2022 not rebuilding year for Billy Napier’s Gators

Look, it must be hard taking over the reins of a 6-6 dumpster fire of a football team. The 2021 Florida Gators underachieved, and some may say flat out quit on the year. Those are some of the reasons that Billy Napier will be expected to compete right away in the SEC East next year.

The term “rebuilding season” is used around a lot of programs around the country. I would say that term is used with more mid-tier level programs, programs like Mississippi State and Iowa State come to mind when I hear that term. The programs that will make a push every few years and then wait for that next good class to make their push their senior season. It was how the 2020 Florida Gators made their push for winning the SEC East title. Some unexpected talented that when first recruited you wouldn’t think would have made the difference for the team.

Rebuilding is not a term the Florida Gators use much. Even after a poor season, new head coach Billy Napier should expect to have to handle the pressures of performing right away in year one. Jim McElwain took over in 2015 and led the Gators to a 10-win season and to the SEC championship game. Dan Mullen led the Gators to a 10-win season as well in his first season as head coach in Gainesville. This is not a program where a new coach can come in and go 7-5 and the fan base will look at the positive side that the team won more games than the year before and that the ship looks to be heading in the right direction.

There is a formula that a few teams in college football can use every year to keep themselves competitive against the best teams in the NCAA. The Florida Gators are one of those privileged programs who can take advantage of this year after year. I also think that’s why this season has been so disappointing and led to the eventual firing of Dan Mullen. Even with this special formula he has access to the Gators floundered and went an abysmal 5-6 under him. Unacceptable for any Florida Gators team.

What is the Formula?

Name recognition & recruiting: The work that the players, coaches, and staff have put in since the 1980’s at the University of Florida make things much easier for the current staff. Sure, the Gators went 6-6 this year and finished near the absolute bottom of the SEC, but they still draw recruits in based on their history and logo. Recent success comes into play when trying to recruit 5-star talent to your program. That has played a huge factor in why the Gators have seen very little 5-star talent come to Gainesville in the last decade. Bringing in high end 4-star talent has historically not been a problem for the Gators. These are guys that want to go to a high-level program and be the stars of this team. They don’t want to be overshadowed by going to programs like Alabama who can reel in 5-stars yearly and are almost guaranteed to be in the college football playoff. If you can build a solid class of 4-star players you can expect to post at least 5 SEC wins every year and should handedly beat teams like South Carolina, Missouri, Vanderbilt, etc.

Dan Mullen has been called out much of 2021 for his lack of enthusiasm for recruiting. It has been said that Billy Napier loves to recruit. Get out there and get those 4-star players committed to Florida. Flip a few big-name recruits that are on the fence with the many coaching changes. Take advantage of all the talented high school players in the state of Florida

Transfer Portal: This is a tool that Dan Mullen used very well in his time in Florida. This plays into the name recognition. Players from around the SEC and other big-name schools are looking to make a new start for them every year. 4-5 Star players will look at a program and determine whether they think they can hop immediately into that program and play.  So, if there’s a big hole at a few positions they are now easily fixable. You don’t have to wait 2-3 years for a freshman talent to be ready to fill that void. Continue to take advantage of that. Continue to ad graduate transfers who can make an impact. Plug holes.

Unite the team and change the culture: Napier is already inheriting a ton of skilled players on this football team. The Gators have more talent than every single team in the SEC East aside from the Georgia Bulldogs. They need to be able to get back to posting a 5-1 record in SEC East games. If he can grab hold of the team and have them buy into his system, he should be able to flip at bare minimum the losses to South Carolina and Missouri.

We understand it will be his first year at Florida. However with all of the resources he will have and talent he already is inheriting this should not be a 6-6 season or even a 7-5 season for the Gators.