Billy Napier anticipates Florida adding another quarterback in the offseason

On Thursday, Florida football closed out its spring practices with a team scrimmage in front of fans before heading into the break. The game itself was close, albeit not terribly exciting as the Orange team triumphed over the Blue team 10-7 thanks to a late field goal. Coming out of the scrimmage, it’s fair to question whether Florida needs to add more players in the portal once it opens back up.

For those who are hoping Billy Napier recruits this second portal window hard, you’re in luck, because it sounds like the Gator head coach is gearing up to add some difference-makers to round out the roster. He said after the scrimmage that UF has scholarships to fill and plans to do so.

“We’re under 85 scholarships, so 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. It’s been good to us so far. I think our guys have done a really good job in the back room. The personnel department is doing a really good job, and the staff has been able to execute and go recruit, so 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.”

On3’s own Nick de la Torre narrowed the topic down to the quarterback position, and asked if Napier plans to add any more quarterbacks before the start of the season. That’s a possibility, per Napier, whether that means from the portal or a high school reclassification or by some other means. One way or another: it’s likely another QB ends up in Gainesville.

“I think that process is underway to some degree. I think we’ll know more pretty soon. So that’s what I would say in that regard. But yes, we anticipate adding a player to our team at that position,” said Napier of the QB room.

Of course, Florida already added a big name quarterback through the portal in former Wisconsin Badger Graham Mertz. He performed well in the scrimmage but Napier appears to want some more competition for Mertz before he’s ready to hand the keys over.

So, what Gator fans saw on Thursday is apparently far from the finished product. The defense actually won the day in this low-scoring affair while the offensive line appeared to struggle all night long giving quarterbacks time to throw or opening up lanes for the running backs. Sure, it was an experimental evening more than anything, but perhaps offensive line is also on the target list for Napier in the portal.