Florida football: Biggest regrets from the 2023 recruiting cycle
By Will Thomas
Florida football: Not protecting in-state talent
When Billy Napier first took the job, he told Gator nation that he would be prioritizing in-state talent on the recruiting trail, and would build a fence around the state to keep rivals out.
And to his credit, 14 of the 20 signees are from Florida, and he did plenty of work grabbing in-state talent.
But way too many guys slipped through his fingers and went to out-of-state rivals.
The biggest one was Georgia. UGA signed nine guys out of Florida. Three of those guys were top ten players in the state, and seven of them were top 20.
Letting your biggest rival walk into your backyard and take what they want is not a sustainable strategy. As long as that happens, Georgia will continue to dominate the Gators on the field.
As Napier continues to build a reputation and UF’s NIL improves, more players from Florida will choose to stay home. But even now, nine guys going to Athens is too many.
Other teams that had a big presence in Florida were Oklahoma, who took five guys, and Alabama who came in and signed four. We already talked about Cormanu McClain, the best player in the state, going all the way out to Colorado.
If Napier wants to get the Gators back to national prominence, he has to put a fence around the state of Florida, which includes beating out Miami and FSU for top talent.
We shouldn’t be sharing high-caliber players with everybody else.
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