From a public perception standpoint, Wednesday’s national signing day was a bad day for Billy Napier and the Gators.
They were in the running for three highly ranked prospects. Running back TreVonte’ Citizen, whom the Gators had emerged as the favorites for over the previous 24 hours, trolled pretty much every SEC school on national television before signing with Miami. Five-star outside linebacker Harold Perkins signed with LSU. Top-40 safety Jacoby Mathews is considered a Texas A&M lean heading into his ceremony later on Wednesday night.
The Gators only picked up one new commitment on signing day, and it came from three-star receiver Caleb Douglas, whom the Gators had been trending for over the last couple of weeks.
While having a big, elaborate ceremony on signing day doesn’t magically make a player better than one who committed a month ago, those televised hat ceremonies provide the lasting memories of a class. Nobody’s going to remember a commitment that happened through a note posted on Twitter in November. The TV commitments stick with you longer.
However, what the Gators lacked in sizzle on signing day they made up for with substance. This was a solid, workmanlike day for them. They signed eight players at seven different positions.
They withstood a late charge from Alabama to hold onto offensive lineman Jalen Farmer. They signed an athletic quarterback that the staff believes has a high upside in Max Brown. They inked a stocky yet explosive four-star running back in Trevor Etienne. In Douglas, they landed a tall receiver (6-foot-3) who can make plays down the field. They picked up a couple of developmental pass rushers in Jack Pyburn and Andrew Savaiinaea.
It wasn’t a perfect day, but it was a successful one in Napier’s mind. They filled a lot of their needs.
“I don’t think I’ve ever batted 1.000 with signing day,” Napier said. “To tell some of our young people in the building, hey, this is a little more like baseball here, we’ve got to swing a lot and make contact, and, at the end of the day, we need 25 really good hits. So, it requires a little bit of perspective, if that makes sense, and resiliency, I would say. So, you’ve got to have a short memory. You’ve got to move on to the next one.
“Certainly, as a competitor, maybe some of those things you learned as a competitor you can apply in recruiting for sure. But we filled a lot of needs. I’m confident in each individual player we’ve added, what they bring to the team, certainly the jobs that we think they can do for our team.”
Perhaps the most important recruit that they landed on Wednesday was Farmer, who hails from Covington, Georgia. He has an SEC-ready body already, and improving the quality and depth up front is a huge priority for Napier, especially since his offense is centered around a strong running game.
Alabama doesn’t sign many bad offensive linemen, so the fact that they went after him as hard as they did is probably an indication that Farmer is a better player than the recruiting analysts think.
He’ll play one of the interior spots at Florida.
“One of the first players we went to see,” Napier said. “We were very impressed with the initial evaluation. This is a big man. He’s 6-4 ½, 330 pounds. I think he may actually be under 330. He plays with effort. He plays with power. He comes from a really great family. Mom and Dad are impressive people, and he’s all business. This guy’s not really all about the glitz and the glamour and recruiting. He’s got a plan, and I was very impressed with his maturity, kind of his approach.
“And, certainly, it’s a good thing when some of the best programs in the country come in and try to recruit some of your commits. But we’ve got a ton of confidence in Jalen. We believe in him, and we’re ecstatic [about] what he’s going to bring to our team. So, big win today for the Gators for sure.”
Of course, the quarterback will always be a headliner at Florida. Brown, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is only ranked as the 1,552nd overall recruit in the 247Sports Composite, and he was set to play for former UF coach Jim McElwain at Central Michigan before Napier came calling. However, he primarily played baseball early in his high school career and didn’t play quarterback until his junior year, which is at least partially responsible for that low ranking.
Napier thinks that Brown is a solid athlete who could develop into a great passer in time. He threw for 2,750 yards and 41 touchdowns and ran for another 1,343 yards and 20 scores for Lincoln Christian High School as a senior. He led his team to a spot in the state championship game.
“When you turn the tape on, you can immediately see the baseball background [with] the off-platform throws,” Napier said. “Really a natural thrower, a guy that is projected to be kind of a middle round draft pick in baseball.
“Dad played receiver in the National Football League. Really a good-looking athlete. We think he has upside. He just started playing quarterback two years ago. And a good runner; the guy can make some plays with his feet. We were able to go out to his school, observe him and were very impressed. So, there’s some pedigree there. The guy’s a winner. I’ve been impressed with his leadership skills, and I think his best football is in front of him.”
Douglas is another player in this class who is maybe underrated become of his newness to his current position. He played quarterback up until his junior year at Hightower High School in Missouri City, Texas.
While he’ll have to refine his technique in college, he was highly productive in his two years of playing receiver in high school. He ranks fourth in school history with 1,221 receiving yards. He caught 51 passes for 984 yards and five touchdowns as a senior to pick up district co-offensive MVP honors.
