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Florida Football: Those paying attention believe in Billy Napier’s vision

By Benjamin Henderson

Nov 12, 2022; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier looks on against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 12, 2022; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier looks on against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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We are deep into the offseason with Florida football, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel for when we can stop arguing about recruiting rankings and start arguing about terrible calls from the refs.

But until then, in the words of Cody Rhodes, what do you guys want to talk about?

Recruiting?

Cool, got it. In case you have not been paying attention, Billy Napier has been killing it on the recruiting trail, and Blue Chip Billy has the Florida Gators with the third-best recruiting class of 2024.

So even if the actual games of the 2023 season don’t go in favor of Florida, what’s happening off the field is all part of the plan to help the Gators win on the field in the near future.

Florida Football: Trust the process

Jack Crain hosts the daily show Crain and Company and yesterday used his platform to express that he sees the vision that Billy Napier is trying to build in Gainesville.

https://twitter.com/JakeCrain_/status/1679504042018439171?s=20

To his point, you can’t go all Seth Rollins and burn it down and expect to rise from the ashes the very next season.

It has been chronicled that Dan Mullen kind of gave up on the program in 2021. It is not an accident that Napier came in and ran off a ton of Mullen guys.

The ones that believe in the vision and culture Napier is building have stayed. The ones that are content with mediocrity left.

Because for as much of a vision Napier himself can sell recruits, those same recruits talk to current members of the team. Those players too have to sell these recruits on the vision, and if the players don’t believe in it, then recruits will see right through it.

And while the transfer portal does help accelerate a rebuild, the true impact of this monster recruiting class that Napier is building won’t truly be felt until 2025.

That’s why patience is a virtue even in our hyperbolic world of win now or else.

That doesn’t mean you can’t critique aspects of the program in the meantime, such as play calling and overall decision making.

But if you believe in the impact of recruiting and you believe in the foundation that Napier is building for Florida football, just be patient.

Because this isn’t TikTok, and we can’t just skip to the good part.

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