The weekend has come and gone, and Florida Football has emerged with just a single commit from the transfer portal, punter Tommy Doman from Michigan. This mirrors the slow and steady approach Florida took last year in the transfer portal, and the Gators still landed a number of key contributors with that approach.
However, while one can highlight anecdotal examples that Billy Napier's transfer portal approach is effective, the empirical data would argue that not enough useful talent has been making its way to Gainesville.
Florida Football: Help wanted
Last year, Florida was notably one of the last teams in the SEC to land a transfer portal commit. Napier took a "methodical" approach, and when the dust settled, he officially added 17 new members to the Gators for 2024.
Within the group, six wound up taking at least 200 snaps in 2024 AND had a Pro Football Focus grade of at least 59.5:
- Geroge Gumbs
- Chimere Dike
- Elijhah Badger
- Pup Howard
- Trikweze Bridges
- Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson
Now, PFF grades are far from perfect and have some notable flaws, but 59.5 is a very low bar to clear, and almost all Gator fans would agree that these six players were the best of last year's transfer portal class.
While these six players were all contributors for Florida in 2024, the problem is that when compared to the rest of the SEC, the Gators simply didn't add enough reinforcements to keep up.
If we apply the same metric to the rest of the SEC that 200 snaps AND a PFF grade of 59.5 counts as being a "contributor" in 2024, Florida's 2024 transfer portal class was 11th in total contributors this season.
Perhaps just as damming to the narrative that Billy Napier is an elite evaluator, only 35% of the transfer portal players he brought in last year wound up being a "contributor." That was the third-lowest rate in the SEC in 2024.
Some data:
— Hail Florida Hail (@HailFloridaHail) December 15, 2024
This is last year’s transfer portal class for the SEC
A “contributor” played at least 200 snaps AND had a PFF grade of at least 59.5 this season
(No, PFF isn’t perfect, but 59.5 is a very low bar to clear) pic.twitter.com/Y1pzeXenzN
Yes, there are caveats to that percentage, such as Jameer Grimsley and Jason Zandamela counting as transfers even though they were true freshmen or Florida taking Cormani McClain as a walk-on.
But in case one needs a reminder, Florida was 7-5 in 2024 and was blown out of the water by Miami, Texas A&M, and Texas. It's not unfair to paint a narrative that Florida didn't add enough elite talent to expect anything better than 7-5. All four schools that added at least ten "contributors" won at least eight games in 2024, with three of those schools winning at least nine games.
One may point to Georgia as proof you don't need to raid the transfer portal to be successful, which is true if you are bringing in top five recruiting classes every year.
Spoiler alert: Florida isn't bringing in top five recruiting class.
It's food for thought as Florida is once again taking the slow and steady approach to the portal. If Napier follows his trend from last year, he will eventually land some talent who will be key contributors in 2025.
Whether or not he will land enough talent to be better than 7-5 in 2025 remains to be seen.