The Billy Napier era is finally over. After years of high-level recruiting and no results to follow it, Florida’s talent-rich roster is ripe to be raided this offseason. The Gators are in hot pursuit of Lane Kiffin and have found themselves in a bidding war with LSU, but no matter where Kiffin decides to go, or if he stays at Ole Miss, Florida fans can expect a major roster overhaul this offseason.
Before Napier’s replacement can bring an influx of transfer portal talent to jump-start the rebuild, those roster spots have to open, and that means departures. As with any coaching change in the transfer portal era, there will be plenty of them, and these five underclassmen could be a part of that mass exodus.
Everyone on the Florida roster is on transfer watch heading into the offseason, but these five will draw particular attention on the open market if they choose to leave Gainesville after hosting Florida State on Saturday afternoon.
DJ Lagway wasn’t the only elite recruit that Napier landed in the 2024 class. There was also a five-star edge rusher, LJ McCray. McCray played sparingly as a true freshman, recording 181 total defensive snaps across 13 games, including playing a season-high 33 snaps in the Gasparilla Bowl win over Tulane.
This season, though, McCray played just four defensive snaps before suffering a foot injury that required surgery and has kept him out for the entire season. He still has great size at 6-foot-6, 268 pounds, and with his pedigree, he’ll have plenty of suitors in the transfer portal, but it would seem that, barring a major financial commitment, his time in Gainesville is likely finished.
Jayden Woods may not have been the flashy five-star when he flipped from Penn State to Florida late in the 2025 recruiting class, but he was still a top 150 recruit in the country, and he’s made a massive impact in his true freshman season.
The 6-foot-3, edge rusher has been productive with 11 pressures and three sacks this season, so he’ll likely be a high-priced player on the open market. Considering that he flipped so late last year, decommitting from Penn State in late November, it’s a good bet he’ll test that market in the transfer portal this offseason.
There are players with more recruiting pedigree, or NFL upside, and player who have shown more indications that they’re heading out the door after the season ends, but there may not be a better player on Florida’s roster than Jadan Baugh. And that means that other teams will come calling, and probably already have.
Baugh has turned in another excellent season and is a strong game against Florida State away from the 1,000-yard mark. It’d be a great idea for the next head coach to keep him in Gainesville, but running back isn’t often the first priority when constructing a roster, so there’s a good chance he slips through the cracks.
The 2025 recruiting class was all about getting weapons for DJ Lagway, Florida’s 2024 five-star QB. Just about everything went wrong for Florida this season, but the additional of Brown, proved to be a good one. He has 36 catches for 486 yards through the first nine games of his collegiate career. With sweeping changes to the program, he could be heading out the door.
This falls in the “has already played his last game for Florida” category, but Dallas Wilson has appeared in just four games for the Gators this season, which means he preserved a year of eligibility. Injuries derailed his onboarding into the offense, but when he was on the field, he looked like a special talent. Both he and fellow in-state true freshman Brown will be difficult to keep in Gainesville for Napier’s replacement.
Following Napier’s firing in October, Lagway reaffirmed his commitment to Florida and played out the string of games for Gonzales. However, as he gets some distance from his disastrous sophomore season, there’s still a good chance that he’d prefer to find a fresh start somewhere, maybe somewhere closer to home in Texas.
There’s also a very real possibility that the next head coach, be it Kiffin or someone else, takes a good look at his play from the 2025 season and decides to move on regardless of Lagway’s loyalty to the program. He’ll secure a major payday in the portal off his potential, but he has not nearly lived up to his billing as the top QB in the 2024 class.