March has been a busy month for the Gators’ recruiting staff. Since spring practice began a couple of weeks ago, they’ve hosted dozens of recruits from the 2023 class on unofficial visits, including several five-star prospects.
While Billy Napier’s staff hasn’t added any new commitments to join Aaron Gates in the class as of yet, there definitely seems to be some momentum building for the program. Director of player personnel Jacob LaFrance said that he is pleased with the response that the new staff has gotten from recruits so far.
“I think we’re generating a little buzz just by getting kids on campus, and they’re getting a vibe for how we are and the energy that we have and what we pour into recruiting, and then they go back and talk about it,” LaFrance said. ‘Oh, the new staff at Florida, it’s awesome.’ One of the biggest things I’ve noticed is just the natural affinity for the University of Florida in this area, in the state. It’s crazy. Kids come, and they’re like, ‘I grew up a Gator fan.’ They’re just naturally drawn to it.”
As the Gators’ director of player personnel, LaFrance works with the coaches to evaluate high school recruits. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native held the same job at Louisiana under Napier for three seasons. He also has experience working at Maryland and LSU, his alma mater.
LaFrance knew about the Gators’ championship history before he accepted the position at Florida, but he’s been a bit surprised by how many advantages they have over their in-state competition.
“Obviously, you knew the brand and the history and the success that they’ve had,” he said. “Just to see the natural draw to Florida over Miami, over Florida State [has surprised me]. And then I knew the academic institution was what it is, but I didn’t realize the power of that. A top-5 public institution in the country, it puts you in with a different caliber of player, too.
“You’re recruiting kids that are not only good football players but kids that might have a Stanford offer or a Northwestern offer that typically you can’t get, like Devin Moore with Notre Dame. ‘Oh wait, we have that, too, now. We’re not just a good football program. We have the academic side as well.’ It’s just something else you can flex on.”
While the last few weeks have been pretty hectic for LaFrance and the rest of the recruiting staff, it’s been a cakewalk compared to what the program faced in early December. After a string of decommitments left the 2022 class with just six players at one point, Napier and co. scrambled to add four players in about 10 days, headlined by top-50 safety Kamari Wilson and Moore, a four-star who had been committed to Notre Dame.
They pulled that off with a small fraction of their staff in place and a limited number of prior relationships with the recruits.
They then finished the class by signing eight more players in February.
LaFrance said that they made it work by working long hours and forgoing some sleep. After the December signing period, they evaluated every unsigned player that had a scholarship offer from somewhere, which ended up being around 900 players. They prioritized recruits from areas that the new staff already had connections with and players that the previous staff had put them in good position to land.
The combination of those two factors is what led them to only sign six Floridians in their 17-member class. That will not be the plan moving forward as the staff gets more time to develop relationships with Florida prospects.
“We were a product of what was left,” LaFrance said. “Any time you’re in transition like that, trust me, if we could’ve, we prefer to not have to go out to California and stuff like that, but we went where the players were and where we had some relationships. So, we had some relationships on the West Coast because of [Keary Colbert] and obviously Louisiana because we were there. Florida had been picked through, so there really wasn’t that many players left.”
The recruiting staffers arrived at the office early in the mornings to begin their work, while the coaches hit the road as early as they could. Late at night, Napier returned to campus, and he and the recruiting staff went over evaluations.
Only time will tell if this staff will recruit at the level necessary to win championships, but, if they don’t, it likely won’t be because of a lack of effort. LaFrance said that it’s nice to have a sizable recruiting staff, a large recruiting budget and skilled recruiters as assistant coaches, but, ultimately, the Gators’ year-round dedication to recruiting begins and ends with Napier.
“He’s very hands-on in recruiting, and I think that’s important in our roles as support staff, whether it’s Katie [Turner], Bri [Wade], myself, Bird [Sherrill], to have a head coach that values recruiting,” LaFrance said. “If it doesn’t start at the top, my job would be very hard.”