Florida Football: Gators don’t need John Ruiz to get recruits

When NIL became the way of the land in college football, there was a fear that the Florida Gators were going to get left behind. While there is solid financial backing for Florida football compared to a school like FSU, it didn’t appear that the Gators were willing to engage in the high-stakes pay-to-win model that Texas A&M and Miami were.

And while this season hasn’t quite gone the way that Florida would have wanted, the continued success in recruiting is proving that the Gators don’t need an in-your-face sugar daddy to get talented players to come to Gainesville.

Florida Football: Culture over money

We have said this before, but college football players deserve the right to be paid. There is way too much money being generated to tell the players they don’t deserve a cut. There is a risk though when you convince players to come to play for you solely because you were the highest bidder.

Miami fans are finding this out the hard way. John Ruiz, the billionaire booster, has tried to single handily buy all the best players in the country to come to Miami. He’s had some success with his plan. Jaden Rashada for example looked like a lock for Florida before flipping to Miami. If you are to believe the behind-the-scenes rumblings, Miami simply offered more.

But there is just one problem Miami is running into; players are figuring out that Miami the program is still a second-rate program. The Hurricanes currently sit 12th in the 247 recruiting rankings. While respectable, “Group of Five” Billy Napier has Florida football sitting in 8th.

Last week the Gators lost Creed Whittemore to Mississippi State. No biggie, Florida football instead got 6-4, 300-pound offensive lineman Roderick Kearney to flip from FSU to Gainesville. Later this week there are high hopes that Cormani McClain is going to put on a Gator hat and Desmond Ricks, another Florida target, announced he is reclassifying to the class of 2023.

If Florida football signs those two it would be ranked 4th in the country in recruiting. And it wouldn’t have its mega booster making a fool of himself on Twitter after his pay-to-win team got blown out in a half empty stadium to Duke and East Tennessee State.

Are there times in the current era that Florida will need to pony up to get a high-level player here and there? Sure. But Billy Napier is getting guys to Gainesville that want to be in Gainesville, and that’s more valuable than any check John Ruiz can write.

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