On the morning of July 18 Florida had the nation’s No. 62 recruiting class and certainly not much buzz regarding the program. Eight days later, as you read this article, UF is sitting at No. 11 in the 247Sports Rankings, good for No. 3 in the SEC.

Top247 offensive lineman Curtis Dunlap gave his pledge on the 18th, and two days later it was arguably America’s top tight end Kyle Pitts joining the Gators' 2018 class.

Friday Night Lights in Gainesville that weekend netted blue-chip quarterback Matt Corral, who arrived on campus favoring Georgia, along with Top247 receiver JaMarr Chase, who came in favoring TCU and LSU. In-state tight end Dante Lang also pulled the trigger on a commitment to UF after looking good in camp. Then you have safety Randy Russell and receiver Tyquan Thornton jumping in the boat out of South Florida, and the Gators go from languishing toward the bottom half of the SEC recruiting rankings to be the hottest team in America on the trail.

What has changed?

“The additions of [running backs coach] Ja’Juan Seider, [defensive backs coach] Corey Bell and another unsung hero [offensive line coach] Brad Davis, [linebackers] coach [Tim] Skipper, I think moreso this year than anything," an on-campus source explained to 247Sports. "We sat back, we really evaluated and this time before Friday Night Lights from spring evaluation through June, a lot of planning was put in place to get guys here, researching and knowing the important things to hit with the kids and parents and being very methodical."

“Mac deserves a lot of credit sitting back and looking at what works and doesn’t work and doing things sometimes he’s never done [like Gator Chomping in a pool and letting the video go on social media]. Those are things that keep the Gators on peoples’ minds. He pushed for a holistic approach, he really trusts the coaches.”

Florida has a chance to sign a really special class.

You have to like where the Gators stand moving forward with two more receivers in Top247 recruit Jacob Copeland and Anthony Schwartz, perhaps the fastest player in the 2018 class. Running backs Leddie Brown and Dameon Pierce are thinking strongly about UF. The offensive line class Davis is working on could be special, with Top247 recruits William Barnes, Nicholas Petit-Frere and Richard Gouraige being three highly-coveted prospects in the Gators' crosshairs.

Furthermore, it sounds like things are trending in the right direction with Ohio State defensive end commit Andrew Chatfield following his weekend visit, with Malcolm Lamar, Coynis Miller, Nesta Silvera, Dennis Briggs and Azeez Ojulari being priorities.

Channing Tindall and David Reese are two linebackers Florida is pushing for and their major targets in the secondary include Tyson Campbell, Gilbert Frierson and Gurvan Hall.

“It’s one thing to get them,” our Florida source said. “Now he have to hold on to them and winning will help that.”

At Big Ten media day this week Urban Meyer reiterated what many believe, that the Big Ten East is as tough a division as there is in college football.

The Buckeyes, Penn State and Michigan all finished in the Top 10 of the final 2016 Associated Press Poll, and have recruited at a rate where they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Also posted up in the Big Ten East is Michigan State, a College Football Playoff team from two years ago. After winning at least 11 games in five of the six previous seasons, Mark Dantonio’s team struggled to 3-9 last fall but still gave OSU and the Wolverines hell on respective Saturdays inside Spartan Stadium.

And there will soon be a fifth team in this league ready to go toe to toe with anyone.

The Maryland Terrapins.

No coach spent more time talking recruiting at the podium of Big Ten media day than Terrapins coach D.J. Durkin, who just plain gets it when it comes to program-building. Having the experience of working for Jim Harbaugh at Stanford – and then again as his defensive coordinator at Michigan – Durkin helped mold two different programs into a contender. Then there was the time spent working under Meyer in Gainesville, where Durkin certainly saw the time and energy needed to be put into recruiting.

Coaches talk all the time about recruiting being the lifeblood of their program but for many it’s just coach speak. Durkin is living it in College Park, with a staff full of grinders too.

“We make no mistake about it, in our program we work on recruiting every single day,” Durkin said. “There's not a day where we're not doing something to help recruiting in some aspect.

“I mean that's what it's all about. If you want to win at a high level, you've got to have great players. That's who wins the games, the players do.”

Last year was Durkin and company’s first full year on the recruiting trail and they ended up signing 247Sports’s No. 18 class. They’re pushing for a second-straight top 25 class this cycle, currently sitting at No. 20. Durkin doubled the win total last fall in his first season (6-7) in leading his program to a bowl game. A tough schedule this fall could see the Terps take a slight step back, but two years from now, as the new staff’s players and culture continue to be ingrained in the program, this will be a team that will have the size, length and speed to be a perennial top-25 squad.

Aiding in the recruiting efforts are the new Cole Field House, roughly a 150-million dollar project currently being built as the Terrapins facilities will soon be on par with the college football heavyweights along with things like the close relationship with Under Amour. But at the end of the day recruiting still comes down to the good, old fashion hard work of evaluating and then courting the top targets.

