Florida football whiffs on big targets as Mullen still has impact

The Florida football program had a surprisingly great early signing day back on December 15th. Great, if you consider that the class was in shambles due to the firing of Dan Mullen. The team had also just lost two commitments -Nick Evers and Jayden Gibson- due to the uncertainty of the new Florida staff. Billy Napier was able to steal away a few crucial recruits from some big rivals and bring some life back to the Gator 2022 recruiting class.

Early that morning, Napier managed to flip 4-star safety Devin Moore from Notre Dame to Florida. That started a small trend throughout the day as the Gators’ would then grab unexpected signings from Kamari Wilson and Shemar James. These moves earned Napier high praise and it was warranted.

After seeing the magic Napier produced on early signing day, many Florida football fans were ready for round two.

Florida football emerged as a top choice for a 5-star linebacker, Harold Perkins. The Gators’ also were in the running to land 4-star talents Jacoby Mathews, TreVonte’ Citizen, Caden Story, and D.J. Allen.

Napier and his staff would find out they lost out on wideout D.J. Allen to TCU the night before signing day. Not the start they were looking for, but still had a few great players left on the board. Wednesday morning rolled around, none of the big names were making their decisions until later that afternoon. 4-star commit, Trevor Etienne, faxed over his letter of intent later that morning, they had landed at least one 4-star running back. Caden Story shortly announced that he was heading to Clemson, Florida only had a small outside chance of landing the big man. TreVonte’ Citizen was the first realistic 4-star to make his decision on his possible future at Florida. He announced he would be in Florida, but shockingly not in Gainesville. Citizen was signing with the Miami Hurricanes. Okay, no big deal, Florida had already signed 4-star Etienne and they already have some pretty good backs on the team already.

The afternoon hours ticked away for the Gators and not much happened other than prior commitments sending in their intents. Next up on the docket was the big one, 5-star number 1 linebacker, Harold Perkins. Florida had made tremendous progress with Perkins and felt they had a great chance to land this defensive playmaker. More disappointment, Perkins would dawn a purple LSU hat.

Last chance to replicate the impact they made on early signing day, 4-star safety Jacoby Mathews. At this point, it felt like the writing was on the wall. After Perkins’ decision to head to LSU I had close to zero expectation that Mathews would decide to head to Gainesville. Mathews would pick Texas A&M. Just like that, Florida went 0 for 5 on their big-name targets.

What Billy Napier did with this recruiting class should be praised.

https://twitter.com/GatorsFB/status/1488987377137823749?s=20&t=UgDv-gOdLX6_44hdvXiaUQ

He took a class that was once a lowly 79th in the country and pushed it up to number 19. Not bad for a guy who officially started on the job just 10 days before early signing day. After early signing day, Florida football stock was rising higher and higher with Gator Nation.

The success during the early signing is what led to that disappointing feeling during the final signing day. When you do great things people expect them to keep happening regularly. While it was surely disappointing not to land any of their late targets, we still have to keep in mind that Napier was fighting a very uphill battle.

Former head coach, Dan Mullen, didn’t do Florida football any favors on his way out the door. The 2022 recruiting class was in deep trouble even before serious talks of Mullen being fired. The Gators haven’t had a recruiting class that didn’t qualify for the top-20 since ESPN started doing their ESPN300. But, the Gators were sliding into the mid-’20s as things started to get really bumpy for Mullen. When Mullen offered up his thoughts on his failing recruit classes it didn’t go smoothly in Gainesville. Eventually, this was one big piece that led to his downfall.

So congratulations to Napier for salvaging this into an okay class for Florida football standards. It’s okay to have been disappointed after Wednesday, but let’s judge Billy on his 2023 recruiting class.