Billy Napier Praises TE Hayden Hansen, Hints at Gators' Offensive Scheme
The Florida Gators are preparing to increase the usage of 12 personnel — one running back, two tight end sets — in their offense drastically moving forward under head coach Billy Napier.
As a result, Napier and his inaugural UF coaching staff put an emphasis on acquiring talent at the tight end position between being hired in late November and the end of the 2022 recruiting cycle this month. The Gators held onto the commitment of tight end Tony Livingston and added another two by signing Arlis Boardingham on Wednesday and Hayden Hansen on National Signing Day.
Hansen, in particular, was an intriguing prospect that Napier and Co. had their sights set on quickly after joining the Gators. Hansen was previously committed to Napier's coaching staff at Louisiana and earned an offer from Florida in January, which led to his pledge one day later.
"Hayden is an impressive player, 6-foot-6 and a quarter. Weighed 256 on the visit," Napier described Hansen on National Signing Day. "This guy is a former quarterback and a guy that really blew me away when he came and did a private workout for us at Louisiana.
"I thought I was on reality TV or something. It was like this guy doesn't have the opportunities that maybe I would think he would have ... he ran a 4.79 [and] 4.81 [40-yard dash] for us at UL. And a big man with hands and I think his ceiling is really high."
As a result of his intangibles, Napier considers Hansen to be "one of the better evaluations in the class." Yet, he only received interest from the two schools Napier has been a head coach at, as well as programs such as Colorado, Washington State, New Mexico and a handful of smaller programs.
Napier believes this is due to Hansen's recent transition to tight end from the quarterback position, which occurred during his junior season at Weatherford (Texas) High School.
"A couple games into his junior year they moved him to tight end. He kind of buys into that. The film wasn't great as a junior, he would tell you that, but he took a big step forward," Napier explained. "A big man with hands and I think his ceiling is really high. You pair that with the family background, kind of a blue-collar, really bright kid."
After catching just 10 passes for 104 yards and a touchdown during his transition year, Hansen was significantly more productive as a senior with more comfort at the tight end position, hauling in 38 receptions for 369 yards and three scores in only one more game than the season prior.
Thanks to Hansen, Livingston and Livingston's additions, as well as tight ends on the roster in Keon Zipperer, Jonathan Odom, Nick Elksnis and Gage Wilcox, Napier is confident that the Gators can inject a heavy dose of 12-personnel groupings into their offense immediately.
Napier has said in the past that his Louisiana offense operated out of 12-personnel roughly 35 percent of the time compared to 11-personnel (one running back, one tight end) about 65 percent of the time, while Florida utilized 11-personnel on over 90 percent of plays in 2021 under previous head coach Dan Mullen, according to Alligator Army's tracking.
With seven tight ends expected on the 2022 roster, Napier is preparing to feature far more two tight-end formations than Mullen did during his tenure.
"We've got a good group on campus [and] I think we've got a couple of really good additions here in this class," Napier said. "It's pretty well documented the type of system that we ran at the prior stop.
"We'll continue with that philosophy. And certainly, tight ends will be a big piece of the puzzle in terms of presenting a lot of variables to the defense. So the more versatile those players are, the more variables we can present and the more difficult we can be to defend."
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