Florida given high recruiting grade

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Florida, Alabama and Texas appeared to lead the way Wednesday in the always difficult-to-gauge business of signing high school football recruits.

Wednesday was the first day high school players around the country could sign scholarship agreements with NCAA teams and although most schools come away with high praise for their work, it takes years to determine the real winners.

According to Rivals.com, Florida paced the recruiting battle with 28 signings. Four of those were players given five stars by the recruiting service.

Defensive end Ronald Powell of Moreno Valley, Calif., rated the top high school prospect in the country, signed with Florida.

The Gators suffered no obvious damage from the brief concerns that Coach Urban Meyer would not be with the team next season. Meyer originally announced he was stepping down because of health reasons, then said he was only going to take a leave of absence and finally decided to be on hand for the opening of spring training.

Alabama signed 26 players and Texas, which lost the national title game to Alabama after starting quarterback Colt McCoy was injured early in the contest, had 25. Of the Texas group, 21 were ranked at least four-star players.