“So all those things together I think really allows us, puts us in a really good spot to recruit at a very high level, which is what I think is great about and unique about this job,” Durkin said. “That's where I feel we can really put ourselves on the map with anyone.”

Perhaps most importantly, Durkin has his staff and players on the same page when it comes to recruiting.

“Our players are a big part of it,” Durkin said. “When guys come and they're hosting them, and that's a really big part of that visit, that a recruit feels comfortable with the team and gets along with the guys. And our guys, we talked about that and teach them and really work at it, because that's a big part of it.”

Wisconsin Coach Paul Chryst has won 21 football games in his first two seasons at Wisconsin, including 11 last season where the Badgers played more top-10 football teams than any other school in America. This fall the Badgers will have a chance to improve on the win total yet again.

Looking at Wisconsin’s schedule, there is a strong chance they could be favored in every game going in with an opportunity to be 12-0 going into the Big Ten championship game. The Badgers' biggest non-conference test comes from BYU, the toughest road game in league play comes at Nebraska, they miss Ohio State and Penn State altogether, and Michigan comes to Madison.

So how does a school that never finishes in the top 10 of the 247Sports Recruiting Rankings become one of the true outliers in college football?

It starts with athletic director Barry Alvarez, who won 119 games in 16 seasons at the helm of the football program before hiring the next three coaches in Bret Bielema, Gary Andersen and, now, Chryst. The culture and environment seems to begin with Alvarez and those coaches obviously have the philosophies he was looking for.

In turn, the players Wisconsin has recruited fit the mold as well. That’s very important to Chryst, who has this football team in position to have the most historic season in school history. Only once has a Wisconsin team won 12 games, Bielema’s first season in 2006.

“I think that's the key to recruiting is finding kids that certainly athletically, but academically, socially, you know, personality, all that, that fit Wisconsin, and that's where it can kind of go in different space.” Chryst said. “But really in the end it's about individuals and them finding the right fit and for us the right fit at Wisconsin.”

Other notable sound bites from Big Ten media day include Purdue’s Jeff Brohm, Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald and Illinois’s Lovie Smith.

“I think, for us, recruiting has gone very well, it's actually gone better than I thought at this point,” Brohm said. The Boilermakers have 19 commits, all coming since the start of June. “We've had to slow the process down. I think there are a lot of things to sell for Purdue football. I do understand that we have a great academic reputation. I think that the university has definitely laid the ground work down to invest in the program.”

Brohm replaced a head coach in Darrell Hazell who didn’t seem to take much interest in recruiting, and it showed as the Boilers finished last in the 247Sports Big Ten Recruiting Rankings every year he was in town (three years in a row). He arrives at a time where the Boilermakers administration is investing in the program.

“We have the new $65 million practice facility that will be done at the end of August. That will be fantastic and a tremendous asset for us. I think our recruits and our players are looking forward to that. And we're in a great conference against great competition, with the ability for guys to come in and play early. And I think we have to make sure we sell that. If you want an opportunity to play against the very best and to get a chance to do it early in your career, I think we can provide that for you at Purdue.”

The Boilers have the nation’s No. 44 recruiting class right now, with many of their commits holding Power 5 offers from other schools. Previous classes were filled with low-hanging fruit hoping for a major program to gobble them up.

“We've got to make sure that the product we put on the field is better this year, yes,” Brohm said. “So that's going to be the number one priority once we get things going, so that we are able to keep our recruits and continue to improve.”

Northwestern is also benefitting from a facilities upgrade that among other things has the Wildcats practice field sitting right on Lake Michigan.

“You can look up on blog sites (thanks Pat), right now I'm not allowed to talk about it, but you can see where the recruiting is at. It's at an all-time high.”

Northwestern’s class ranks No. 30 nationally and this fall they are probably the biggest threat to Wisconsin in the Big Ten West.

“Young men want to play for a winner, want to get a great education and be prepared for life. And, quite frankly, they want to see commitment from universities and fans that they're going to support your program and the experience.

“This is for our program, from the standpoint of university support, one of the last few pieces of the puzzle we really need. We're far from the finished product in Evanston, and now to have the Walter Athletic Complex and Ryan Field and Hutcheson Field and Wilson Field and the indoor all the great facilities we're about to have give us a chance to compete for a recruit maybe we never had an opportunity to get.”

As Smith and his staff continue to get acclimated to the daily rigors of recruiting on the trail he feels the Illini administration is investing as well.

“And right now, of course, when you don't have a lot of players right now that are just coming to our place based on facilities, but we feel like we're evening up that playing field an awful lot,” the second-year coach said. “And what we're talking about, meeting rooms, the latest and greatest in technology, new weight facility, you know, all of these things, when you have the latest and the greatest, that has to be a positive, maybe mentally in the players' eyes a little bit, but for us we know we have an awful lot to offer the University of Illinois.”