Billy Napier explains blueprint that lured Florida's 2024 recruiting class

The Florida football program is in a pretty unfamiliar place right now, having finished with a losing season for a third straight year. For a program that’s been dominant for the better part of the past three decades, it’s a low that feels both embarrassing and haunting.

It’s a stark reminder of how far the program was allowed to fall behind, in a number of different ways.

Coach Billy Napier is hoping that he’s sold a new wave of recruits on being the ones to change that narrative. And he’s done so based on the actions of his first two years at the helm in Gainesville.

“I think we — after going into Year 2, we’ve completely rebuilt the player experience here from a facility, infrastructure, resource standpoint,” Napier said on the SEC Network. “I think this group saw the opportunity.”

The 2024 class that Florida signed had promise of being a top-five class, but some last-minute defections doomed the class to being a fringe top-10 group.

As things currently stand, the 2024 class ranks No. 11 nationally.

That probably won’t be good enough for Florida to get back to regularly competing for SEC and national titles, so the focus shifts back to Napier’s changes. As he noted, the program now has a beautiful new stand-alone football facility.

He’s done little things, too, like helping the players’ everyday experience by reorganizing the parking and living situations.

All those little perks are things recruits care about.

But the big thing Napier wants to sell his next wave of recruits on is the chance to do something special: to help turn Florida around and win championships again. The program’s history is proof positive it can happen again.

“We talk about being up for the challenge. We know we have work to do to rebuild Florida football,” Napier said. “We’re in the process of doing that. And ultimately, that’s the challenge we offered to this group, is you can be a part of that. It’s been done before here. We all know the great history of this place and certainly, we’re capable of getting back to there.”

Napier’s team was one of the youngest in college football in 2023. He has proven that if you are ready to contribute, you will play.

Expect to see a good chunk of that 2024 class on the field next fall, doing exactly what Napier challenged them to do. Namely, bring back Florida football as the majority of the fans know it. That’s not fighting for bowl eligibility, but competing for titles.

It might take time, but Napier is convinced he has begun laying the foundation for exactly that.