By Will Miles
Jay Bateman to coach linebackers
Jay Bateman has been the Co-defensive coordinator for North Carolina for the past three seasons. In that time, the Tarheels went from 54th to 75th to 101st in yards per play allowed. Not exactly a glowing performance trend, and a big reason why he was available on the coaching market.
At the same time, Bateman isn’t going to be asked to be the defensive coordinator at Florida. He’s going to be asked to coach inside linebackers (and recruit them), and there his track record is considerably stronger.
While at UNC, he was the primary recruiter for 5-star defensive lineman Keeshawn Silver, but also for 4-star DE Desmond Evans, 4-star WR Andre Green, 4-star LB RaRa Dillworth, and 4-star safety Ja’Qurious Conley among just the top-150 players he helped bring to Chapel Hill. In all, he was the primary recruiter for 12 4-star or higher recruits over the three seasons he was in North Carolina.
Now, Mack Brown has always been a good recruiter, so you don’t know how much of that is Bateman and how much of that is Brown. But Bateman clearly knows what it takes to work within a high-energy recruiting program, as Brown elevated the Tarheels recruiting the minute he arrived back at UNC.
More than anything, what Bateman offers is stability. At 48-years old and a failed Power-5 DC, he’s going to take some time to build his resume back up to where he’d want to leave. Add to that the lure of Shands Hospital given some familial medical issues and Florida is a really good fit.
If Billy Napier is as good at this as we think he might be, he’s going to lose a bunch of his younger assistants. Some stability from a more seasoned guy more likely to stay around might be a positive.
Sean Spencer to coach the DL
You can say a lot of the same about new defensive line coach (and co-defensive coordinator) Sean Spencer.
Spencer comes to Florida fresh off of serving as the defensive line coach for the New York Giants, so that pipeline to Gainesville doesn’t just end with Co-offensive coordinator/OL coach Rob Sale. But if you look at Spencer’s track record before going to the Giants, his pedigree looks pretty clear.
He started his coaching career in 1995 at Wesleyan and has had multiple college stops along the way. He finally stuck with James Franklin, first at Vanderbilt and then at Penn State before moving on to the Giants. Franklin is obviously known for his ability to recruit, and his ability to turn Vanderbilt into a competitive team in what is normally an SEC wasteland.
When you look at the players where Spencer has been the primary recruiter, the one who obviously jumps out is Micah Parsons, who is now terrorizing offenses with the Dallas Cowboys. But Saquan Barkley is on that list as well.
Again, when contrasted to Patrick Toney (aged 32), having someone with more experience – Spencer is 51 – probably brings some perspective to the room that will be valuable as Toney learns the ropes in the SEC. I don’t think there’s much doubt that Toney will get a chance to call the shots, but he’s being set up for success by having someone who has participated in major Power-5 football, and the NFL, prior to showing up in Gainesville.
Coaching Staff Complete
The Florida coaching staff is now complete, and given the rumors that came from the Athletic a few weeks ago, looks much different than what a lot of us had imagined.
That’s neither good nor bad, just the truth that not bringing in Eric Henderson from the Rams or Karl Scott from the Vikings is a different approach than Bateman and Spencer.
The reality is that we won’t know how to evaluate this staff until Napier starts putting together both his product on the field and in the recruiting room. The staff is – and should – be evaluated not against the last regime, but against the two teams who just made the championship game.
That may not be fair, but that’s what happens when you negotiate for all of the big bucks that Napier did for his “army” of staff. Early returns are positive, but that’s what they are: early.
How to evaluate?
So how do we evaluate this staff? Well, obviously the first thing to evaluate is the close to the 2022 recruiting cycle.
With the additions I’ll talk about in a minute, Florida is up to 14th nationally for the 2022 recruiting class when you factor in transfers. Add in a guy like Harold Perkins and you’re going to jump up into the top-10, and potentially even top-5. That’s a good start.
But Perkins (and safety Jacoby Mathews) are really the keys here. Perkins is the 5th overall player and Mathews is ranked 36th. Add that to what Napier already has (Kamari Wilson, 28th; Shemar James, 64th; and Chris McClellan, 100th), and you have a collection of players who are likely to contribute at least what historically gets contributed to championship teams from their transition classes.
