Florida was a program in transition in 2022.

Gone was Dan Mullen, whose futility on the recruiting trail cost him his job despite the fact he became the first coach in SEC history to guide a team to New Year’s 6 bowls in each of his first 3 seasons on campus.

In his place came Billy Napier, who went 40-12 with 2 conference championships at Louisiana in the Sun Belt prior to his arrival in Gainesville last December. Napier turned down other SEC programs before taking the job in Gainesville, and with unprecedented administrative support, much is expected from the young head coach at Florida.

Unfortunately for Napier, much wasn’t given in Year 1. Florida finished 6-7, as the program suffered back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 1978 and 1979. Florida recruited well– at least from a quantity standpoint, with the nation’s 6th highest average recruit grade, per the 247 composite. Florida’s overall finish of 12th overall, however, further frustrated the Florida fan base, as the ranking gave off a significant Mullen vibe despite the Gators’ increased efforts on the trail. The combination of a losing season and a class ranked lower than fans expected has the notoriously impatient Gator Nation on edge as Napier enters Year 2.

Can Florida improve in 2023, or are the Gators officially in a full rebuild — again– bound for the program’s first 3-year losing season streak since before the SEC fully integrated in 1972? Florida fans are tired of losing. Aside from 2 terrific seasons and an above average 2020 campaign under Dan Mullen, Florida hasn’t been consistently relevant on the national stage since the Urban Meyer era. That was over a decade ago. Patience was never a part of the fabric of football fandom in Gainesville, which makes 2023 all the more intriguing, and perhaps imposing for Billy Napier and Gator nation.

Here are 6 New Year’s resolutions for the Gators in 2023. They range from the necessary to the attainable to the aspirational to the decidedly unlikely, but each would help Florida move forward as a program in 2023.

Improve into a top-50 defense

At Florida, this shouldn’t be a huge ask. After all, no program in the country has ranked in the top 20 in total defense more since 1980 than Florida, and only Alabama and Ohio State have fielded more top-10 defenses this century than the Gators. Indeed, even as Florida suffered through the 2010s — the program’s worst decade from a winning percentage standpoint since the 1970s — Florida played tremendous defense, finishing outside the top 20 in total defense just twice (2017 and 2018).

The Gators have fallen off a cliff on defense this decade. In 2020, one of the 5 greatest offenses in program history, from a statistical standpoint, was spoiled by a miserable defense that ranked 83rd in the country. The Gators improved in 2021 but still finished outside the top 50. The bottom fell out in 2022, as Patrick Toney, who replaced Todd Grantham as defensive coordinator, failed terribly in Year 1.  Florida finished a program-worst 97th in total defense (Sagarin and the NYT began tracking the statistic in 1980 and 1982, respectively).

Getting Florida back into the top 50 after the worst defense in program history is resolution No. 1 in 2023.

Finish in the top 5 in recruiting in the 2024 class

This goal seems audacious, but given the momentum the Gators have on the trail for the 2024 class, it is attainable. The Gators rank 10th at present, with 3 commits, including 5-star quarterback DJ Lagway. Building off the Lagway commitment, as well as legacy commit and top-50 overall recruit Myles Graham (son of Gators standout Earnest Graham), Florida fans should be bullish on what Napier can do on the trail in 2023 to ink a great 2024 recruiting class.

Defeat a rival. Any rival.

Florida has 4 rivalries: 2 historic “natural” rivals in Georgia and Florida State, and 2 recent rivals in Tennessee (a creature of the 1990s, really) and LSU (a creature of this century). The Gators lost to all 4 in 2022, marking the first time this century that has happened.

Napier needs to win 1 of these games in 2023, and with 2 of them coming at home (Tennessee, FSU), winning 2 would be better. The Gators would also love to snap their 3-game losing streak to LSU, though with the game in Death Valley next autumn, that seems unlikely.

