Florida football: Gators need to get in on Mario Williams
By Will Thomas
Florida football is yet to gain any commitment from a player in the transfer portal through this cycle, which has the fanbase pretty impatient.
The Gators are in need of a lot of talent out of the portal if they want to turn the program around next season, and Napier is going to need to work fast if he doesn't want to miss out on the best available players.
After missing out on a few good receivers so far in the portal, the Gators have a shot to get in on Mario Williams, a junior transferring away from USC.
A Tampa native, Mario is a guy that Florida has to make a run for. If they don't they might as well just leave the portal alone entirely.
Florida football: C'mon, do something
To Napier's credit, he does seem to be in a good spot to land Penn transfer Joey Slackman. But his visit came and went without a commitment, so we can't count that as a given.
But if Billy doesn't start getting more aggressive and close on some portal players, his seat is going to get hot before the Early Signing Period.
Mario is the kind of player you want on your team, and he's already familiar with Florida. The Gators were after him out of high school, and he took an unofficial visit to Gainesville as a recruit in the class of 2021.
Williams was also a talented baseball player in his high school days. He was rated as the 86th-ranked prospect in Florida, hit .316 in his junior season, and won the 2019 state title with Plant City High.
This season Williams caught 29 balls for 305 yards and two scores. He had his best season in 2022, where he caught 40 passes for 631 yards and five touchdowns.
The Gators have good talent at WR, but they aren't in a position to say no to a guy qith over 1,000 career receiving yards who has already succeeded in both the BIG 12 and the PAC 12.
The transfer portal is a massive part of today's college football. It's a "talent acquisition business", according to Napier.
Well, it's time to acquire some talent.