'11 recruit DE Jeoffrey Pagan de-commits

[Escambia94]

Florida’s bad weekend got a little worse on Sunday when [Asheville (N.C.)]defensive end Jeoffrey Pagan decommitted from the Gators.

[H]e will consider Alabama, LSU, Clemson, Southern California and maybe Ohio State.

Florida’s recruiting with Pagan took another hit during the weekend when defensive line coach Dan McCarney accepted the head coaching position at North Texas.

SOURCE

I'm not saying the sky is falling, but this is a caution that this is not over yet and we need to weather some more bad news and perhaps take on some more taunting from other football fans.

Here are guys McCarney was personally responsible for in the 2011 class:

Commits
FB Hunter Joyer
WR Ja’Juan Story
CB Nick Waisome

Uncommitted
DE Anthony Chickillo (Tampa Alonso) - Miami
DT Darian Cooper (Hyattsville, Md., DeMatha)
OT Zach DeBell (Tarpon Springs) - Georgia
S Alex Dixon (Clearwater Countryside) - North Carolina

SOURCE

We may gain Anthony Chickillo due to Randy Shannon's firing. I saw on Twitter (yeah, I know...great intel...) that Meyer himself will recruit Chickillo.

This is a good sign that Meyer is going to get back to being more hands-on with the recruiting. Now, who does Meyer replace McCarney with?

 

[DRU2012]

Shoot, losing Pagan is a bad one, man--he looked to be EXACTLY the freakish DE we need--BADLY.
When you say "It's not over...", do you mean we still have a shot at him? Did we lose him BECAUSE of McCarney's leaving? Our bad year? (I have a hard time with that one--most of these kids LOVE coming in where there's no one in front of them...and it's not like we've already crashed and burned as a program! Generally I take the view, "Gotta wanna be a Gator--otherwise, f*ck 'em!", but we NEED at LEAST one potentially great DE from this recruiting class that's big enough and far enough along in his development to see the field sooner rather than later--and Pagan looked to be one of those, maybe the BEST of them.)
As for the rest, yes, Meyer actually getting out there and DOING it is a good thing--hope that extends to the nuts-and-bolts of running the offense, frankly. No way to tell for sure just by his promises and protestations in the presser and on his Sunday show (I discuss this elsewhere).
Still, I WANT to believe. So much depends on his actions, attitude and decisions, and as he himself put it, "It begins tomorrow (ie. Monday) with recruiting". But DAMN. Why'd it have to be the prize DE?!!