Billy Napier Reflects on Spring Portal, Florida's Transfer Recruiting Process

Billy Napier's desire to fill Florida's 2023 roster openings with transfer talent has gotten off to a slow start. The Gators' head coach explained why.

Photo: Billy Napier; Credit: Alex Shepherd

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Billy Napier has frequently pointed to Florida's ten winter transfer portal acquisitions as proof: The Gators' evaluation and recruiting process for college football veterans has been successful, and their results from the just-over 45-day stretch between December and January are a perfect example.

Those players — the likes of quarterback Graham Mertz, defensive linemen Cam Jackson and Caleb Banks, three offensive linemen, three linebackers and others — "passed the evaluation," Napier has stated on numerous occasions this year. 

"We wouldn't throw any of those guys back," Napier suggested before his Wednesday spring speaking tour event in Sarasota, "to use a fishing term."

Florida HC Billy Napier and QB Graham Mertz / Zach Goodall

The head coach's expectations are that Florida's football product will improve greatly in its second season under his direction, following a 6-7 (3-5 SEC) year one, and the double-digit portal reinforcements will go a long way in the Gators making a jump. 

But referencing past successes turns a blind eye to the setback at hand: Several scholarship spots on Florida's 2023 roster remain open, and Napier expressed the desire to fill them with portal talents multiple times just last month during UF's 2023 spring training camp. 

"We're going to have opportunities to potentially add players to our team, but those will be much like they've been in the past. They're a case-by-case basis," Napier said on Apr. 13, moments after Florida's Orange and Blue spring scrimmage. "We'll evaluate players. We find some that we like, we'll recruit them. Our roster is not complete, and certainly we could add some players in the future."

Yet the April 15-30 spring transfer portal window came and went, and Florida did not host a single transfer visitor during those two weeks. Only former Michigan defensive back R.J. Moten, a UF legacy, made his way to Gainesville by press time, and he did so after the fact on May 1. He committed the next day. 

Four vacant scholarship counters linger after Moten's pledge, and Florida does not currently have any prospects lined up to visit and potentially fill those spots. One could be replenished by the potential promotion of walk-on receiver Kahleil Jackson, but otherwise, UF has pushed for more portal prospects to no avail. 

"I would say that we had intentions of hosting a few guys, I just don't know that that necessarily happened," Napier admitted about Florida's spring portal process on Wednesday. "We had some visits on the books. We had some opportunities there, we just weren't able to get it done, quite simply." 

So, what happened? 

Florida HC Billy Napier / Alex Shepherd

Napier first pointed to the difference in schedule, something he "and every coach in college football probably appreciated." The 15-day spring window of opportunity for players to leave their team in hopes of finding a better fit is far more limited than the 45-day winter period. UF only lost three scholarship players this time around, compared to 22 departures a few months ago. 

In part, Florida did not host visitors during the window in order to keep its own roster intact to the best of the coaching staff's abilities. While doing so, Napier and the personnel staff monitored the portal for entries from other programs and researched the prospects that became available. 

"There's some closure there like, 'Hey, OK, here's the players that are available.' You're evaluating them and you do a ton of work beforehand and as they come in, sometimes you anticipate that and sometimes you don't," Napier said. "We got a good working team there. I think we're better at our process. We're much more in-tune." 

But playing the waiting game can prove costly given the fluid essence of transfer recruiting. 

Former San Diego State offensive lineman Josh Simmons, for example, was scheduled to visit Florida on May 5. The trip was canceled by the nature of his April 30 commitment to Ohio State, one of the two schools he visited during the portal window. 

Despite missing on prospects like Simmons, Napier believes the program's patient approach is necessary. Admissions issues, medical concerns, and character evaluations from people in the player's circle are crucial aspects of the scouting report, Napier said based on prior experiences, and those accounts can't necessarily be comprised overnight. 

"Sometimes you're out in front of that. Sometimes you anticipate it, you've been made aware of potential scenarios," Napier explained, "and then sometimes it just happens unannounced, and sometimes that requires a ton of research to be done before you're ready to go.

"So, I would gladly welcome that criticism and say that the portal players that we have added to our team all have contributed to our team," he continued with stated conviction. "I think that one thing that I'm extremely particular about is our evaluation process, and I think it's one of the reasons we have this job." 

Although the visits have yet to be announced or reported, Napier shared that Florida intends to host transfer players in the coming weeks. UF's graduation schedule will complicate logistics for the first weekend of May, but the coaching staff can continue to recruit portal prospects into the summer. 

"I think ultimately, we have players that we anticipate visiting over the next couple of weekends," Napier said. "We're going to pursue players, any player that we think can make our team better, we're going to do that."

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