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Florida Football: Recruiting wars have more buzz than Las Vegas Bowl

By Benjamin Henderson

Nov 20, 2021; Columbia, Missouri, USA; A general view of a Florida Gators helmet against the Missouri Tigers during the game at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 20, 2021; Columbia, Missouri, USA; A general view of a Florida Gators helmet against the Missouri Tigers during the game at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Florida Gators play a game in less than 48 hours against a top-20 opponent from a Power Five conference, and yet the buzz surrounding Florida football this week has not been around the Las Vegas Bowl.

Between star statuses changing, whether Napier’s class is better than Dan Mullen’s recruiting, and the battle over pancakes, Florida fans have let it be known that the interest level in Saturday’s game is fleeting at best.

Florida Football: Viva La Recruiting

Billy Napier put out his depth chart for the Las Vegas Bowl and it looks as depleted as expected. Trying to do any real analysis of the game is useless. With no Anthony Richardson, O’Cyrus Torrence, and Ventrell Miller, in addition to every rotation guy that has entered the transfer portal, there are not a lot of reasons to be excited.

Even the game itself was moved from a primetime slot on Saturday to 2:30 PM because of a schedule change by the NFL.

So, we could analyze videos of Florida football playing Family Feud on the Vegas Strip and of the Gators meeting Elvis impersonators, or we could focus on what fans have been fired up about this week.

Recruiting.

Though to be fair playing Family Feud on the Vegas Strip does sound fun.

The big headliner is five-star offensive tackle Samson Okunlola announcing his college commitment. The 6-5, 305-pound man-child better known as Pancake once looked like he could be a Gator, but right now it looks like he is on his way to Miami thanks to mega booster John Ruiz, Okunlola’s posting of a Gator video earlier this week has fans further convinced it’s a fake out and another sign he will be a Hurricane.

This has also led to the debate on if Napier is a better recruiter than Mullen. People have noted that Napier’s 2023 class, which is currently ranked 10th and has 18 four-star recruits is quite similar to Mullen’s 2019 class which had 17 four-star recruits and was 9th.

The difference is Napier has 13 top 300 players, and still might be done, whereas Mullen had 10 and had multiple players wind up as DNE, including Diwun Black.

This is all on top of 247 Sports updating their star rankings and the debate over which QB Florida should grab in the transfer portal continuing to rage.

Most fans will take a break from Twitter arguing on Saturday to take a peak at the Las Vegas Bowl, and then will go right back to taking shots at Miami and FSU because frankly, it’s a better use of time than actually watching the Las Vegas Bowl.

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