Gator Football: The Orange and Blue Game is about Recruiting and a Day of Reckoning

Spring 2023 - photo credit Chris Spears

As spring football games go, tomorrow’s Orange and Blue Game isn’t a whole lot different than dozens of others in years past. Billy Napier will try to give the fans at The Swamp a good show while hoping nobody gets hurt. He will also be praying for a large and rowdy turnout so that however many hundred recruits in attendance will leave Gainesville with a serious case of the warm and fuzzies about the Florida Gators.

Let’s not fool ourselves here. We may see a few athletic plays that lead us to believe whoever made them can be difference makers in the fall, but this game has nothing to do with the players other than keeping them healthy. Napier and his coaching staff have spent the last month watching them perform on the practice field so they know everything they need to know. Besides that, how much can you really learn in one more practice – that’s what the spring game is after all – than you knew a few days ago?

The football game is merely a magnet for fans and in turn a magnet that draws some of the top recruits from the state of Florida to The Swamp. The hope Napier has is that the fans will be enthused enough that it will spill over to the recruit benches in the south end zone of The Swamp. It is there that the importance of the Orange and Blue Game is on full display. If the game does its part by exciting fans there is a reasonably good possibility that some of the recruits will get excited, also.

There was a time when spring football games were rather competitive. The spring game in 1969 didn’t draw a huge crowd, but the game offered those in attendance a sneak peek of what would happen when John Reaves and Carlos Alvarez hooked up in the fall. Just 17 years ago, Urban Meyer offered the incentive of the winning team eating steak and the losing team eating beanie-weenie and hot dogs. Maybe similar incentives are in place now, but it’s highly doubtful.

It's a glorified scrimmage the fans will see complete with a running clock. Get the players on and off the field so that the real work of the weekend can begin, which is recruiting. Napier already knows who has and who hasn’t had a good spring, which, in turn, gives him a fairly good idea how many of the players who dress out Saturday will be back to practice in August. That also tells him what positions need a little help, help that can only be found this time of the year in the transfer portal, which will be open for business in a few days.

Currently, the Florida roster is at or near the 85-scholarship limit. In a perfect world, Napier would feel perfectly content that he has all the players he needs to win games in the fall. Well, this isn’t a perfect world so there is going to be attrition.

This is the not so nice aspect of the game that every head coach has to deal with, particularly now that players can enter the portal and transfer without the need to sit a year. Most players who have been struggling in the spring won't have to be told that they have the proverbial snowball’s chance of getting on the field in the fall so they’re already making preparations to find out where the grass is actually greener than it is in Gainesville. Others will have that conversation with the head coach in which they are told if they really are interested in playing college football they need to find a new place to play football. That also means telling parents their kid either isn’t good enough or simply doesn’t fit into the plans for the future.

Meanwhile, Napier has an entire department devoted to the transfer portal. They will have their wish lists from the coaches so that the moment the portal flips the switch on the open for business sign, they will be searching for just the right player to fill a void on the roster. The portal is only going to be open for 15 days so they have to move in a hurry. Because it’s spring, it will be imperative to find kids who can pick up a system quickly and fit in without the need of a spring to learn the system.

First and foremost, this is a recruiting weekend so once the game is over, Napier and his coaches will be busy dealing with the high school kids. For some of the recruits, the impression they get after the game will determine if they camp at UF in June. For others, they will decide to be a fading, disappearing blip on Florida’s recruiting radar.

For everyone else, perhaps the best way to describe Saturday is a day of reckoning. For some walk-ons, this might be their one and only chance to play in The Swamp before a few thousand people. Some of them will decide they’ve lived enough of the dream for one lifetime and go back to being a civilian instead of a football player. For players who see a fall spent grinding away on the scout team, this might be their last chance to play in a football game at the University of Florida because the moment the portal opens, they’ll be outta here. For others, the taste they get of Florida football will be addictive and they’ll let Napier know he can hold their spot on the scout team for August.

Once Monday arrives, Napier and the coaching staff will hold meetings behind closed doors to have honest conversations that include just how confident they are that they have 95 percent or more of the pieces in place to have a winning football season in the fall. That conversation will include which players factor in the plans for the 2024 season, which players are worth the time and effort to develop, and which players will be told thank you for your contributions but someone else is going to be taking over that locker and the zero gravity chair that comes with it in maybe just a month.

What resembles a football game Saturday is essentially a façade. It’s a huge recruiting opportunity and a business weekend for the Florida coaches and players cleverly disguised as football. A real game would be much more fun, but don’t hold your breath thinking something like that will happen any time soon. It doesn’t mean you can’t have a fun day at BHG soaking up rays and getting your first look at DJ Lagway, the face of Florida football in the future, but understand what the weekend is really all about.

