If you read the internet tea leaves, Florida's 2017 recruiting class was supposed to be a dud.

Some around the program worried heading into the recruiting home stretch that Jim McElwain's third class would look more like a transitional group than one headed by a guy who's been at an elite school for two-plus years and held two divisional titles. The class plummeted in all recruiting services after a devastating decommitment from ESPN 300 cornerback Elijah Blades. ESPN 300 tackle Kai-Leon Herbert went from Gator lean to Miami commit. Top prospects were visiting Gainesville, but few were biting.

Elite players were supposedly lacking, and as in-conference foes like Alabama, LSU and, more importantly, Georgia prepared for a signing day ushering in fantastic, talent-rich classes, Florida appeared to be scrambling to put some sort of pleasant bow on its own recruiting class.

But as Wednesday's festivities continued around the country, more and more attention descended on Gainesville and the Gators' then-20th-ranked class as the names of guys not previously committed started popping up.

There was two-way ESPN 300 lineman Tedarrell Slaton. ESPN 300 athlete Christopher Henderson flipped to Florida from Miami. Top defensive back target Brian Edwards spurned the Canes for the Gators.

Top-rated wide receiver James Robinson IV was a surprising late addition considering it looked like he'd be left out of this class after he was cited for marijuana possession on his official visit to Ohio State. But McElwain met with school administrators to discuss Robinson's situation, and Robinson was cleared. So was ESPN 300 running back Adarius Lemons, whose off-field issues almost cost him his Florida spot.

Really, momentum was already building with this class. The night before, defensive tackle Elijah Conliffe, a top target, committed. Days earlier, Nick Smith, Donovan Stiner and ESPN 300 safety Brad Stewart all pledged to the Gators.

All in all, 10 of Florida's 23 signees committed in the last five days, thrusting Florida up seven rankings spots to No. 13 and giving a once-doomed class a major spark that McElwain can take into the offseason and the next recruiting cycle.

"I can't tell you how excited [I am] for the day, how excited we are as a program, how happy I am for the guys who chose to be Gators," McElwain said. "... Things are still trending so fastly upward, I can't believe it. We're getting there with the facilities, which has been a huge asset for us as we continue to move forward collecting future Gators.

"The class itself, as we looked at it when we got here, one of the key areas we needed to do was to make sure we took care of areas that we felt were always big to the Gators. We started those inroads in that Tampa area. We spread throughout the state. We focused on the fact that we got a number of guys that were highly rated in the state of Florida, and those numbers will continue to rise as we move forward. That's something that's exciting."

The first part of that deals with signing 10 members of the ESPN 300, hitting hard the must-need areas of defensive line (four players, including two ESPN 300 members) and the secondary (six players, including four ESPN 300 members), and getting some nice offensive pieces for the future. The second part is about this staff making up a lot of ground in the state of Florida after falling short in McElwain's first two classes.

After signing nine of the state's top 100 players in 2015 and eight in 2016, Florida grabbed 12, including 11 of the top 60 players in the Sunshine State, in 2017 -- both numbers better than in-state rivals Florida State and Miami.

As one SEC assistant told me a week before national signing day, "They’ve gotta recruit the state of the Florida [better]." Well, this was certainly better.

"We've been able to get around to some other areas because of that Gator brand and open a lot of doors," McElwain said. "But we've got to continue now. We've got to continue to go. ... We're going to continue to keep pounding that footprint."

Now, this class wasn't without some hiccups. Losing Blades to Nebraska was rough, and some would argue that the elite talent needed to climb to the stature Florida State is currently at -- and Florida used to be at -- or truly compete with Alabama is still lacking. McElwain had his best in-state grabs but failed to sign a player ranked in the top 10 of the state, while Alabama and Ohio State each nabbed three.

Earlier in the day, Kirby Smart gushed over Georgia's third-ranked class that featured 18 ESPN 300 members and four five-star prospects. Florida State closed with the No. 4 class and 12 ESPN 300 members.

Florida still has recruiting ground to make up with those schools, but closing with guys like Slaton, Robinson, Henderson and Stewart is a step in the right direction.

You might not always like McElwain's process and approach, but Wednesday showed that like his past two Florida teams, he does well when doubted.

"I don't know, for whatever reason, we found ways to stay alive, be pretty successful, do a lot of really good things," McElwain said.