“He was in our recruiting footprint at Louisiana,” Napier said. “We had evaluated him, had a previous relationship with him and really felt great about the upside. You turn on the senior tape, as you expected, a guy who took off and had a great year. I think his best football is ahead of him.
“He’s really got another gear. Fantastic ball skills, and, more importantly, the guy’s really got his act together. Great kid, great student, incredible family. I think that he’s the type of person, the type of athlete that we want at the University of Florida. So, it’s a big win today. Keary Colbert was outstanding in that situation, had a previous relationship. He was committed to Southern Cal at one point. Keary was there. Very fortunate to get Caleb.”
Tight end Hayden Hansen is one of the more intriguing athletes in the class. He’s the lowest-ranked member of the class, but that’s largely because he’s a rarity in the modern game – a blocking-first tight end. The Weatherford, Texas, native has excellent size at 6-foot-6 ¼ and 256 pounds, and he should eventually carve out an important role for himself in Napier’s many two-tight-end sets.
Hansen does possess some receiving skills, too, as he caught 38 passes for 369 yards and three scores as a senior.
“This guy is a former quarterback and a guy that really blew me away when he came and did a private workout for us at Louisiana,” Napier said. “I thought I was on reality TV or something. It was like this guy doesn’t have the opportunities that maybe I would think he would have. So, I think a little bit of that is a result of him playing quarterback. A couple games into his junior year, they moved him to tight end. He kind of buys into that.
“The film wasn’t great as a junior. He would tell you that, but he took a big step forward, and he ran a 4.79, 4.81 for us at UL. A big man with hands, and I think his ceiling is really high. You pair that with the family background, kind of a blue-collar, really bright kid, lives probably an hour-and-a-half west of Dallas, kind of out in West Texas. So, you’ve got to be intentional about getting there. So, I think there’s some things that come with that. I think it’s one of the better evaluations in the class, in my opinion.”
Savaiinaea is probably the most unlikely member of the class. He’s a 6-foot-2 and ¾, 261-pound edge rusher from Graham, Washington. The Gators aren’t exactly known for signing a bunch of players from the Evergreen State, and Savaiinaea wasn’t even on their radar until a couple of weeks ago. He was offered a scholarship while on an official visit in mid-January, and he committed a few days later.
“We just spread out and evaluated the players that were available,” Napier said. “He did some evaluation work for us. Then he gets here on the official visit, the guy was 6-3, 259 pounds and really moves well for his size. He’s not only a heck of an outside linebacker but a heck of a tight end as well. He’s going to be an edge player on defense. Big, tall, long and a lot of growth potential there. I think a really unique athlete for his size.”
While the 2022 high school signing class is possibly complete – tight end target Arlis Boardingham didn’t announce his decision on Wednesday – Napier knows that recruiting never really stops. He breaks recruiting down into four categories: the early signing period, the winter portal period, the February signing period and the spring portal period.
Three of those four phases are over, but he’ll likely get the chance to add a few more players to the 2022 roster following spring practices.
And, of course, Napier’s goal is to start the 2023 class out strong so that they don’t have to make a mad dash to the finish line like they did in this cycle. Ideally, the February signing period is for filling some of the needs that you didn’t fully address in December by adding two or three more players.
Given the circumstances, it’s been an impressive two months for Napier and his staff. When the early signing period began on Dec. 15, UF’s class was ranked last in the SEC and 79th nationally. They had only six high school commits at the time.
Now, they’ve got 17 high school players in the class, which ranks ninth in the conference and 19th nationally. They’ve also added five transfers to the roster already, including former Ohio State quarterback Jack Miller and highly coveted offensive lineman O’Cyrus Torrence from Louisiana.
Yes, Napier’s future recruiting classes need to be better than this one, but his strong close to the 2022 class was a heck of a start.
“Kids want to come to the University of Florida,” Napier said. “I think this is a powerful place. This is a strong brand. This is one of those iconic places in college football, where there’s history, where there’s tradition, where there’s been legendary players, legendary coaches. We’ve got one of the most incredible venues in all of college sports in the Swamp. We have a top-5 public education to offer. We’ve got an incredible classic college town in Gainesville, Florida, and there’s passion about this place.
“I think that that becomes a reality all of a sudden when you’re selling this place, when you’re on the road and you’re working, you’re hustling. In a short period of time, I’m pleased with the work we’ve been able to get done. That’s a tribute to all the people in the organization [who] have been working really hard. So, this is a special place. This is a real opportunity, one that’s very capable. The key here is that we take all this potential and we translate that to performance. So, I think that’s where we’ve got to go one day at a time. There’s great opportunity here, and we look forward to that.”