One last thought. There will be writers from all sorts of publications who will view the spring game as a hint of things to come for Billy Napier. Far too many write that Napier’s seat is warm and toasty. If the offense dominates the Orange and Blue, they’ll write that the offense should be improved with Graham Mertz in his second year as the starting quarterback, but the defense sucks again and its inability to get stops will send Napier packing. If DJ Lagway looks the part of the stud recruit, they’ll be predicting just how many games into the 2024 season before he takes the reins from Mertz and rescues Napier. If the defense dominates, they’ll write that it’s past time for Billy Napier to quit calling the plays, that he’s doomed to fail until he brings in a stud of an offensive coordinator.

Essentially, there isn’t much Napier can do that will satisfy his critics, of which there are many, but you might want to take this into consideration. Billy Napier isn’t going anywhere. His seat isn’t hot. Now if he has a bad season in 2024, then 2025 will be his mandate year, but the powers that be want Napier to be successful and they’re giving him the resources and time to make it happen.

UF BASKETBALL: A big recruiting weekend for Todd Golden, too

Three prospects from the portal and a high school de-commit from Florida Atlantic will be taking visits to Florida this weekend. Big man Sam Alexis (from Chattanooga) and scoring guard Alijah Martin (from FAU) will be on campus starting today along with high school point Lorenzo Cason. Monday, the Gators are expecting an official visit from Washington State big man Reuben Chinyelu.

Some of UF targets in the portal

Big guys

Sam Alexis, Chattanooga (6-9, 240, SO): He’s an Apopka kid who has put on 50 pounds of muscle since his high school days. He averaged 10.9 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game at Chattanooga last season while making the All-Defensive team in the Southern Conference. Nobody should be shocked if he commits to the Gators this weekend.

Reuben Chinyelu, Washington State (6-11, 245, FR): The Gators pushed hard to get him last year, but he signed with Washington State and one of Golden’s mentors, Kyle Smith. Smith is off to Stanford and Chinyelu is in the portal. He needs to work on his offense, but he’s a deluxe rim protector. As a freshman at Wazzoo, he averaged 4.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game. Tremendous upside. He should be in Gainesville next week.

Amari Williams, Drexel (6-10, 227, SR): He has a similar game to Tyrese Samuel offensively and might be a bit more of a rim protector on the defensive end. At Drexel last season he averaged 12.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. He will take visits to other places prior to UF and has his toes dangling in the NBA Draft waters but is likely to play another year of college basketball.

Oumar Ballo, Arizona (7-0, 260, SR): This would be a real coup for the Gators. Ballo averaged 12.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks while starting 36 games for an Arizona team that spent the year ranked in the top ten. His recruiting visits will be Kansas State, Louisville, Indiana, North Carolina and Florida. A portal one and done.

Myles Foster, Illinois (6-7, 230, JR): There hasn’t been much news about Foster since he said Florida was one of the programs he had been in touch with. He’s a banger who averaged 12.4 points and 8.1 rebounds for an Illinois team that made it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Aaron Bradshaw, Kentucky (7-0, 226, FR): He decommitted Kentucky prior to John Calipari leaving which tells us one of two things: (1) Either he wanted a fresh start for a new coach or (2) he wasn’t going to put off what he needed to do now. Bradshaw has been in touch with the Gators. He has three years of eligibility remaining and his skill set says he would be a good fit.

Guards/wings

Koren Johnson, Washington (6-2, 175, SO): He had Florida in his top six teams but Joe Tipton of On3 says he is considering other schools. Averaged 11.1 points, 2.2 rebounds and  2.7 assists while shooting 37.3 percent on 3-pointers.

Frankie Collins, Arizona State (6-1, 185, JR): He was on the Pac-12 all-defensive team in a season in which he averaged 13.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists. His wish list includes TCU, San Diego State, SMU, California and the Gators.

Alijah Martin, Florida Atlantic (6-2, 185, JR): Per Jacob Rudner of the Florida 247 site, Martin will be in Gainesville today through Sunday. He scored 1,476 points in his career at FAU, averaging 13.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists last season.

High school target

Lorenzo Cason (6-3, 190, Lakeland, FL Victory Christian): He was committed to Florida Atlantic, but Dusty May left to become the head coach at Michigan, so Cason opened up his recruitment. As a senior, Cason averaged 24.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.4 assists per game. As a junior he had high scoring games of 57 and 45 points, averaging 27.6 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game. Cason is on campus this weekend.