{"id":11394,"date":"2023-07-23T14:22:56","date_gmt":"2023-07-23T19:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=11394"},"modified":"2023-07-23T14:22:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-23T19:22:56","slug":"billy-napier-hopeful-headway-in-recruiting-carries-over-to-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/billy-napier-hopeful-headway-in-recruiting-carries-over-to-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Napier hopeful headway in recruiting carries over to football"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE \u2014 Florida<\/a> coach Billy Napier spoke for more than three hours during his trip to SEC Media Days on Wednesday. He conducted over a dozen interviews<\/a> on radio row and with various networks, including On3<\/a>, along with his appearances at the main stage and other rooms. <\/p>\n

He started his day meeting with local reporters from the UF beat. Napier made several newsworthy comments<\/a> throughout his time in Nashville; however, one statement from his first 15-mintue media scrum<\/a> stood out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s evident in recruiting right now that we\u2019ve adjusted, and we\u2019ve adapted and evolved,\u201d Napier said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re hopeful we\u2019ll see some of that in our football as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was one of a few notable things he said during his 80-second answer to a question about the biggest year-over-year gains for the Florida football program. <\/p>\n

Napier drew some laughs at the beginning of his response. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I\u2019m about as OCD as they come,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cI think each part of our calendar, each part of our offseason, each phase as we call it, each stage, we\u2019ve had a year of experience, right? And we adjust, we adapt, we evolve, we make the necessary changes.\u201d <\/p>\n

RELATED:<\/strong> Billy Napier breaks down his eight-phase recruiting calendar<\/a><\/p>\n

The most obvious example, as Napier alluded to, is on the recruiting trail. The Gators boast the nation\u2019s No. 3 class<\/a> in the 2024 cycle and already have the same number of commits (21) as high school signees in their 2023 class<\/a>, which ranked No. 13 nationally. <\/p>\n

Napier is hopeful the Gators can make similar strides on the football field this year. One of his reasons for optimism is the familiarity, connection and trust that he and his staff have with the players. It wasn\u2019t there this time a year ago due to multiple factors. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the challenge in taking over a job in today\u2019s dynamic,\u201d Napier explained, \u201cis you\u2019re trying to create trust in a small window of time, right? With NIL, which creates instability, uncertainty, there is a natural insecurity of a player. \u2018You didn\u2019t recruit me. You don\u2019t know me. Do you think I\u2019m a good player? Do you have a plan for me?\u2019 And I think with the portal and all the other variables, that creates a significant challenge. Not to mention just the basic things about, hey, we\u2019ve got a place that needs to be torn down and built back up again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Napier and his staff flipped the roster this offseason, adding 35 total recruits and transfers to offset the 35 departures. Year One was a learning process that he has quality controlled and made necessary changes for 2023. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest adjustment is the recruiting calendar and the pace,\u201d Napier said. \u201cEssentially, you\u2019re behind a class as soon as you sign up unless you\u2019re recruiting this pool of players. I wasn\u2019t recruiting that pool of players (at Louisiana). <\/p>\n

\u201cHeck of a year to get your first SEC job with NIL and the portal, and I think we navigated that well. I feel good about how we adjusted systematically. All the other parts of our process, I think, are signed, sustainable, and repeatable. Those were the big adjustments for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Napier didn\u2019t mince words about the Gators\u2019 shortcomings in his inaugural season. He\u2019s also confident about the gains his team can make this fall. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think one of the things we did, we went through an extensive evaluation of Year 1,\u201d Napier said. \u201cConsistency stuff. Can we handle success. We like to talk about handling failure but every time we got momentum last year we fell flat on our face. So, we essentially lose five one-score games. The margin of error in this league is real small. I think we learned a lot from that, and I think we\u2019ll benefit from that this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Billy Napier hopeful headway in recruiting carries over to football<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE \u2014 Florida coach Billy Napier spoke for more than three hours during his trip…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}