Joey Johnston

The Florida Gators would like to be in the conversation next January when the BCS national championship game is held in Glendale, Ariz. For now, Coach Urban Meyer’s program is in another race for No. 1 — recruiting — and that sub-culture has a following all its own.

By most accounts, Meyer is doing all the right things to follow his 9-3 debut season that included victories against Florida’s three most heated rivals (Tennessee, Georgia, Florida State) and a bowl-game win.

Now the Gators are winning on paper. In the living rooms, across the dinner tables, perched in high-school coaching offices, on the telephone, with handshakes and hugs, through incessant text messages. The nation’s best players are not only listening to Meyer’s pitch, they are forming a massive convoy to Gainesville.

Tim Tebow of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., who already has been the subject of a one-hour nationally televised documentary, is on the short list of the best high-school quarterbacks ever produced by the state of Florida. The next pass he throws will be as a Gator. In fact, Tebow already has enrolled in Gainesville.

Carl Johnson of Durham, N.C., is a dominating 350-pound offensive lineman with terrific footwork and NFL-ready skills. He, too, already has enrolled in Gainesville.

Percy Harvin of Virginia Beach, Va., is an electrifying wide receiver and return man who reminds some of a young Deion Sanders. His high-school coach bypasses all the humdrum hyperbole and cuts to the chase. He fully anticipates Harvin winning a Heisman Trophy.

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Wednesday, Harvin made it official. He, too, signed with Florida. It’s a vintage year for prep prospects in the Tampa Bay area — a 12-fold collection of Division I-level backs and linemen — and nearly all of them are going to Florida.

Notice a trend here? Florida fans certainly do — and they are giddy.

With college football’s signing day having now passed, we should now issue a disclaimer for all the Gators worked up into lather, and all the rest who have their hopes and dreams wrapped up in the whims of 18-year-old athletes.

Proceed with caution. Extreme caution.

Go back five years to the luminaries of signing day, 2001. Or make your retreat back a full decade to the great haul of 1996. Actually, pick a season, any season.

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Some made it big. Many did not. Others moved from football to real life — more quickly than anyone could have imagined. Everyone knows these realities. But Florida fans don’t want to throw a bucket of water on their own party. It hasn’t felt this good to be a Gator since Steve Spurrier roamed the home sidelines.

Oh sure, USC got its share of prospects. Texas cleaned up (in fact, the Longhorns stole a prized quarterback commitment away from Florida). And yes, Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Penn State and Florida State (among others) showed up on the list of elite recruiting efforts.

But the Gators, with the possible exception of USC, led the all-ink team. Nobody signed 'em better or faster than those two.

Good thing.

In the heart of Florida’s fertile recruiting territory, where some 350 athletes sign football scholarships each season, the Gators can afford to be picky. But in recent seasons, following the departure of Spurrier, the talent level appeared to level off. And on a few occasions, mistakes were made.

Heading into the 2002 season, angular wide receiver Mike Williams of Tampa seemed to have his heart set on being a Gator. By then, Ron Zook’s staff was in place. Nope, Williams and his family were told. You’re too big. How about defensive end? How about safety?

Williams’ first instinct: How about USC?