Paul Finebaum reacts to Florida's struggles in the transfer portal

Florida’s issues have continued into the offseason with the Gators dealing with a significant exodus in the transfer portal. With that coming after the past two seasons, Paul Finebaum says it’s only applying more pressure on The Swamp.

Finebaum assessed some of the latest portal trends during an appearance on ‘McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning’ on Monday. With 17 players in the portal, several of which were impactful pieces from this past fall, paired with their full schedule for next season, Finebaum sees this past week or so as having been a very long one for the Gators.

“Well, I think it has been a constant subject. But I think there’s a lot of eyes on Gainesville,” said Finebaum. “That’s not going to change, especially after Wednesday night when we saw that schedule.”

Princely Umanmielen, Trevor Etienne, Caleb Douglas, and Max Brown are some of the names that have left Gainesville this month. Joey Slackman, Trikweze Bridges, and Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson have offset those to a degree with their commitments. All in all, though, this next roster will look much different for Billy Napier.

According to Finebaum, Napier can’t make it too much better on National Signing Day either. Come Wednesday, they expect to sign a Top-10 class per On3’s Industry Ranking with a current total of 19 commitments, including a pair of five-stars and 10 total four-stars.

Still, he sees that as just putting a bandaid on a wound that’s going to require much more treatment overall.

“Billy Napier is picking up a few players,” said Finebaum. “I’m really eager to see how he lands on Wednesday. But having a big recruiting day nowadays just doesn’t have the same impact.”

“It used to be able to really get mileage,” Finebaum continued. “How many times have you guys seen a program that had a wayward season, had a big December or February for that matter, and everybody gallops into the next season? That can’t happen because the field is so small now in terms of the actual numbers you need.”

To Finebaum, Napier can’t recruit himself out of this position after his two years as head coach. It doesn’t hurt but, with these portal losses on top of going 11-14 the last two years, he says it’s going to take a step forward with their record in 2024 for anyone to think that they’ve made any real progress.

“I don’t think, even with a major haul, he is going to be able to dramatically change the momentum of that program – short of winning those games,” said Finebaum.