Late Signees Save Florida Gators' National Signing Day

While it wasn’t the absolute worst case scenario for the Florida Gators on National Signing Day, it was still not as good as it could have been. Florida was able to reel in a couple of “big fish” to finish off their 2015 recruiting class, making up for a couple of losses earlier on signing day.

Florida’s big get for the day was offensive lineman Martez Ivey (Apopka, Fla.) who picked the Gators over the Auburn Tigers. Ivey is rated as the number one offensive lineman in the country by Rivals.com.

The Gators also added defensive lineman CeCe Jefferson (Glen St. Mary, Fla.) on Wednesday afternoon. The five-star standout should play right away for head coach Jim McElwain and the Gators.

The day didn’t start out well for Florida as the Gators saw several recruits pick other schools. Worse yet, the Gators lost a couple of those big names to their former coach, Will Muschamp, now the defensive coordinator at Auburn. Muschamp, along with Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn, earned commitments from wide receiver Ryan Davis and linebacker Jeffery Holland, two players from the Sunshine State who got away from the Gators.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Florida lost out on the biggest prize of them all. The nation’s top recruit, according to Rivals.com, is defensive end Byron Cowart and he committed to Auburn on Wednesday, breaking the hearts of Gator fans everywhere. Cowart will be an impact player immediately and he could have helped the Florida defense.

Rivals.com ranks Florida’s recruiting class 23rd overall in the country and 11th in the SEC. That’s not where Florida needs to be if they want to compete in the SEC East each season.

McElwain has lost some of his initial momentum with his recruiting class. He needs to build on this class and hope that he has found some hidden starts in some of the many three-star players he has signed.

If not for the late additions of Ivey and Jefferson, this day could have been a disaster for Florida. Now, Gator fans can start looking ahead to spring practice.

Tim Letcher is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimLetcher , on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.