Nick Saban only had one top-100 player in his 2007 transition class, so to bring in five is a strong foundation. Combining that with a huge 2023 class would set Florida up for a Saban-like rise to the SEC elite.
It doesn’t take long in this conference to turn that corner. Just one or two elite recruiting classes starts to turn things around, with or without success on the field. I mean, just look at the recruiting success that Jimbo Fisher is having at Texas A&M despite only having one good year in 2020.
So I hope all of these coaches are good developers of talent and skilled at transferring their knowledge to their pupils. But it’s much more important that they be skilled relationship builders and bring in top-tier talent, even if they’re limited on-field coaches.
Ron Zook showed us all the value of that.
The Standard
Speaking of recruiting, if you got a glimpse of the new football dorms – called “The Standard” – you realized that this isn’t your father’s dorm room anymore.
I have to say, I feel like I would have worked harder in high school to be an athlete if that was what was waiting for me at a big-time college were I a scholarship athlete. From rooms that look like hotels to rooftop pools with large-screen TVs and views of campus, the set-up looks much more like a vacation to Las Vegas than the dorm experience we all remember from our time at UF.
This is to be expected in this day and age. These players bring in so much money that the arms race for their services is more than just name, image and likeness. Sure, that’s a big part of it, but these guys are going to expect first-class service the whole way around. Especially on official visits, that is critical as your first impression of a place is so valuable.
So being able to go to Spurrier’s restaurant and see the Heisman Trophies makes an impression. Being able to take an official visit in January wearing shorts and slides make an impression (especially for those who are from the north). Having social gatherings in a rooftop pool after a day of meeting with coaches, academic advisors and staff makes an impression.
I have to admit that after years of hearing from Dan Mullen about the Gator Standard, I recoiled a little bit at the name of the facility. But after seeing it, I think that makes sense. The first impression you want to give every recruit is that the standard at Florida is first class.
We already know that’s true when it comes to the Swamp. We also know that’s true when it comes to the classroom. But now it appears to be true when it comes to all the little details that make someone say “I can see myself coming here instead of Athens, Tuscaloosa, or Clemson.”
Whether it’s a good use of money is a different topic for a different time. The reality is that it is the way the college football recruiting game is being played these days. And Napier has Florida actually playing the game, rather than trying to overcome a substandard first impression.
Jalen Kimber
Transfers dominated much of the Gators news this weekend, even with guys like Harold Perkins on official visits.
First, news came that cornerback Jalen Kimber – the 105th ranked player in the 2020 class – was transferring from Georgia to Florida. Beyond just taking someone away from the Bulldogs, it’s important to note that Kimber was battling for the starting corner job for Georgia this season before an injury shut him down.
We all realize how good Kirby’s defense was in 2021, and Kimber was battling to be a big part of that defense. That say something about how good he could be, though as Alabama showed in the SEC Championship Game, the secondary was the one area of weakness for the 2021 Dawgs.
From a roster perspective, depth at corner wasn’t completely necessary. With guys like Jason Marshall, Jordan Young, Avery Helm, Ethan Pouncey, Jaydon Hill and Jadarrius Perkins, you could argue that numbers were a little bit tight but weren’t terrible. I think the argument you would make is that other than Marshall, none of those guys have proven to be a lockdown corner, and when you think about what Patrick Toney is going to want to do on defense, playing man-to-man is going to be essential.
Kimber should bring that. And if you combine his ability – assuming he’s completely healthy – with Marshall and the depth that Napier is building at safety, the DBU assessment of the Florida program that’s been in hibernation for a few years may be making a comeback.
O’Cyrus Torrence
But Kimber is just window dressing. Florida probably would have been okay at cornerback without him. The offensive line is a different story, and with the addition of Louisiana transfer O’Cyrus Torrence, the Gators just got a lot better up-front.
Torrence was a 3-star prospect in 2019, but don’t let that fool you. He was an all-state defensive tackle in high school and then was second-team All-Sun Belt in 2020 and first-team in 2021 at right guard under Napier. He should be able to step in right away and be not just a contributor, but a factor at guard for the Gators.
