Napier stays hot on the recruiting trail, landing huge 4-star tight end

Billy Napier has landed 17 class of 2026 commitments just since June 1 (Photo by Chris Spears)

A few thoughts to jump start your Sunday morning:

Billy Napier’s hot streak continued Saturday when he landed a commitment from gigantic tight end Heze Kent (6-6, 320, Brunswick, GA). He’s a 4-star whom the Gators won over despite best efforts from Miami, Florida State and Texas among others.

The size would seem to tell you Kent will shift to offensive or defensive tackle once he suits up in a college uniform. The stats might suggest otherwise. Kent caught 41 passes for 983 yards and eight touchdowns last year. Not many tight ends no matter the size average 23.97 yards per catch.

Kent is Florida’s 18^th commitment for the recruiting class of 2026. He is the 17^th Napier has landed since June 1. Combined with the addition Friday of 4-star edge rusher KJ Ford (6-3, 245, Duncanville, TX), Napier and the Gators have moved up to No. 12 at the On3.com composite. The Gators are No. 14 at 247Sports. Florida has 13  4-star recruits and five 3-stars.

The Gators could be landing commitments from a pair of 4-star receivers in the days ahead. The Gators are the leaders to haul in Davian Groce (6-1, 190, Frisco, TX Lone Star) and Somourian Wingo (6-2, 180, St. Augustine, FL). Among the teams the Gators are battling for Groce are Baylor (assistant coach Dallas Baker), Oklahoma and Houston. For Wingo, the Gators’ chief competition comes from South Carolina, Miami and Alabama.

4-star recruits: CB CJ Bronaugh (6-1, 170, Windermere, FL); DL Kendall Guervil (6-5, 315, Fort Myers, FL); DE KJ Ford (6-3, 245, Duncanville, TX); TE Heze Kent (6-6, 320, Brunswick, GA); WR Marquez Daniel (6-5, 200, Tuskegee, AL Booker T. Washington); WR Justin Williams (5-11, 190, Gainesville, FL Buchholz); LB Malik Morris (6-1, 230, Lakeland, FL); QB Will Griffin (6-3, 230, Tampa, FL Jesuit); DL JaReylan McCoy (6-6, 250, Tupelo, MS); RB Carsyn Baker (6-1, 200, Fairburn, GA Langston Hughes); S Kaiden Hall (6-3, 200, Milton, FL); CB CJ Hester (6-1, 175, Cocoa, FL); OT Chancellor Campbell (6-8, 310, St. Petersburg, FL Lakewood)

3-star recruits: OG Desmond Green (6-5, 350, Saint Stephen, SC Timberland); OG G’Nivre Carr (6-4, 325, Ocala, FL/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy); OT Tyler Chukuyem (6-6, 295, Douglasville, GA South Paulding); TE Kekua Aumuna (6-6, 257, Kahuku, HI/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy); OT Javarii Luckas (6-5, 305, Belle Glade, FL)

THE SWAMP RATED TOUGHEST SEC STADIUM BY USA TODAY

The rankings and my conclusions.

1. FLORIDA Ben Hill Griffin Stadium: When The Swamp is rocking there is not a louder place to play in America. All last year, but especially at the end against LSU and Ole Miss, we had a revival of the old time Swamp when it was the most feared place to play anywhere in America. Adding Tom Petty after “We Are the Boys” was a stroke of genius. Even visiting fans sing along. The “Only Gators Get Out Alive” video when UF takes the field is classic.

2. LSU Tiger Stadium: Night games are a beast. Day games not so much. When it is a big game at night, the fans will start rolling into Baton Rouge on Wednesday night, Thursday midday at the latest. Then the drinking starts. When they stop drinking and go to bed (or pass out) Friday night, they have time to get roaring drunk again (and mean) before the game. Day games, especially nooners, don’t get near the same reaction. A night game with greased fans can scare the bejabbers out of opponents when the truck that hauls the live Tiger around the stadium makes its entrance.

3. TENNESSEE Neyland Stadium: Vol fans can be so fickle. When they’re good this place is incredibly loud and you have to endure hearing Rocky Top played what seems to be a thousand times. The only people who like that song are UT fans. Everybody else hates it. When the Vols are average or below, the place can be a tomb midway through the third quarter. The Tennessee T when the Vols take the field a couple of minutes before kickoff is one of the SEC’s great traditions.

4. ALABAMA Bryant-Denny Stadium: When they crank up “Sweet Home Alabama” the place is a zoo. When “Dixieland Delight” is played people froth at the mouth. Because it’s Alabama and because they’ve won a zillion national championships there is a feeling of entitlement among the fans. They were in shock a year ago when the Tide lost four games, most in a season since 2007.

5. GEORGIA Sanford Stadium: It’s a lot like Tennessee in that it’s a loud and intimidating place to play when Georgia is really good, which is the last nine years. Georgia fans have a well deserved reputation as some of the most obnoxious in the entire country.

6. SOUTH CAROLINA Williams-Brice Stadium: “Sandstorm” turns the place into an asylum. When they play “2001” before the Gamecocks take the field, it’s one of the more impressive entrances in the country. Tailgating South Carolina fans are some of the nicest in the country. Once inside the stadium, they can get rather nasty.

7. TEXAS A&M Kyle Field: Not sure how Kyle Field got ranked this high. Sure, it’s the largest stadium in the SEC and the fans can make the stands feel like they’re about to fall apart when the Aggies get on a roll, but yell leaders with those funky hand signals instead of cheerleaders with bare midrifts? The Aggie band at halftime should be experienced by every football fan before he/she croaks. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to figure out what “Hullabaloo caneck caneck” means or how/why they lock arms and scream “Chig-gar-roo-garem! Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem”during the Aggie War Hymn.

