Recruiting impact of Florida retaining Drew Hughes

Zach Abolverdi ZACH ABOLVERDI
SEC Country Staff

As Jim McElwain tries to rebuild Florida football into a championship program, one of his mottos is “recruit daily or die.” Join us here on SEC Country for a daily recap of the latest UF recruiting news, tales from the trail and perspective on what it all means for the Gators.

McElwain fends off Muschamp

Florida coach Jim McElwain scored another recruiting win Tuesday by retaining director of player personnel Drew Hughes.

He was offered a job by his former boss at UF, South Carolina coach Will Muschamp, but decided to remain with the Gators.

Hughes has been a huge asset for the Florida football program for three-plus years. He’s helped the Gators sign two top-10 recruiting classes as well as the nation’s No. 12 class in 2016.

More importantly, Hughes has actually been on the road recruiting for the Gators in the last three cycles when they were short on assistants and during the transition from McElwain to Muschamp.

When Muschamp was fired in 2014, the coordination and management of UF recruiting fell solely on the shoulders of Hughes. Thanks to his efforts, McElwain was able to salvage a 2015 class that was ranked 92nd nationally and finished in the top 25.

Hughes has also spearheaded Florida’s emergence in Alabama, his home state. He’s been directly involved in the recruitments of Lamical Perine, Jeremiah Moon, Jeawon Taylor and Kadarius Toney.

With those additions, the Gators have signed as many Alabama recruits in the past two years (4) as they had in the previous decade (2005-2015).

Some schools give assistant coaches the title of recruiting coordinator, but the director of player personnel is really the staff member who handles that responsibility. Hughes has shown the ability to handle thrive in his role.

He organizes Florida’s recruiting visits (both on and off campus), schedules the coaches’ weekly phone calls with prospects and manages all aspects of the support staff, from film review to social media promotion.

In a 2014 interview with team reporter Scott Carter, Hughes said his job at UF entails the following:

“Identifying the players that can come in and help us win championships, (developing) the process of doing that … and being a right-hand man to every coach on staff — because ultimately that’s what I’m here to do, to help the coaches. If I can make their jobs easier from a recruiting standpoint, that’s what I’m here to do.”
He excelled in that capacity at UCF and N.C. State, which is why Muschamp hired Hughes in December of 2013 and has tried to rehire him three times since he’s been at South Carolina.

McElwain spent four years at Alabama with Hughes when he worked for Nick Saban as a recruiting specialist. On his first day back from vacation Tuesday, McElwain was able to keep Hughes on staff and that will pay dividends moving forward.

Open season in New Orleans?

In the Class of 2017, Florida signed only its second prep prospect from Louisiana since 2001 in New Orleans 4-star cornerback Brad Stewart.

There could be more recruiting opportunities for the Gators in the future with Tuesday’s news. According to SEC Country’s LSU recruiting reporter Sam Spiegelman, high school coaches in New Orleans are considering a boycott against LSU following the firing of area recruiter Jabbar Juluke by head coach Ed Oregon.

This could the door for Skipper, a New Orleans native, to land more prospects from the talent-rich area. New Florida assistant Brad Davis is also from Louisiana (Baton Rouge) and will presumably recruit the state with Skipper.