Billy Napier assesses recruiting victories amid tumultuous year one

Billy Napier was paid a lot of money to come in and turn the Florida Gators football program around. That certainly won’t happen overnight. But as he embarks on the second year of his tenure, help is on the way. Napier reeled in the nation’s No. 13 overall recruiting class in the 2023 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus Rankings. He did that despite the Gators posting a 6-7 overall record, finishing off their season with a 30-3 rout they suffered at the hands of the Oregon State Beavers. On Wednesday evening, he joined On3’s Andy Staples on the Andy Staples podcast to discuss how he was able to land such a talented class, despite having a down year in his first season in Gainesville.

“I think that ultimately, young people, they go through their own recruiting process. They go visit these other institutions. They see the place. They see the resources. They understand the degree, the alumni network, experiences that we can create through GatorMade. Equipping them, educating them, and then you know, our football plan is proven. It works. So, I think we’ve got a unique combination of things that we offer. That we completely rebuilt the player experience. Our administration has been phenomenal,” Napier said on Wednesday evening.

Napier has been busy touching on several other topics the past few days at SEC Media Days in Nashville, Tennessee. Check out the article below from On3’s Kaiden Smith, in which he discusses the Gators’ quarterback competition between Graham Mertz and Jack Miller.

Billy Napier on the Florida quarterback competition

One of the most exciting quarterback battles in the SEC this offseason is in Gainesville, as Graham Mertz and Jack Miller battle for the Florida Gators’ starting quarterback job.

Both QBs transferred from other programs, with Miller joining the team in 2022 and Mertz transferring in this offseason. And at SEC Media Days, Florida head coach Billy Napier spoke about Mertz and his addition to the starting quarterback competition.

“I’ve been very impressed with Graham,” Napier said. “Graham’s a 32-start player, he’s played over 2,000 snaps at a really established program in Wisconsin and we went through an extensive process to make that decision. I think Graham’s an accomplished player, but more importantly, I’ve been impressed with the person and the leader.”

Mertz definitely has the experience advantage in the matchup, throwing for 5,405 yards and 38 touchdown passes in his career at Wisconsin. And according to Napier, he’s also been checking the boxes in the intangible department as well, pushing Miller during the ongoing competition.

“This guy has an incredible work ethic, he is in the building and he is fanatical about his preparation,” Napier said. “I think that has helped the competition, I think it’s caused Jack to respond. Jack’s had an incredible offseason and he’s in position for a great camp.”

Miller was a four-star high school prospect out of Scottsdale, Arizona where he was ranked the No. 26 quarterback in the nation for the 2020 class according to On3’s Industry Ranking. Ohio State was his school of choice out of high school, appearing in six games in his two seasons with the Buckeyes before taking his talents down to The Swamp.

Miller only played in one game last year for the Gators, serving as Florida’s starter versus Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. He didn’t have the strongest showing, completing just 13 passes for 180 yards and failing to reach the end zone. But Napier is still optimistic about his quarterback competition and has been all offseason, even liking what he’s seen out of his redshirt freshman quarterback.

“And we’ve been really pleased with a young player Max Brown, he’s had a good summer, he’s impressed the staff, he’s impressed his teammates. We’re excited about that competition, it’ll go into training camp and we’ll make a decision when we see fit for the team,” Napier concluded.

On3’s Kaiden Smith also contributed to this article.