Florida head coach Billy Napier is reportedly not worried about the transfer portal. Despite losing 13 players in the winter portal cycle and acquiring only five, Napier is optimistic about the 2025 team.
The Gators are hoping for improvement from the embattled head coach, after struggling to hit the eight-win mark in the regular season three years in a row. With a tough stretch of games including LSU, Miami, Texas A&M, and Ole Miss, and matchups with powerhouses Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee, the litmus test is on full blast for Napier’s team.
Billy Napier Says Florida Isn’t Worried About Transfer Portal
Florida HC Billy Napier told the press Wednesday he’s finally adapted to the new norm in college football, despite an 18-month period of “sitting around [and] waiting.”
The CFB transfer portal is officially open
Here’s what #Gators head coach Billy Napier said about his team Saturday
“We’re in position where we don’t have to worry about the portal… we’ve retained 98% of our team” pic.twitter.com/31fExBJuRr
— Daren Stoltzfus WESH (@DarenStoltzfus) April 16, 2025
“I would tell you a lot of my job is ‘TBD’, right?” Napier said. “I mean, I think what we’ve tried to do, and I’ve said this publicly. I think for probably the first 18 months, I’m sitting around waiting for someone to tell me what to do, like ‘what are the rules, hey, what can we do, what can’t we do?’” he said.
“You know, just got to a point where it was like ‘screw that.’ We’re coming up with our own rules, our own system, we’re not waiting for anyone to tell us what to do, we’re just gonna be aggressive and go do what we think is best.
“We’ve done that—we’ve created a great system, you know, I’m very thankful for [NIL fund] Florida Victorious, their leadership, how they’ve enabled us to acquire talent, you know, the resources that we have, the investors that we have and the roster that we’ve been able to put together is a result of that.”
“So if you spend all your days looking around at what everybody else is doing and all that, it’s a waste of time. We’ve got our system, we’ve used analytics, we’ve got our algorithms built, and we are aggressive in what we think is best for the team, and we’ve got great personnel.”
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“I’m very thankful for the front office people we’ve hired, [Ass. AD/Football GM] Nick Polk, [Dir. of Football Strategy] Ben Elsner.
“I think [GM for Personnel] Jacob [LaFrance] and [Ass. Dir. of Development] Fred [Crow] and [Quality Control for Wide Receivers] Chad Lucas have done a good job, and you know, right now, we’re in the position where we don’t have to worry about the portal.
“If anything, we may add a player or two, but we’ve retained the majority—98% of our team—and we’ve got eight more high school players that’ll be here June 1.”
Arguably, the most important position, the quarterback, is one already filled for the Gators. After solid play by DJ Lagway, the Gators have their signal-caller in place. Florida will kick off their 2025 campaign on Aug. 30 against FCS foe LIU.
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