Take Two: Can UF take the lead and keep Florida players home?

CLASS OF 2020 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling an issue in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and an expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites or a regional analyst.

MORE: SEC leads way at draft | First-round grades | Possible 2020 first-round picks

Five players that played high school football in the state of Florida were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night. That has to be considered a huge positive for the state and it’s a massive opportunity for the three in-state power programs - Florida State, Florida and Miami.

In this case, though, it was a missed opportunity.

Only Brian Burns, a high four-star defensive end from Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage, stayed in-state to play his college ball as he picked Florida State over Florida, Georgia and others in his recruitment. The other four got away.

Wide receiver Marquise Brown played high school ball in Florida before heading to junior college and then Oklahoma; defensive end Nick Bosa picked Ohio State; linebacker Devin Bush picked Michigan over Florida State even though his dad played for the Seminoles; and defensive back DeAndre Baker chose Georgia over many others.

There is little doubt Florida has some of the best high school prospects in the country and there are relatively new staffs at all three in-state Power Five teams. Which one could lock up the state and keep some of those elite players home?

“For a lot of the schools, it’s wait-and-see. With Manny Diaz at Miami, it feels like they’re turning the corner and he could keep a lot of in-state kids home, a lot of the fierce, hard-nosed Miami kids that the program is looking to add back to their roster. That’s a lot of it. A lot of it is a wait-and-see approach. At Florida State, they’re doing a good job getting kids to believe in what they’re doing and they believe in coach Willie Taggart. As long as they have a good season, that will definitely help the case with Florida State.

“With Florida, out of the three, Florida is more of the sure thing with Dan Mullen already winning 10 games. There are high hopes with Diaz and what’s to come there and with Florida State, but with Florida it’s more of a sure thing. People know what to expect from Florida. For the other two, it’s more about winning games.”

“Florida has the best chance of keeping top kids home. It looked like when Mark Richt had it going with the Lorenzo Lingard class, it looked like they were going to be the team, but they fell off and had a rough season on the field. Florida State had a horrible year on the field. The funny thing about Florida, Florida State and Miami is you just don’t hear a lot of guys being called in the draft from those schools.

“Not that Florida is overwhelming the others, but Florida is the program that could change the narrative in the state.”