Only because he knows no one is going to actually revisit his recruiting record. Especially with a bunch of UF beat writers providing revisionist history for him.
I believe the ranking services award points to your best 20 players (not sure if they are all counting exactly 20, but generally something like that). If you only have 18 you of course will be behind teams that had a lower avg but get “points” for the full 20 signees. With a star average in the top 10 range that is more indicative of the quality of the class IMO. Still can lament the trashy NIL shenanigans that worked against us, took away a class closer to top 3, but most needs were hit despite that. Just wish we kept that 5* CB and had a 5* WR to pair with Lagway (i.e Lagway’s Percy). However in reality if we do well in the Portal and maybe add something in late signing period, none of this matters. Hell when you are 5-7 it might even be preferable to get 4 more out of the portal that are ready to play CFB, certainly more preferable than taking a last minute reach on a 3* which was the only option in the old days.
Looking at what “was lost” vs what was gained, I don’t see any justification for the drop in ratings. It must be simply that we took 18. With the transfers, this is undoubtedly a top ten class that patched holes, created depth, and brought in program changing athletes. Go Gators!!!
The rankings, I believe, is based upon a given class's best 18 players. Florida signed only 18 HS-players and some of them were 3*'s" 5*'s: 2 (rank #4, #6) 4*'s: 7 (rank #81, 124, 138, 139, 187, 229) and Abrams. 3*'s: 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 18 players had signed with UF in the 2024 class. Florida actually has 8 players still ranked in the 247 Top 300 rankings. Florida would need another 9-10 players ranked in the top 300 in order to to have a higher profile than their current #15/16 class. Georgia actually has 18 players ranked in the top 300 with their lowest as #231 and another two players ranked as 4*'s. The Bulldogs flipped #58 N.Johnson from UF. One of our nemesis, #3 Texas, has 7 players ranked in the top 300; two flipped from UF (#32, 244). #7 Auburn has 10 players ranked in the top 300; two of them flipped from UF (#34, 73). #4 Miami also has 10 players in the top 300; one flipped from UF (#177). =========================================== As for the eight Florida flops, UF lost the following rated players: 5*'s: 1 (rank #32) 4*'s: 5 (rank #34, 58, 73, 177, 244) 3*'s: 2 Optimally, Florida could have signed 26 players had no attrition occured and probably be ranked with a top 3 class: At one time, Florida had 13-14 (Top 300)-players "committed" to the Gators. lol. Hopefully next year, Florida will have better luck in recruiting. ============================================
Mullen did not do much worse than this, especially when you account for portal guys like Greenard, Grimes, and Jefferson. Not saying we should've kept him. But moving into year 3, Mullen was in a much better spot than Napier, and he had much more to show for his efforts.
Mullen utterly failed to recruit defense in much the same way Muschamp failed on offense. There is no question Mullen “broke” the defense to the point it seemed like our offense needed to score on every possession. Unfortunately Napier hasn’t turned around the D at the speed we might have hoped. Have been kind of stuck with vanilla ball control offense and a still terrible defense. The DB play and linebacker play still look especially bad. Almost nonexistent bad when it comes to linebackers. Hopefully Graham is the real deal, but UF needs a lot more than that to have a chance to get near competitive again.
I’m sorry, but to compare the two is just complete injustice. Yes, Napier is partly responsible because of the performance on the field creating some of the negative perception… which absolutely doesn’t help. But Mullen’s neglect in recruiting and the program in general brought us to ground zero in the first place. No one can say that CBN didn’t work the recruiting trail 10x harder than his predecessors. The portal wasn’t a thing …and NIL wasn’t thing, when Dan flew into Gainesville. He built some equity on previous classes, until his own classes crashed & burned. The biggest difference between the 2, is that this was Billy’s destination job. From day 1. Work his ass off. Build a sustainable program and retire. He’s invested. For Dan, UF was never the end game. It was all about Dan. I’m not convinced BN is the guy to lead us to where we want to go. But I am convinced he’s the kind of guy I want to get behind to try and get us there. IMO he needs to let go of recruiting after this cycle and just coach his ass off. The relationships & bonds built in June don’t mean a whole lot in December when some last minute bags are dropped in the final days.
How many more significant transfers did he pull after those guys? Shorter and who else? Even his portal contributions dried up
That’s the thing he wasn’t recruiting better and was competing against much worse versions of FSU, Miami, and Tennessee. The recruiting rankings that he is standing on also do not take consideration for all the 4*s he landed that never even participated in a single spring/fall camp. I’m frustrated with Napier’s record on the field but at what point did Mullen bring in 5 freshman that could be All SEC and at what point did he bring in a player of DJ or LJs caliber. Napier is bring in more Top100 kids but with smaller classes. He has also brought in an All American and multiple All SEC transfers as well. Mullen definitely brought in quality transfer WRs but so has Napier.
More than anything I believe youth is our problem. Physical and mental maturity, combined with experience, more so than raw talent, creates wins. You combine positional knowledge, with in-game experience, with mental maturity (no thrown shoes or spitting penalties), with familiarity of your role and your teammates roles, with physical size and strength and you become pretty much unbeatable. Years ago photos circulated of what players looked like as incoming freshmen vs what they looked like as juniors/seniors, after spending 3 to 4 years in the weight room and at the training table. The photos, physical transformations, were mind blowing, actually hard to believe. The visuals made it easy to understand why young teams cannot compete with experienced teams. Mature talented players create championships. I’m sorry, but it’s just not realistic to believe any very young team will consistently win against older, more experienced teams; just not gonna happen. Hang in there, we’re playing very young kids, we’re gonna be OK (in time).
Mullen was lazy. He took guys the services liked but Saban and Kirby didn't. Some fell in his lap that wanted badly to be Gators and then were wasted. Some guys had talent but just not winners. Some were lazy. Very few burned to be great. Very few were leaders. Mullen's laziness made the whole program lazy. I could go on but I'm feeling lazier as I write this.
