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Florida Football: Billy Napier must bolster the 2023 roster this weekend

By Benjamin Henderson

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 25: Head coach Billy Napier of the Florida Gators looks on before the start of a game against the Florida State Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium on November 25, 2022 in Tallahassee, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 25: Head coach Billy Napier of the Florida Gators looks on before the start of a game against the Florida State Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium on November 25, 2022 in Tallahassee, Florida. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images) /
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If one were to take a peek at the 2023 projected roster for Florida football, its quiet frightening. And not in a good way. As it stands now, the Florida Gators only have five seniors on the roster and 55% of the players will either be freshmen or sophomores.

That makes this weekend’s recruiting visit of multiple players in the transfer portal vital for Florida football to have real shot at a competitive roster in 2023.

Florida Football: Transfer Portal Merry-Go-Round

We all know by now that the Gators have had a ton of Dan Mullen’s guys depart the program. One can buy into the narrative that Billy Napier is cleaning up the program and that’s fine. Napier was brought in to be a builder and he is trying to give Florida a solid foundation.

The problem however in tearing down the previously built foundation in order to build his own is that losing games while the new foundation goes up doesn’t yield draft picks like it does in professional sports.

The Jacksonville Jaguars were the worst team in the NFL two years ago. Their reward for being terrible was Trevor Lawrence and they are now one win away from the playoffs. Prior to the Houston Astros winning two World Series (one of which comes with an asterisks) they strung together three straight 100 loss seasons. The Tampa Bay Lightning turned terrible seasons into Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman, both crucial members of their current success.

Terrible seasons in college football however result in recruits bailing on you. Ask Miami and Jaden Rashada.

This weekend Florida football will be hosting offensive linemen Micah Mazzaccua (Baylor) and John Campbell (Miami), defensive linemen Gilber Edmond (South Carolina) and Cam’Ron Jackson (already committed from Memphis), defensive back Al Walcott (Baylor) and linebacker Duce Spurlock (Michigan).

Mazzaccua and Campbell are must haves. Richard Gouraige and O’Cyrus Torrence are off to the NFL and Ethan White and Michael Tarquin left via the transfer portal. Austin Barber is the only returning offensive lineman with any real experience and as we saw in the Las Vegas Bowl, Florida football is in deep trouble without reinforcements along the offensive line.

Walcott would give Kamari Wilson some much needed experience to pair with at safety. Edmond would be a nice addition the defensive line, while Spurlock would also add depth to a young linebacking core that did gain some experience with the commitment of Ohio State transfer Treadja Mitchell.

So while Napier’s long term vision for Florida football can’t fully be judged until 2024, we know Gator fans are not patient. Another 6-6 season (or worse) in 2023, even with the caveat of program building, will create such a pressure cooker for 2024 that the slightest misstep might end Napier’s time in Gainesville.

Florida knows how to put on a great show for recruiting visits. It’s consistently closing the deal that has been struggle. That’s what makes this weekend so crucial. Napier has had the second most players enter the transfer portal in the country. He has to have stop gap guys that can build him a bridge to 2024.

A successful weekend and we can start to piece together a decent looking depth chart for 2023.

A whiff this weekend will leave a lot of questions to be asked.

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