Billy Napier confirms Kamryn Waites suffered Achilles injury, offers recovery timeline

Late last month, Florida lineman Kamryn Waites suffered an Achilles injury in workouts, meaning it could be months before he gets back on the field. Gators head coach Billy Napier provided that timeline on Wednesday during his National Signing Day press conference.

Waites went down with the injury during the “foundation phase” of workouts, On3 and Gators Online’s Nick de la Torre reported. Napier said the recovery timeline isn’t much different than that of a torn ACL, which could be upward of 9-12 months for a football player, according to UFHealth.org.

“Very similar to an ACL reconstruction in terms of timeline,” Napier said. “He’ll be kind of getting introduced back into things when we approach training camp.”

Waites is gearing up for his second season with the Gators after transferring from Louisiana last year. He got his first start in the Las Vegas Bowl against Oregon State after appearing in the previous 12 games.

Billy Napier says it is ‘not permissible’ to comment on specifics of Jaden Rashada fallout

With Florida left in the dust after four-star quarterback Jaden Rashada requested a release from his National Letter of Intent, Billy Napier would like to explain things. Unfortunately, because of current rules regarding NIL, there isn’t much the Gators coach is allowed to say.

Napier was asked to elaborate on the situation in a recent press conference, but couldn’t go into much detail. However, he did offer some opinions on the state of college football and where he believes things are headed with NIL.

“It’s not permissible for me to get specific,” he said. “I think the big thing here as the dust settles, our focus is preparing our team. The group of players that have joined our team. I wish we could get into the specifics, but we’re not allowed to.

“The reality is the current structure of NIL — with third parties being involved, agents being involved, marketing representatives, lawyers, collectives — is very fluid. I think (it’s) a very unique dynamic. We’re living in the time in college athletics that we’ll look back upon. But I think ultimately NIL is a strength for the Gators. I’m very pleased with where we’re at relative to our current players — all athletes — and what we’ve been able to get accomplished in a short amount of time.”