Billy Napier makes his stance clear on the new era of college recruiting while giving insights into Florida's updated system

The Gators, under Billy Napier, had a poor start to the season but eventually found their feet. Despite the late-season improvement, it was clear that the program needs to do better in recruiting to get back to the pinnacle of college football.

In his appearance on an episode of the “Gojo and Golic” podcast on Thursday, Billy Napier gave his thoughts about the current model of recruiting in college football. The coach explained what the system now looks like in Gainesville contrary to when he arrived at the program.

“I would say we really are living in a cap model,” Napier said. “What we've done here is we've created a system. We've kind of policed ourselves pre-revenue sharing. We percentage out the cap by position. We have strategies behind how we allocate the funding.

“That didn't exist when we took the job. The first 18 months were absolute chaos, and then I think over the last 18 months, we've kind of settled in, we built the system, and you just have a new element relative to player acquisition.”

Billy Napier discusses his big message to recruits

Florida landed a top-10 recruiting class on the first day of the early signing period on Wednesday, marking another positive development for the program. This is bound to further hasten their transition to the top of the landscape after struggling over the last few years.

Speaking further on the “Gojo and Golic” podcast, Billy Napier described what his message to recruit looks like in the evolving landscape of college football. The advent of name, image and likeness has led to a paradigm shift, significantly altering the norms.

“In general, I think the character component, the culture within the building, the makeup of the players, the circle of influence, the family, the parents, all of those things have become so important," Napier said. "And my big message in recruiting is you got to be up for the challenge.”

“We have work to do to get Florida back on top. But also, I want you to come here for the right reasons, and I want you to make a home and finish the race, and so we've been intentional about every player that we've added to our team, and I think that's helped us.”

True freshmen like DJ Lagway, Myles Graham and Aaron Gates made significant contributions to the Gators in the 2024 season. Billy Napier will be anticipating having some freshmen who can make an instant impact on the team in the class of 2025.