Top recruit rejects IU for Florida

For the past few weeks, the question surrounding the IU football team was "Will he or won't he?" On Wednesday, the question was answered.\nJerimy Finch, the No. 1 high-school football recruit in Indiana, will not be suiting up for Hoosier coach Terry Hoeppner next season.\nInstead, the safety from Warren Central High School in Indianapolis signed a letter of intent to play for the defending national champion Florida Gators.\n"We are not going to second-guess," Hoeppner said during Wednesday's national signing day news conference, where he announced 19 members of his 2007 recruiting class. "That's (the media's) job. I wouldn't change anything we did as a staff in the last month to six weeks. We're going to continue to be the guys with the white hats on and do things the right way. If that doesn't work, I'll be disappointed in the system because we are going to recruit the right way."\nFinch, who was the top-ranked player in the state and the No. 1 safety in the nation, according to recruiting Web site Rivals.com, joined a Florida Gators recruiting class ranked by many as the best in the nation.\nFinch had originally committed to Michigan, but he changed his mind after taking a visit to Bloomington in January. But after a recent visit to Gainesville, Fla., Finch's verbal commitment to IU was up in the air.\n"Right now a commitment is a reservation," Hoeppner said Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald had told him. "They're just making a reservation with you, whether they keep it or not."\nDespite losing Finch, Hoeppner signed 19 recruits to play for the Hoosiers this fall, including 11 players on defense.\n"We're going to continue on the high road as we have done from day one," Hoeppner said about his recruiting staff. "There were opportunities to pick up a handful of mud and sling it."\nIncluded in the 2007 recruiting class for IU are three of Finch's teammates from Warren Central. Defensive back Chris Adkins, defensive end Jeff Boyd and offensive lineman Andrew McDonald all played for the Warriors, who are the four-time defending Class 5A Indiana state champions. \nThe class includes four other players from the Hoosier state as well as players from eight other states. The class includes five three-star recruits in Boyd, tight end Max Deadmond, defensive end Fred Jones, quarterback Teddy Schell and defensive end Eric Thomas. \n"It's a group that's already made friends within the class," Hoeppner said. "They got me pumped up and excited this morning talking to them."\nHoeppner was not going to focus on losing a player who had previously committed.\n"You analyze what you could have done better," he said. "But we're not going to dwell on the ones that got away"