Billy Napier explains importance of recruiting Florida, Georgia areas

Recruiting is, more often than not, taking care of business where you do it best. That means recruiting your home base as well as your surrounding areas. That was Billy Napier’s focus during his first full cycle as Florida’s head coach and, based on his success from Wednesday, he wants to continue to lock in on it within his future classes.

Napier talked about recruiting Florida and its surrounding states well during his National Signing Day press conference this week. He said recruiting players so close in proximity to the program allows the staff to build a quality relationship with the players and vice versa, both on and off campus.

“I think you talk about sustainability, proximity to players, really focusing on your radius,” Napier said. “I think it helps the evaluation process because you get more exposure to the kid, to the family. They get more exposure to your staff and the University of Florida.”

“The more times we can get them here? I think that helps inform them of how special this place is. But also I think it helps us evaluate players.”

The Gators signed the nation’s No. 10 class this week per On3’s Consensus Team Rankings. It featured 20 signees overall and, of those recruits, 14 of them came from Florida. Four others came from Georgia and Alabama. Only QB Jaden Rashada (California) and DL Will Norman (New Jersey) came from states outside of the proximity Napier described.

Napier recognizes that he can take the Gator brand anywhere and find success in recruiting. However, considering the hotbeds full of championship-level talent all around his program, he wonders why he’d place his focus anywhere else?

“I do believe Florida is a national brand and we can recruit anywhere. We proved that. (But) Florida has got 275 Division I players a year,” Napier said. “So does the state of Georgia. (The) Carolinas are nearby, Alabama is nearby. (We) kind of consider that the core area.”

“You think about National Championship teams in the last 13 years? 66 percent of the rosters come from those five states,” said Napier. “That’s why this is a good job, right?”

After finishing his first season in Gainesville at 6-7, Napier will want to get things rolling with his own recruiting classes soon. This Top-10 class in 2023 is a strong start to that. They’ll hopefully help him find more success next season and in seasons to come as he continues to build the program his own way.