8. AUBURN Jordan-Hare Stadium: Should be ranked above Georgia. When the Eagle circles the stadium their fans go nuts and they stay loud from bell to bell. Auburn fans are polite and they do know their football. They save their energy for screaming during the game. Why do they insist on wearing a tie when it’s 99 degrees in the shade? And why is Jordan pronounced Jerdon? Things I will never understand. This used to be one of the most enjoyable road trips for Florida and Auburn fans until the SEC put an end to the rivalry with expansion.

9. OKLAHOMA Gaylord Family Stadium: This place was considered intimidating back when the Sooners were in the Big 12. Well, they’re in the SEC now and their ball yard is the ninth – that might be a stretch – toughest place to play. Welcome to the big time Sooners. They had a losing record first year in the SEC and that didn’t help matters. If they win and if they see what it’s like elsewhere in the league, they might make this a tougher place to play.

10. TEXAS Darrell K. Royal Stadium: This should be a very intimidating place to play. It isn’t. Bevo is one big cow. That’s for sure. The crowd is 100,000-plus. That also for sure. The problem is the fans don’t seem to know that in the SEC the homefolks are expected to lose their minds and voices on Saturdays. They will start the season ranked No. 1 in the country. Maybe that will encourage fans to leave their inhibitions back on Sixth Street.

11. MISSOURI Faurot Field: Mizzou has been in the SEC since 2012 and this place still doesn’t have the feeling of an SEC venue. They’re in the process of upgrading the stadium, which they hope will encourage the fans to make this a place nobody wants to play. Nobody wants to go to Mizzou after November 1 because it has the worst weather in the Southeastern Conference.

12. MISSISSIPPI STATE Davis-Wade Stadium: If you’re driving in from the east you can see Davis-Wade Stadium 30 miles away. That’s how flat the countryside is in eastern Mississippi. Fans can yell and scream all they want to, but because the Bulldogs don’t win a lot of football games, nobody takes them seriously at all.  Should be ranked 14^th, at best.

13. ARKANSAS Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium: In one end zone they have this giant cage which is inhabited by the biggest boar hog you’ll ever want to see up close and personal. The hog isn’t the least bit intimidating. He’s so big that if slaughtered he could feed an entire community in rural Arkansas for about 10 days. A live hog that intimidates no one sort of tells the tale of Arkansas football. The last time the Hogs were relevant was 2006 when Houston Nutt was the coach. They’ve made the stadium larger so when Arkansas fans call the pigs, it can be deafening, but that doesn’t seem to help the team at all.

14. OLE MISS Vaught-Hemingway Stadium: Any trip to Oxford on gameday requires a stroll through The Grove where very polite people might ask you to come dine with them pregame or afterward. Ole Miss is winning now that Lane Kiffin is the head coach. If fans fear a trip to Oxford it’s because Lane’s offenses apply all sorts of pressure to opponents. The crowd yells a bit but it’s not very intimidating. It’s almost as if they have to endure the football so they can get back to The Grove and resume eating and drinking.

15. KENTUCKY Kroger Field: The biggest buzz at Kroger Field prior to mid-October is when they announce tickets on sale for Midnight Madness. This was, is and will always be a basketball first school. In one respect, it’s what keeps Mark Stoops gainfully employed. Kentucky faithful are so concerned about basketball that they don’t mind 6-6 regular seasons.

16. VANDERBILT First Bank Stadium: Give the Vandy folks credit. They’re trying to make this a tough place to play, but it’s Vandy and nobody worries that much when the Commodores lose another one. The stadium is being upgraded which will make the fan experience for visiting teams much better. They could make this the Taj Mahal of 40,000-seat stadiums and it would still be the worst venue in the Southeastern Conference. No Vandy tailgate would be complete without chardonnay, a nice selection of cheeses and a veggie tray.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT

The powers that be within the NCAA basketball ranks met last week in Savannah to discuss expansion of the tournament, the one thing the NCAA consistently gets right. Fortunately, the meetings dismissed without doing something stupid, which would be to abandon the current format in favor of one in which 72 or 76 teams would have a shot at winning the national championship.

It sounds good on paper. Inclusivity lets all the little guys have their day in the sunshine by giving them a chance to get on the same court with a team like Florida or Duke in the first round of the tournament. We all know how that works out. Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams back in the 1980s and then four play-in games were added a few years ago, only two No. 16 seeds have advanced to the second round – UMBC back in 2018 shocked Virginia and in 2023 Fairleigh Dickinson beat Purdue.

Expanding by four or eight teams will only shuffle the deck. Some teams doomed for a No. 16 seed will be bumped up a notch and won’t have the indignity of a play-in game in Dayton.

So why are they even talking about expansion? Well, there was this committee back in 2023 that suggested that NCAA tournaments in all sports should include 25 percent of all the schools in Division I that play that particular sport.

There we go again with that fabulous NCAA idea that we have to be more inclusive.

The fact is there is no need to be more inclusive. NCAA tournaments should be all about the best teams competing to win a national championship. That’s what we got this past season in basketball when Auburn, Duke, Houston and Florida met in San Antonio for as good a Final Four as we’ve had in decades. Four No. 1 seeds made it to the Alamodome because they were the four best teams in the country. When Florida beat Houston, the Gators proved on the court that they were the best.

And that’s the way it should be. Expansion will only allow CBS to add two or four more play-in games and make more money. It won’t make the tournament better.

It is probably too late to expand the tournament for 2026 but you can wager a few bucks that the NCAA will decide to expand a year from now, and who’s to stop them from making it an 80 or 96 team tournament?

Bet the ranch that Charlie Baker and the idiots in Indianapolis won’t.