So, I decided to look back through UCF's recruiting classes to try to see how consistent the improvement had been. So I went back through every class since O'Leary's last season, to see what improvement there was. All numbers are from 247:
2015 Class - last full O'leary class:
Total recruits: 19
Average Rating: .8355
Total recruits .85 or above - 4 (Brandon Scott, Luke Hiers, Rashard Causey, Tristan Payton)
Consensus 4 stars - Tristan Payton(.9063)
2016 Class - first partial Frost class:
Total Recruits: 21
Average Rating: .8262
Total recruits .85 or above - 3 (Jordan Johnson, Aaron Dowdell, Dredrick Snelson)
Consensus 4 stars - 0
2017 Class - first full Frost class:
Total Recruits: 25
Average Rating: .8336
Total recruits .85 or above - 6 (Gabriel Luyanda, Sterling Jones, Marlon Williams, Bentavious Thompson, Emmanuel Greene, Cordarrian Richardson)
Consensus 4 stars - Cordarrian Richardson(.9332)
2018 Class - partial Frost, partial Heupel class:
Total Recruits: 25
Average Rating: .8364
Total recruits .85 or above - 5 (Kenny Turnier, Jermaine McMillan, Randy Charlton, Eric Gilyard, Kevin Ahmad)
Consensus 4 stars - 0
2019 Class - first full Heupel class:
Total Recruits: 22
Average Rating: .8424
Total recruits .85 or above - 8 (Jarrad Baker, Raymond Cutts, Adrian Medley, Dillon Gabriel, Damarius Good, Dallaz Corbitt, Keenan Hester, Tre'mon Morris-Brash)
Consensus 4 stars - 0
2020 Class -
Total Recruits: 20
Average Rating: .8383
Total recruits .85 or above - 2 (Ja'Cyais Credle, Paul Rubelt)
Consensus 4 stars - 0
2021 Class - partial Heupel, partial nobody, partial Gus:
Total Recruits: 17
Average Rating: .8460
Total recruits .85 or above -7 (Brandon Adams, Ethan Mort, Jaylon Griffin, Cole Joyce, Mikey Keene, Anthony Hundley, Titus Mokio-Atimalala)
Consensus 4 stars - Titus Mokio-Atimalala(.8958)
2022 Class - First full Gus class:
Total Recruits: 15
Average Rating: .8708
Total recruits .85 or above - 12 (Miguel Maldonado, TJ Bullard, Jamaal Johnson, Tyler Griffin, Demari Henderson, Ja'cari Henderson, Jordan McDonald, Xavier Townsend, Thomas Castellanos, Keahnist Thompson, Quan Lee, Nikai Martinez)
Consensus 4 stars - Nikai Martinez(.8967)
2023 Class - Current class:
Total Recruits: 9(one not currently rated)
Average Rating: 89.49
Total recruits .85 or above - 8(Dylan Rizk, Troy Ford, Jamal Meriweather, Kaven Call, Braeden Marshall, Michael Harris, Andrew Harris, John Walker)
Consensus 4 stars - Braeden Marshall(.8908), Michael Harris(.9022), Andrew Harris(.9164), and John Walker(.9522)
So....pretty steady growth from O'Leary to Frost to Heupel for the most part, followed by a pretty hefty jump from Heupel to Malzahn.
247sports.com
