Winning on the field provided momentum for UF recruiting

Billy Napier took a slug of afternoon coffee, a necessity after pulling an all-nighter to ensure his recruiting class remained intact despite every possible effort from Florida’s rivals to siphon off the incredible gains the Gators made in the last month. You wouldn’t go so far as to call Napier giddy and no one would have blamed him if he had broken out in an uncontrollable giggle.

He deserved this moment. He earned this moment.

A little more than a month ago, Billy was the coaching equivalent of dead man walking, which is how his recruiting class was shaping up. A few scant weeks later, Napier and the Gators have all the momentum in the world working for them. Three straight wins at the end of November, thought to be an impossibility way back in August, have the Gators poised for a Florida-Duke matchup in the Gator Bowl.

Those three straight wins have plenty to do with Napier and the Gators making up 40 places in the recruiting rankings. Florida went from 51 to 11 in a month, which is nothing short of remarkable. This is not a knock your socks off class that will be billed as generational like the one Texas A&M put together in 2021. We know how that worked out both for the Aggies and for Jimbo Fisher. What Napier put together, thanks in large part to his ability to flip 12 players who were committed elsewhere, is a class that puts more bricks in what is starting to look like a very strong foundation for the future.

Winning will do that for you.

Napier is a man of faith, who takes his spiritual foundation ever so seriously. He would most likely agree with the Biblical analogy of the wise man who built his house upon the rock. The house he’s building -- the Florida football program -- withstood two-and-a-half years of storms and it’s still standing. The Gators have gone from the team that finds creative ways to lose winnable games to the one that nobody in his right mind wants to play.

Napier spent three years preaching patience, that his formula for success would produce the wins the Gator Nation has been craving. At the same time, winning has created this magnetic force that is luring the kind of players necessary to sustain success long into the future.  

“We have work to do,” Napier said, holding onto a podium while waiting for the caffeine from the coffee to kick in. “We came here with the intent of rebuilding the place top to bottom, being a championship contender, getting back to where our team has been in the past. 

“I think we have a hungry fan base. We have an administration that's dedicated and committed. We have a number of investors who have stepped up. We've improved the player experience here.”

And now the Florida Gators are winners with a bright future that is centered around DJ Lagway, this freak of nature who brings out the best in the players who surround him. Lagway inspires teammates to dig deep and play better than they’ve ever played.

The Lagway Effect produces tangible results. As Florida’s starting quarterback the Gators are 5-1. The only loss might have been a win if not for a hamstring injury in the Georgia game. At the time Lagway left the game, Florida was leading 10-3 and looking like a team poised to walk away with a monumental upset.

The Gators have played with a different kind of energy since Lagway took the reins of the team and became a driving force. It produced wins and helped convince players that Florida is the place to be.

“I think the missing piece was the on-field brand of football, the winning formula, the execution,” Napier said. “Hey, that's a brand of football that is effective and I can develop, I can experience success. The right kind of kids, they're either up for the challenge and they show up here to do it, they want to be associated with a winner.”

Winner. It has taken three years for Napier to be able to call the Gators winners. They’ve survived numerous shootings of their own feet, an alleged coup to buy out the remaining time on Napier’s contract and a disastrous start to a season that had the Gators playing the nation’s most difficult schedule.

The Gators survived the rough start, found their sea legs and found the confidence to win even when the injury bug was taking out one key player after another. They won on the field and now they’ve won on the recruiting trail.

It cannot be overstated just how important it was for Napier to hold all 24 members of his recruiting class. While SEC rivals were sweating bullets as their committed players flipped, Napier had a perfect day.

The winning on the field carried over to recruiting.

“This is a game of momentum,” Napier said. “I think we've had momentum at times I would say in the first three years, but we've struggled to keep it, right? I think for the first time we kept it. Today is kind of another step in the right direction.”

One or two more high school recruits might be added in the next couple of days, but for the heavy lifting has already been done for the 2025 class. Now, all eyes turn to the portal, where Napier can afford to be choosy in the way he recruits.

There won’t be any wholesale shift to load up the roster with one-and-dones in the portal. The foundation will always be the high school recruits with the portal as a supplemental force. The decision of how many players the Gators will go after in the portal will, in large part, be decided by how many on the current roster they retain.

“It is fluid,” Napier said. “I mean, we certainly have certain positions that are specific, like a lot of it will be based off of player retention. You will find out as we are evaluating the pool of players that are available, we will get a pulse on who we've retained, who we've lost, paired with who we sign today. 

“Each position we kind of have a quota. We carry this number of players. We'll be hitting that quota. The portal will be the next opportunity to add a player.”

