Make no mistake, the face of Florida football right now is sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway, who was a five-star signee in the 2024 recruiting class.
Yet the guts and glue of Billy Napier’s Gators can be found with those who signed in the 2023 cycle, a class that came on the heels of a 6-7 record in Napier’s debut season and a dreadful 30-3 loss to Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl. Florida’s 2023 class contained 22 members and finished 13th in the 247Sports.com team rankings, and by the start of the 2024 season a year-and-a-half later, only one player from that collection — defensive lineman Will Norman of Camden, New Jersey — had left the program.
No other school ranked among the top-15 classes in 2023 had such a minuscule departure rate during that time.
“We have been committed to recruiting high school players,” Napier said last week at the Southeastern Conference’s annual media days event in Atlanta. “We have signed, for the most part, three big groups of high school players, and we’ve been strategic with the portal in terms of immediate needs, but I do think that we’re trying to build a veteran team.
“I tell that 2023 group every day that they came here to have this kind of experience. We’re in position to keep the momentum that we have, and it’s important that they’re the example.”
Florida is just 19-19 in three seasons under Napier, which includes a 1-5 mark against former SEC East rivals Georgia and Tennessee. The Gators have lost all three games to the Bulldogs by at least two touchdowns, but last year’s team capped an 8-5 record with victories over the ranked duo of LSU and Ole Miss, a 20-point rout of Florida State in Tallahassee and a 33-8 Gasparilla Bowl whipping of Tulane.
The Gators weren’t immune to NCAA transfer portal exits following last season, losing four players to other SEC programs — cornerback Ja’Keem Jackson (LSU), defensive linemen Kelby Collins (Alabama) and T.J. Searcy (Texas A&M), and receiver Andy Jean (Arkansas). Two others are now at Championship Subdivision programs, but of the 15 members who remain from the 2023 signing class in Gainesville, 14 are expected to contribute significantly this season.
Projected starting safeties Jordan Castell and Bryce Thornton hail from the 2023 signing class, as do projected starting cornerback Dijon Johnson and top two nickel backs Sharif Denson and Aaron Gates. Two projected starters on the offensive line, left guard Knijeah Harris and right tackle Bryce Lovett, are from that class as well, as are running backs Ja’Kobi Jackson and Treyaun Webb, who are certain to get their share of carries behind expected starter and 2024 signee Jadan Baugh.
The top 2023 signee could be receiver Eugene Wilson III, who was limited to only four games last season due to a hip injury that required surgery, with Aidan Mizell also in the receiver rotation from the 2023 crop.
“I think nowadays it’s more important to identify the character component and the circle of influence around the kid,” Napier said. “I think if you recruit a problem, they’ll continue to be a problem, and I think we present our product in a way where we’re selling the degree, the alumni network and the Gator-made program, and you have to be up for the challenge of trying to get Florida back to where it’s been before.
“I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to keep it together. We told them when they came in, ‘Look, it’s not going to all be sunshine and rainbows here. We’re in this thing for the long haul.’ So I think a lot of this is how you pitch it in recruiting. We’re going to continue to do that, because retention is more important than it’s ever been.”
Moore to USF
Gaston Moore, who served as Tennessee’s backup quarterback last season to Nico Iamaleava, will spend his sixth and final year at South Florida.
Moore was a member of Josh Heupel’s final UCF team in 2020, and he entered the transfer portal within a week of Tennessee’s 42-17 loss at Ohio State last December in a first-round College Football Playoff pairing. The 6-foot-2, 212-pounder from Hilton Head, South Carolina, played in six games last season, completing 16 of 27 passes for 201 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
His most meaningful action by far occurred in the 33-14 win over Mississippi State in Neyland Stadium, when Iamaleava was in concussion protocol the entire second half and Moore completed 5 of 8 passes for 38 yards in helping the Volunteers extend their 20-7 halftime advantage.
USF is coached by Alex Golesh, who was Tennessee’ offensive coordinator during the 2021-22 seasons.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.