Florida football is getting ready to welcome in the new year, and with all honesty, we’re all getting ready to put the 2022 year behind us and move on to 2023.
It was a season filled with ups and downs, from taking down Utah in the home opener to losing on the road to Vanderbilt and ending the year on a three-game losing streak.
Lots of people in Gator Nation have their own list of New Year’s Resolutions. The Florida football program has its own list, and if they can check them all off, 2023 will be a much better season for Gator fans.
Florida football: Find consistency at QB
Let me start this by saying I loved Richardson, he has freak athletic ability and loved playing for UF.
That said, he just wasn’t a consistent enough passer to take the Gators where they wanted to go. Whether it was bad reads or misplaced balls, there were a few moments throughout the season where the Gators could’ve made game-changing plays on offense, but were just off.
The QB room will be Graham Mertz, Jack Miller, and Jaden Rashada next season. While he wasn’t a fan favorite out of the portal, it seems like Mertz will be the day-one starter without a remarkable fall camp from one of the other two.
While Mertz isn’t known for spectacular arm talent, a change of scenery could help relax him, and Napier will be able to craft the system to his strengths.
Consistent QB play will help unlock the potential of the Florida offense.
Florida football: Build up NIL presence
The University of Florida has both The Gator Collective and The Gator Guard operating as their tools of NIL.
While both of these are doing great work and helping both the team and the fans, it’s clear that Florida is behind a lot of other schools in the NIL world. Why else do you think Miami lands anybody if it isn’t for checks?
If Florida can step their NIL firepower up to the same level as the Miami’s and Texas A&M’s of the world, there aren’t going to be many guys that Napier can’t go out and grab.
He brought in a top-15 class on a 6-7 season after his first year. What do you think will happen when he gets the support he needs?
Florida football: Beat a rival
This is one of the more sad paragraphs I’ve had to write in a long time. One of the lows of this season was that the Gators didn’t beat a single one of their main rivals.
Tennessee, UGA, FSU, and LSU all beat the Gators this season. That wasn’t very fun.
If Napier is going to improve on the recruiting trail, he has to beat some rivals next season. If he doesn’t, all those teams have a much better recruiting pitch.
Not to mention how fun it is seeing the fans of all those teams sad. I miss seeing it.
Keep up with Florida football at Hail Florida Hail.