Napier on Florida's Portal Plans Post-Signing Day

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida Gators signed 23 total high school recruits on Wednesday for Early Signing Day, and it won't be done adding to its roster. With the NCAA Transfer Portal opening on Dec. 9, the Florida Gators will look to add more talent as loses players to the portal.

After Wednesday's signing day, UF head coach Billy Napier gave some insight into how he will handle the portal when it opens saying it depends on how many players Florida retains at each position versus how many high school athletes it signs.

"It is fluid," Napier said. "I mean, we certainly have certain positions that are specific, like a lot of it will be based off of player retention."

At the time of publish, Florida had lost 11 total players who plan to NCAA Transfer Portal, eight of which are on scholarship.

Florida is also in the midst of playing a numbers battle as it looks to meet the NCAA's new roster limit of 105. Not to mention, the Gators will be more limited as the SEC is still holding onto an 85-man scholarship limit while following the NCAA's 105-man total limit.

By Gators Illustrated's most-recent count, which takes into account the signing class, portal departures, players who will have exhausted their eligibility at the end of this season and those who remain on the team with eligibility, the Gators are under the SEC scholarship limit with 84 players but sit over the 105-man limit with 121 players.

Meaning, most of Florida's departures will come from it's walk-on group, but it'll have to see multiple scholarship players depart if it wants to make roster improvements via the portal. However, Napier also noted that it depends on who is even available in the portal.

"You will find out as we are evaluating the pool of players that are available, we will get a pulse on who we've retained, who we've lost, paired with who we sign (Wednesday)," Napier said. "Each position we kind of have a quota. We carry this number of players. We'll be hitting that quota. The portal will be the next opportunity to add a player."

Napier did not note specific positions the Gators will look at in the portal, but early favorites for what Florida may look for are an outside receiver, offensive tackle, big-body nose tackle and possible a veteran defensive back.

"I tell (Director of College Personell) Bird Sherrill and our staff in the back that we always anticipate needing one player out of the portal at every position just in case. You never know what type of attrition you may have," Napier said.

As the Gators prep for the portal opening, Napier and the staff are in the middle of evaluating each position, he said, and then begin planning its visit list and process, which will include current veteran players hosting transfer targets.

"Right now we're evaluating every position," Napier said. "Then we will be strategic about who we bring in for visits. We'll bring in more players for visits this year because there's an unlimited number. Again, we will include our players in that process, right? We will get those players around our veteran leaders. We'll make sure they fit from a cultural standpoint. Obviously they've got to pass the evaluation physically, as well."