Last season when Stewart Reese and Jean Delance were out consisted of Richard Gouraige (LT), Ethan White (LG), Kingley Eguakun (C), Josh Braun (RG) and Michael Tarquin (RT). With Torrence slotting in at right guard, that leaves Braun and Tarquin to duke it out for the right tackle spot, or potentially battling with White for the left guard spot.
If nothing else, it puts Florida in a situation where there are now six offensive linemen who have significant experience and means the unit can weather an injury. You’d still like to see more depth there, but Torrence changes it from a position of immense need to one that just needs depth.
That’s a major upgrade.
Miguel Mitchell
Not to be overlooked, safety Miguel Mitchell out of Oxford High School in Louisiana committed to Florida this weekend as well.
Mitchell is the 891st ranked player overall and is coming into a class that contains safeties Kamari Wilson, Devin Moore and potentially Jacoby Mathews so to expect a major impact from him early is probably misguided.
But I’m going to be writing in the next couple of weeks why I think Napier and Toney are targeting safeties. I think there’s a reason and given that it makes sense to have redundancies at that particular position given where college football is going.
And beyond that, Mitchell fits right into the category of a guy who’s going to spend four years at your program who you probably won’t have to worry about the transfer portal, while adding critical depth both on defense and special teams.
I run a research and development lab at a small chemical company. We need folks who want to build a career on doing laboratory experimentation for the rest of their lives and don’t wish to move into a management position. Mitchell strikes me as that sort of commit, where the potential upside is there but even if all he ever turns into is a valuable contributor on special teams, that’s well worth a scholarship.
How many scholarships are left?
Napier has brought in a bunch of players, but hasn’t really lost nearly as many as I thought he would.
Sure, Khris Bogle, Mohamoud Diabate, Kemore Gamble, Andrew Chatfield, Jacob Copeland, and Gerald Mincey have all hit the portal. But that’s only six players, and considering Emory Jones, Lloyd Summerall, and Dante Zanders all were either in, or rumored to be in, the portal at some point this offseason, suggests that Napier has everyone’s attention.
But not having a mass exodus does mean that Florida is going to have a scholarship crunch.
With 12 recruits in the 2022 class – and six transfers – I have the Gators scholarship number at 85. The NCAA has indicated that it may not allow super seniors – in this case Trey Dean and Ventrell Miller – to extend that scholarship cap in 2022 like was allowed in 2021. That means Florida is either right at the cap without adding anybody else at this point.
That would mean that if nothing changes, Florida can’t sign anybody else in this class. I don’t think that’s a realistic way to proceed, and so I’d expect to see more departures either soon after signing day or after spring practice as pictures both in Gainesville and other programs start to become more clear.
The coming attrition
Where might that attrition come from?
The obvious first answer is at QB. Emory Jones has decided to stick it out for now, and I think we should laud him for that. But just like Joe Burrow battled with Dwayne Haskins at Ohio State for the job in the spring of 2018, Burrow was the QB at LSU by the time the fall came around. I suspect the same will be true of Jones should he not be able to wrestle the job from Jack Miller and Anthony Richardson.
I suspect we’ll see some movement at the offensive line position. The addition of Torrence means Florida now has four guards on the roster from the 2019 recruiting class (Torrence, Riley Simonds, Will Harrod, and Ethan White). With Christian Williams and Jalen Farmer coming in from the 2022 class and Kamryn Waites transferring in from Louisiana as well, the OL room is going to be crowded for those who haven’t already shown significant development on the field and are redshirt juniors or seniors.
And the area where we’re likely to see the most movement may be at safety.
Rashad Torrence and Tre’Vez Johnson got a lot of playing time, but they came in during the 2020 recruiting class with Mordecai McDaniel, Kamar Wilcoxon and Finley Graham. Add to that glut the signings of Dakota Mitchell, Corey Collier and Donovan McMillon in 2021 and now Wilson, Moore and Mitchell in 2022 and it’s easy to see that playing time may be limited. That’s especially true with Trey Dean coming back for one more year as well.
I suspect Florida is going to sign 17 or 18 commits (so 5-6 more high school signees) and probably add a couple more transfers as well. Without any scholarships left, that means Napier will have to find a way to free all those spots before the fall comes.
So after spring practice, don’t freak out if there is a rush of transfer portal announcements. That has to happen, not just because those players aren’t getting playing time, but because there aren’t enough scholarships to go around.