Some people have been taking the bad recruiting news very, very poorly lately and I wanted to get some perspective on just how bad it is. What I did was take hammersuit's most recent mock class, put it in the 247 class calculator, removed Henderson, Blades, and Herbert, and then started playing around to see where we would have landed the past 3 years. Here's what I found:

Just taking his mock class and removing those three, we would have a finish of 255.57, good for 13th, 14th, and 14th over '14, '15, and '16.

Taking out Ray and Slaton and we're good for 20th, 20th, and 21st.

Then take out Robinson and Stewart and we're good for 25th, 24th, 23rd.

At this point I've added 0 players, which means we have a class of just 18 guys. It's really unlikely that we both miss on all of the above AND get no replacements for them. This is just our current commits/enrollees, plus Conliffe, the Gaddys, and Nick Smith. And we're STILL in the top 25.

Yes, I know, top 25 isn't good. We want and need better than that. But I've seen multiple people say we'll be lucky to be in the top 30 (and one dude mention top 50!). That's just really hyperbolic.

Now lets add a couple dudes in. We just offered and are getting a visit from Abdule Abadi, who has very few offers, so I think we're likely to get him. Lemons sounds like there is good news there, and if he can get in I think he's a definite Gator. We're also in the running for Levi Jones. That puts us at 230.89, good for 22nd, 21st, and 23rd.

Add Brad Stewart back in and we're at 237.16, good for 20th, 19th, and 21st. So that's a second situation that puts us just inside or around the top 20 (in addition to the above situation with just Ray and Slaton taken out). This feels like a reasonable but disappointing class. It's 20-22 guys, so that gives wiggle room for other situations where we miss on some of the above but get other guys or multiple lower-ranked guys, so I think it's totally doable.

Again, I don't think that be ranked around 20th is very good. I'd be a little disappointed. But it isn't 30th. It isn't outside the top 25. It isn't outside the top 50. I hope people can get a little perspective about our likely finish. It might not be as high as we want, but it's unlikely to be as low as some people are saying.