Why has Florida Gators Football Struggled to Recruit?

The Florida Gators have been working tirelessly throughout May and June to strengthen its recruiting class in the 2025 cycle.

It has held official visit after official visit over the last three weeks to improve its 2025 class.
However, for anyone who’s on the outside looking in, it looks like the recruiting efforts haven’t paid off.

Florida’s 2025 recruiting class ranks 64th overall in the 2025 Team Rankings on 247Sports. Additionally, they are ranked 15th out of 16 teams in the SEC, only beating out Mississippi State.

Why is it as bad as it is?

Well, there are many driving points in a high school prospect’s recruitment. Results, money (NIL), relationships and where a team plays.

For the latter, it is not the most important. Yeah, sure, kids love to be in a big college town but that is only part of the picture for them.

What drives a kid's recruitment in today’s landscape is the relationship between them and the coach, the money you generate through NIL, and the team performing to their best ability on the field.

For Florida, coach Billy Napier and his unlimited number of staffers are putting in as much as any other coach out there.

He and his assistant coaches cultivate positive relationships that give them the chance in any recruitment and the University of Florida has no shortage of generating NIL funds through boosters or other deals with outside partners.

Yet, results have been slow this recruiting cycle.

I believe the biggest reason for this poor recruiting is the questions surrounding Napier’s long-term future and the results being shown on the field. The Gators have been underwhelming through the first two years under Napier.

Overall, the Gators are 11-14 with Napier at the helm. They haven’t had a winning record and only made one bowl game, one in which they got manhandled.

And it does not come any easier for 2024.

The consensus around the Gators' 2024 schedule is that they have the toughest path of anyone in the entire country.

Florida has scheduled games with Miami, Tennessee, Texas, Florida State, Ole Miss, LSU and Georgia, one of the best teams yearly. All of these teams will be either ranked or within contention of being placed in the top-25 to start the season.

Furthermore, the only game out of conference that should be a guaranteed win is against Samford.

If things go wrong for the Gators, there’s a scenario where Napier is not guiding the Orange & Blue in 2025.

If that’s the case, this will put off any recruit who was thinking about pairing up with the Gators and will drive any recruit out of the class that’s already committed, at least until a new coach is hired, and by then it could be too late.

One recruit even mentioned the need to see results on the field this season after his visit earlier this month.

“It is very important for me. I just want to see how the program ascends like he says it would. It would be a very strong impact [on his decision],” four-star defensive back Jaylan Morgan said after his visit.

So, a lot of recruits want to see Florida walk the walk before they talk the talk. However, winning cures all, and a slow start could turn into a sprint to the finish if the Gators can get results this fall.