New Florida head coach Billy Napier preached patience on early National Signing Day and said the Gators wouldn’t sign many prospects during his introductory press conference a week and a half ago.
The Gators showed some hesitancy on Wednesday, only increasing their class from seven players to 10, but those three additions were all splashes.
Florida added five-star safety Kamari Wilson, four-star linebacker Shemar James and four-star safety Devin Moore, with the former choosing UF over Georgia. Napier met with the media to recap his 2022 recruiting class so far in the afternoon.
After Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin elected to part ways with former coach Dan Mullen, the Gators’ class plummeted to 79th best, according to 247Sports, leaving Napier with the near-impossible task of salvaging it.
Napier said three-star offensive lineman Christian Williams was the only prospect he had a relationship with prior to accepting the Florida job. The new coach was forced to develop bonds with recruits and their families over a 10-day stretch as opposed to months or years.
With a month and a half until National Signing Day, his class now holds a five-star, four four-stars and four three-stars.
Wilson, Moore and James headline the class along with top-100 defensive lineman Chris McClellan, top-400 defensive lineman Jamari Lyons and four-star athlete Tony Livingston. Three-star kicker Trey Smack and offensive linemen David Conner and Williams round out the class.
Florida secured a verbal commitment from three-star offensive lineman Jalen Farmer earlier this cycle, but he plans to sign in February.
“We’re off to a good start,” Napier said of the class so far. “We’ll continue to improve our approach and our process and you know we’re going to add to this group, right, we’ve got a lot of work left to do.”
Napier said the line of scrimmage will be a focus for him and his coaching staff during his opening press conference. He clearly stuck to his word, as 10 days into the job, half the class was labeled as offensive or defensive linemen.
As he fills out the rest of the class, the former Lousiana-Lafayette coach will need to pull a quarterback to provide depth to Anthony Richardson from either the high school ranks or the NCAA transfer portal.
Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports reported Wednesday night that signal-caller Emory Jones entered his name into the portal but will still play in the Gasparilla Bowl versus Central Florida on Dec. 23.
Last recruiting cycle, Mullen signed two quarterbacks, four-star Carlos Del Rio and three-star Jalen Kitna.
The rest of the country have most of their class signed while the Gators may have only nine signatures and a verbal commitment. Napier said he isn’t worried about it.
“We’re gonna acquire talent, too just, you know, just not as many today as they did,” he said. “This is our first class, and we’re going to make the best of it.”
Napier and his staff will work during the next seven weeks until National Signing Day arrives all over again.
Contact Zachary Huber at zhuber@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @zacharyahuber.
