Who gets the blame for Florida’s one-man draft class in 2024?
Florida fans celebrated on Thursday when Ricky Pearsall’s name was called in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, but Gator Nation didn’t have anything to celebrate for the rest of the weekend.
Offensive lineman Kingsley Eguakun went undrafted and only one other former Gators got drafted — Missouri linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper in the third round.
It probably doesn’t surprise you that Florida hasn’t produced a winning season since 2020, but a lot has happened since then. To start, Billy Napier has taken over as the head coach in place of Dan Mullen. Over time, Napier has slowly phased out the Mullen-era recruits, bringing in players that fit his style of football.
The results haven’t been any better for Napier than Mullen saw in his final years, but most of his top recruits are just now reaching maturity. In fact, the 2023 season was Year 3 for most of Mullen’s final recruiting class (2020).
A normal Florida class would have produced at least four or five draft picks throughout the seven rounds, but Mullen’s last gasp produced the worst Gators draft since 1980. Mullen is responsible for Hopper alone. Pearsall is a Billy Napier-era transfer.
It could be a development issue, though. Defensive end Princely Umanmielen, a Mullen recruit, transferred out for another year in the SEC with a different team. Mullen saw promise in him and Umanimelen grew frustrated with Napier’s defensive coordinators and schemes.
So, who gets the blame?
It’s hard not to go with Mullen here. A lackluster effort in recruiting directly resulted in the worst draft class of the last 45 years.
Billy Napier needs to produce just two draft picks next year to absolve himself of any wrongdoing with the 2023 bunch.
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