Year 1 of the Billy Napier era in Gainesville will showcase a Florida team looking for stars.

Two years after Florida featured a Heisman finalist at quarterback in Kyle Trask, a first-round draft pick on the perimeter in Kadarius Toney, and perhaps the best tight end in college football history in Kyle Pitts, Florida’s roster enters 2022 without a true household name.

Sure, backup quarterback Anthony Richardson has shown Cam Newton-like flashes of greatness. But he’s also started 1 game in his career, which Florida lost 34-7. He’s also entering spring practice without being assured of the starting job, as last year’s resident starter, Emory Jones, surprised many by electing to remain at Florida to finish his degree rather than to transfer.

Meanwhile, there aren’t proven commodities at any of the playmaker positions. Dameon Pierce dominated Senior Bowl week, confirming what Florida fans already knew about the underutilized running back who finished 2021 with Pro Football Focus’s No. 1running back grade. Pierce’s departure opens the door for one of Florida’s many blue-chip players at the position, but none are proven.

The same is true of Florida’s receiving corps, which lacks anything resembling an All-SEC caliber player following the transfer of the enigmatic but immensely talented Jacob Copeland to Maryland.

In other words, finding a “face of the Florida program” requires due diligence and a consideration of how Florida will change schematically in the Napier era. It also requires a bit of calculated soothsaying, where SDS looks at players who have shown potential and ventures a guess as to who knocks the door down and hits their ceiling in 2022.

Here are 5 candidates to break out and become the face of the Gators in 2022.

1. DT Gervon Dexter

Probably the most obvious selection, Dexter, who by recruiting service rankings is Florida’s most talented player, also seems its most likely player to break out.

Already the best defensive lineman on the team, Dexter will enter his second season as a starter in 2022. The former 5-star recruit already wins most of his reps based on staggering athleticism for someone his size. He’s quick enough to split gaps as a pass rusher and strong enough to hold the line as a run stopper.

What he lacks is impressive technique. If he improves in that area, he’ll become an All-American caliber player.

The good news? He’ll be coached by Sean Spencer, Florida’s co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach. Spencer has an NFL pedigree and will work with Dexter to make him someone who can win repetitions based on technique as well.

Dexter is already a football junkie. Couple that with a scheme that rewards talented tackles thanks to simulated blitzes that often prevent double teams, and Dexter should see an uptick in production from the Grantham regime as well.

Dexter is also about to become a father, and as a junior, is playing for NFL Draft position.

All these things combined make him the most likely face of Florida’s program in 2022.

2. CB Jason Marshall Jr.

When preparing this piece, SDS reached out to Dave Waters, the host of the popular Gators Breakdown podcast, to see who among Florida’s players stuck out as someone who could push Dexter for “face of the program” status.

Jason Marshall Jr. was the only player Waters mentioned.

That makes sense. A 5-star recruit from Miami, Marshall earned early playing time in fall camp and, thanks to a combination of injuries and production, became a starter by midseason. Marshall drew heady Patrick Peterson Jr. comparisons in high school and started to show flashes of being the shutdown corner Peterson was by year two of his career late in the 2021 campaign.

Marshall hauled in a critical interception against rival FSU and finished his freshman campaign with 3 passes defended and a team-low 42% success rate against. He’ll now lead the line for a Florida secondary that could be one of the best in the SEC in 2022.

3. Edge Brenton Cox Jr.

Cox, who manned the edge in Todd Grantham’s defense, had a productive 2021. He collected a team-high 8.5 sacks and was second on the team in tackles for loss (14.5). Another 5-star recruit, the Georgia transfer enters his final season in Gainesville trying to prove to NFL scouts he is a complete player. Two questions will define his senior campaign: 1) Does he play hard, all the time, and try to win every rep? 2) Is he capable of offering more in run support, or will he, for the 3rd consecutive season, be more of a pass-rush specialist?

Like Dexter, Cox seems likely to benefit from the various simulated blitzes and creep blitz schemes that define defensive coordinator Patrick Toney’s scheme. Another year of offseason strength and conditioning will surely help Cox against the run as well.

Ultimately, however, Cox will only go as far as his work ethic takes him. He has stated his personal goal is to break Florida’s single-season sack record of 13.5, set by All-American Alex Brown in 1998. That’s a lofty goal. It’s also not out of the realm of possibility, and accomplishing it would certainly make Cox the face of Florida football in 2022.

4. LB Ventrell Miller

Are you noticing a theme here?

Florida switching coordinators from the much-maligned Grantham to the up-and-coming, modern defense mind of Patrick Toney should be worth around .7-1.0 yards per play defensively — numbers that would move Florida from 36th in that statistic last year to the top 20 in 2022. Miller, who returns after being lost for the year early in the 2021 campaign, figures to be front and center of everything Toney hopes to do schematically.

A high football IQ player since he arrived on campus, Miller is a 3-down middle linebacker who can lower the boom as a tackler, rush the quarterback and handle most SEC tight ends in pass coverage.

Miller was a preseason All-SEC selection in 2021; an All-SEC campaign on a vastly improved defense in 2022 could make him “Face of the Program” worthy.

5. QB Anthony Richardson

The list of things that have to happen for Richardson, a quarterback whose talent is so scintillating that SDS’s Matt Hinton predicted a Heisman Trophy or a SEC Championship before his tenure ends, is still particularly long.

First, Richardson has to get more accurate. Yes, we know he can make all the throws, even under pressure:

But Richardson needs to be more accurate, having completed only 59% of his passes in a small, but not insignificant, sample size last season.

We know he can be electric with his legs in RPO actions, and if he gets into the open field … good luck.

But can he stay healthy? He picked up multiple injuries in 2021 and will be limited all spring, according to Napier.

That means we don’t even know if he’ll be the starting quarterback, which makes the question of unlocking his gargantuan potential open-ended, as opposed to “coming soon to a Swamp near you.”

Finally, he’ll have to take better care of the football. Richardson seems to make reads quicker and more decisively than his teammate, Emory Jones. But throws like this one are not acceptable.

For Richardson to become the face of Florida’s program, he’ll need to make big throws in big games — not big mistakes.

The talent is there and the title — “face of the Florida program” — is coming for Richardson. It just might not be in 2022.