EARLY ENROLLEES

WR Vernell Brown III (5-11, 175, Orlando, FL Jones)

RB Waltez (Duke) Clark (6-1, 197, Tampa, FL Plant)

P Hayden Craig (Mercier, Quebec, Canada/Brigton, ME/Brigton Academy)

OL Tavaris (TJ) Dice (6-4, 302, College Park, GA Langston Hughes)

RB Chad Gasper Jr. (5-11, 208, Katy TX Katy Jordan)

CB Ben Hanks III (6-1, 170, Overtown, FL Booker T. Washington)

S Lagonza Hayward (6-1, 200, Lyons, GA Tooms County)

LB Ty Jackson (6-2, 205, Fort Lauderdale, FL Seminole Ridge)

TE Micah Jones (6-4, 252, Madison, MS Madison Central)

QB Tramell (TJ) Jones Jr. (6-0, 182, Jacksonvile, FL Mandarin)

DL Joseph Mbatchou (6-5, 283, Loganvile, GA Grayson)

DL Jeremiah (Zell) McCloud (6-3, 299, Sylvester, GA Lee County)

OL Jahari Medlock (6-5, 281, Atlanta, GA Charles Drew)

WR Naeshaun (Nae) Montgomery (6-2, 178, Central Falls, RI/Miami, FL Central)

PK Evan Noel (6-0, 154, Bay St. Louis, MS St. Stanislaus)

DL Stephon (Trell) Shivers (6-4, 384, Humbolt, TN Brentwood Academy)

S Drake Stubbs (6-1, 187, Jacksonville, FL Mandarin)

EDGE Jaen Wiggins (6-5, 257, Tallahassee, FL Rickards)

EDGE Jayden Woods (6-3, 229 Shawee, KS Mill Valley) 

SIGNED, ENROLL SUMMER

LB Myles Johnson (6-1, 213, Brewton, AL T.R. Miller)

RB Byron Louis (6-0, 206, Miramar, FL American Heritage)

OL Daniel Pierre-Louis (6-4, 332, Royal Palm Beach, FL Seminole Ridge)

WR Muizz Tounkara (6-3, 196, League City, TX Clear Springs)

SEC FOOTBALL: PORTAL DEPARTURES/ARRIVALS

Alabama: LB Keanu Koht (RJR); CB Jahlil Hurley (FR); WR Kobe Prentice (JR); DL Jehiem Oatis (JR)

Arkansas: WR Jaedon Wilson (RJR) to UCLA; QB Malachi Singleton (FR); TE Tyrus Washington (SO); TE Var’keyes Gumms (JR)

Auburn: DL Gage Keys (RJR); TE Grant Hidalgo (RJR); QB Holden Geriner (RSO); OG EJ Harris (SO); P Gabe Russo (FR); WR Camden Brown (JR); TE Micah Riley (SO)

FLORIDA: DE Justus Boone (RJR); OL Mike Williams (RFR); EDGE Quincy Ivory (RJR); EDGE Bryce Capers (SO); WR Andy Jean (RFR); CB Ja’Keem Jackson (SO); DL Kelby Collins (SO)

Georgia: CB Julian Humphrey (SO)

Kentucky: DL Keeshawn Silver (RJR); LS Walker Himebauch (SO); CB Avery Stuart (FR); WR Dane Key (JR); LB Jayvant Brown (SO); EDGE Tommy Ziesmer (FR); TE Khamari Anderson (SO); TE Tanner Lemaster (FR); OT Courtland Ford (SR)

LSU: WR London Ibieta (SO); QB Rickie Collins (RFR); WR CJ Daniels (RJR)

Mississippi State: QB Chris Parson (RFR); WR Creed Whittemore (SO); WR JJ Harrell (FR); CB Jayven Williams (SO) from Kennesaw State; EDGE Ty Cooper (JR); LB John Lewis (RJR); OT Makylan Pounders (JR); LB Tabias Hinton (FR)

Oklahoma: WR Jaquaize Pettaway (SO); QB Jackson Arnold (SO)

Ole Miss: S Key Lawrence (RSR)

South Carolina: LB Bangally Kamara (RSR) to Kansas; LB Mohamed Kaba (RSR); WR Tyshawn Russell (FR)

Tennessee: OG Vysen Lang (FR); RB Khalifa Keith (SO)

Texas: WR Johntay Cook II (SO)

Texas A&M: DL Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy (SO); QB Conner Weigman (RSO); WR Cyrus Allen (JR); TE Jaden Platt (FR); QB Jaylen Henderson (JR); OT Aki Ogunbiyi (JR)

Vanderbilt: LB Jeffrey Ugochukwu (JR); QB Nate Johnson (JR); EDGE BJ Diakate (JR)