Does Florida Produce the Best Football Players in the Nation?

And the debate continues – which state produces the best high school football talent?  The most obvious candidates are: Texas, Florida, California, Ohio and Louisiana.

However, there seems to be a new leader – Georgia.  That’s right.  Miami has jumped on the Georgian express and have been successful in snagging some recruits out of Georgia.  With Golden at the helm, expect to see a lot more.  While almost all of the current  Hurricanes are from the home state of Florida, Tyrone Cornelius, Eddie Johnson, Raphael Kirby, Taylor Gadbois, Jontavious Carter and Shayon Green all come from the peach state.

According to rivals.com, in 2011 Georgia had the best high school football in the country beating out Texas, Florida, Louisiana and California.  Hard to believe, huh?

Georgia is “always a top 10 state for high school football, but the overall quality this year (2011) pushed it to the top spot.  The top 25 teams in Georgia could compete and represent well across every state and it is not concentrated to its highest level.  The Georgia class AAAAA playoffs may be as tough to win as any in the nation this year and its next two classifications will have some major wars.  This is still a defense-first state, but it has some offensive explosiveness to compliment its growing list of athletes.”

Note that this list in based on the number of high school teams a state had ranked in the Top 100.  This article takes into consideration depth, as well as talent.  So, based on the quality of athletes and not the quantity of D-1 athletes that a state may breed, Georgia produced the best high school football in 2011.

In regards to Texas, it was noted that last year their crop of football players was not as talented as years prior.  Don’t get me wrong, to be ranked number 2 in the nation is still pretty good.

Florida was listed as number 3 because their teams fared fairly when facing out-of-state competition.  “Like Texas, it [Florida] is building major quality within its quantity.”  However, “Florida is likely to never lose its place inside the first tier of high school football.”  South Florida has always been considered a Mecca when it comes to talented athletes and it is nice to see Golden making the state of Miami his top priority.  Florida is known for its speed and we have seen plenty of that through the years at the U.

Louisiana had a fantastic high school football season in 2011 and quality football was being played.  “The top 15 in Louisiana are are as good as any in the of the states ahead of it…Louisiana will always have athletes to stock the shelves and a Top 10 state placement should be expected every year.”  Jacoby Briscoe is the lone player from Louisiana currently listed on the Hurricanes roster.

California has the advantage when it comes to size, however as we males know, size isn’t everything.  “The state has the advantage of raw numbers…but from early points in the season there wasn’t any school worthy of a national title discussion.”  Some current Hurricanes from California: Vaughn Telemaque, Dalton Botts, Matt Goudis, Ricky Carroll, Jordan Tolson, Sean McNally, Asante Cleveland and Kelvin Cain.

If we are to talk national titles, according to stak.com., Ohio ranks first with 25 titles, followed by California (16), Texas (15), Florida (13) and Georgia (10).

The state with the most Heisman Trophy Winners goes to California with 14, followed by Ohio (9), Pennsylvania and Texas (6).   Florida has had two Heisman winners up to now.

Finally, do you ever wonder which states have put the most pro football players in the Hall of Fame?  Fear no more.  Pennsylvania comes in first with 29, followed by Texas (28), Ohio (23) and California and Illinois both have 17.

Nevertheless, it’s hard to tell a Floridian or a Texan that their state does not produce the best high school footballers.  High school football is not just a sport in these southern states, but a religion.  Besides, if you live in a small town, in say Texas, what else is there to do besides play football.  Even I say that Florida has the best athletes.

But when talking about sheer quality of high school football, according to Rivals, Georgia takes the cake.