Produce a 1st-team All-SEC player at an offensive skill position

Florida hasn’t had a skill position player named to the All-SEC first team since 2020, when Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney accomplished the feat for the Gators. A third season without such an honor would match the droughts of the McElwain and Muschamp eras, which delivered plenty of bad offense — and mediocre seasons — to The Swamp.

Florida has talent at these positions capable of blossoming into a 1st-team All-SEC selection. The most likely candidates are at running back, where Montrell Johnson Jr. and Trevor Etienne return. Both placed in the top 10 in the SEC in explosive runs from scrimmage in 2022, and both are dynamic in open space.

Etienne finished 2nd in the SEC in missed tackles forced, behind only SEC rushing champion Quinshon Judkins. Johnson was 6th in the same category. In other words, the ability is there.

On the perimeter, there’s plenty to like about Ricky Pearsall, and with more talent around him in 2023, a bump is possible. But Florida needs to show some strength of talent offensively, and a first-team All-SEC player at a skill spot would do just that.

Don’t rush Jaden Rashada into anything

This needs to be a resolution written in stone.

The Gators would do well to look at examples of other 5-star true freshmen who were either eased into the jobs or allowed to develop for a season before being handed the reins. It will be tempting for Billy Napier to turn to his star recruit immediately, especially if Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz and second-year Ohio State transfer Jack Miller III, who started the Las Vegas Bowl loss to Oregon State, fail to show much in the spring or in August camp.

The Gators should pause before doing any of that, in our view. The better path would be to do what Clemson did with Cade Klubnik this season, and let him learn. Remember that as much as DJ Uiagalelei struggled in the second half of the season, Klubnik repeatedly showed he wasn’t truly ready until December. Klubnik threw a critical interception in Clemson’s loss at Notre Dame, and he had such a little grasp of the offense that he only attempted a handful of passes in a comeback win over Syracuse. The good news? By ACC Championship weekend, Klubnik was ready. But then he delivered a dismal performance in Clemson’s Orange Bowl loss to Tennessee, proving, again, it’s not easy, even for the best freshmen.

Texas A&M also appears to have done it the right way. Jimbo Fisher said repeatedly that Conner Weigman, his 5-star prospect, wasn’t ready from Day 1. The Aggies also made the right move in turning to Weigman when (1) the season was lost, more or less and (2) he was practicing better than the other quarterbacks. The key is Weigman met both criteria. He wasn’t just a guy they played when the season was lost. He was the best option. Weigman went just 2-2 as a starter, but by the time he played, he was ready, tossing 8 touchdowns without an interception.

Making sure the Gators don’t repeat the mistake Jim McElwain made in handing his football program over to a young quarterback too soon (Feleipe Franks in 2017) is vital for Napier and Florida in 2023.

Be patient with Billy Napier

Florida’s transfer portal purge suggests that Napier’s cultural overhaul, along with his reshape of the roster, are still in progress. The Gators aren’t likely to be great in 2023, but they can build a foundation on the backs of players who have bought what Napier expects. Napier’s big gains at Louisiana began in his second season, and Florida fans are right to expect better results in 2023.

That said, Florida as a program has been in the doldrums for a long time, and Gators fans too often forget that. This isn’t a program that has gone to a College Football Playoff, and in truth, their best team in the past 10 years — the 2019 Orange Bowl winners who went 11-2 — were a perfect storm of McElwain’s skill as a talent evaluator being coached by Dan Mullen, a marvelous gameday mind. In 2020, Florida squandered its opportunity to build off that, losing 4 games — including a home game to an awful LSU team — despite a Heisman finalist at quarterback and a generational, future College Football Hall-of-Famer at tight end.

At some point, the Gators are going to need to ride it out as a program with a head coach who builds something. Napier, who has the best staff on campus in over a decade, along with unprecedented administrative support and new facilities that are among the best in the country, is as good a choice as any for that occasionally frustrating process.

Patience isn’t a thing in Gainesville, but maybe — for 2023 — it should start to be. (RIP in the mentions, no doubt!)