Florida Football: Biggest successes for Gators from 2023 recruiting cycle

Given all the noise surrounding Florida football, it can feel like its 2023 recruiting class was an abject failure. And to be fair there are some legitimate criticisms to be made about the class that Billy Napier put together, namely the lack of five-stars signed and that positions like linebacker and tight end are lagging behind.

But there were several successes in the class of 2023 and there is reason to believe that this class could be a solid base class for Napier to build off of.

Florida Football: Blue Chip Billy

The Florida Gators didn’t sign any five-star prospects who showed up on Gainesville’s campus, but Napier also didn’t overstuff this class with filler players in an effort to raise the class’ rating.

Florida football was 14th in the 247 Sports composite rankings, but the Gators are ranked sixth in average recruiting rankings thanks to a team average of 92.04 points.

In this class, Napier signed 18 four-star prospects. Only six schools can lay claim to having more combined five- and four-star recruits: Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson, and Oregon.

Florida could have easily finished within the top 10 this season, even without Jaden Rashada, if Napier had stacked the bottom of the class with three-star recruits who would almost certainly never play.

Also, consider that Florida is coming off a 6-7 season, lost to FSU, yet still had a better recruiting class than the Neighbors to the West despite the season so historic in Tallahassee that they rushed the field after beating a 6-7 squad.

No chip Mike’s class finished in 20th, good for second in the ACC. There is a reason why the talent level is better in the SEC.