl Okine was a local project who never could really carve out a major role at Florida, despite his immense physical talent. Troy Epps was an undersized JUCO transfer who had no business ever playing for the Gators. That UF elected to pursue Epps, instead of Swanson Miller, a local product from Alachua always sort of baffled me. Miller played for Oklahoma State before moving on to spend two years with the Broncos.
– The following year, 2009, again proved to be problematic on the defensive line. Gary Brown was talented, but troubled, and lasted less than a year at Florida. The Gators then elected to reach on a pair of projects – Kedric Johnson and JUCO transfer Edwin Herbert – as they missed on many of their top targets (Ryne Giddens, Demonte McAllister and Curtis Porter, among others). That Florida couldn't close the deal on Pernell McPhee, a Pahokee product who ended up at Mississippi State and is now with the Baltimore Ravens, had to sting a bit.
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How this class even came about was a bit of a minor miracle. Of course, this group was held together in the Urban Meyer "he's going, he's staying, he's going" drama that played out in three acts over the course of 12 months from December of 2009 until December of 2010. But when Meyer first decided to stick around for what would ultimately prove to be his final season at Florida, Steve Addazio essentially ran most of the operations, although Meyer was still involved in terms of interacting with and contacting recruits.
Interestingly enough, Dominique Easley had recruited Florida harder than Florida had recruited Easley throughout most of the process. He visited Gainesville twice on his own dime – once, in the spring of 2009 for a Florida practice. His second trip was to Friday Night Lights in July. It was there that Meyer reportedly nixed Easley's inclusion in the class after eyeing him in person. One person in the Swamp that night later relayed to me that Easley had issues with a warm-up routine led by strength coach Mickey Marotti that included push-ups (this witness claimed that Easley struggled to do even 10 on that particular day, whether or not that's true I can't say for certain). In any case, Easley had come to Gainesville expecting to give his commitment to UF. Instead, as he left Florida that weekend, he and the Gators appeared to have parted ways. So Easley's recruitment carried on, and he figured to be head elsewhere for college. All the way until the morning of the 2010 Under Armour All-America Game, that is.
Oregon and Penn State had moved in as the leaders of Easley's recruitment after UF backed off. Easley made official visits to both programs, and Oregon appeared to be in the driver's seat. In covering practices the week of the Under Armour All-America Game, I hadn't even bothered to do a story with Easley, as he did not appear to be on the radar for the Gators. Then as I showed up to Tropicana Field a couple of hours before game time, an excited JC Shurburtt (then with ESPN, now the top national analyst at 247Sports) stopped me as I set down my stuff.
"Easley's going to Florida," he told me.
I was dumbfounded. The Gators hadn't even appeared to be a factor just 24 hours before, now they were going to sign a guy whose performance that week rocketed him up the charts from a borderline national top-100 caliber player to a consensus five-star stud. What had happened?
The answer was very simple: Steve Addazio. Now given the authority to make some of the personnel decisions, he authorized a late offer to Easley which the big man quickly jumped on. Addazio had been the point man on the Easley recruitment and was in his corner from the outset. He had privately relayed to people that he felt Easley was the "second coming of Dwight Freeney." While his game didn't ultimately translate to the college level the same way in which Freeney's did, the impact both can have on a game is very much similar. Addazio's projection was off, but his evaluation was right on. He saw a high-quality blue-chip prospect long before many others did.
For Floyd and Powell, it was more of a matter of building the right relationships with the right people around them. Then, it was just a matter of holding on those last few days as Meyer went back-and-forth on his future in Gainesville. Once he decided to stick around (albeit, for less than a year), all the pieces fell into place on a recruiting class that was proclaimed to be perhaps the best in school history. While some positions didn't live up to their billing, it's hard to say that Florida didn't knock it right out of the park along the defensive line back on February 3, 2010.
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