Chris Doering says Florida coaches ‘happy’ with departures via transfer portal

After the first season of the Billy Napier era, there was a notable number of Florida players who opted to hit the NCAA transfer portal and look to play elsewhere. UF coaches were glad to see most of those players go, according to one former Gator great.

Chris Doering, a Florida Athletic Hall of Famer now with the SEC Network, discussed UF’s attrition when he visited The Paul Finebaum Show. As far as the players who have transferred out, Doering shares that UF coaches were glad to see most of them go, as many were either not culture fits or lacked talent.

SEC Football Final Analyst @ChrisDoering on the Gators:

“There’s been some attrition in Gainesville and people losing their minds, but sources tell me a lot of the players in the portal, coaches are happy to see them go…either due to talent or not fitting the culture.”

— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) January 19, 2023

On Thursday, Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times noted that Florida’s entrants in the first transfer portal window ranked among the nation’s highest:

Only Texas A&M (27), Arkansas (27) and Mississippi (25) lost more players to the portal this cycle than the Gators (23), according to recruiting site On3.

The next window for players to enter the NCAA transfer portal opens in May.

With the transfer portal closed until May, we can quantify how much attrition the Gators have seen under Billy Napier. More players from Dan Mullen’s last game have transferred (38) than remain (37). https://t.co/04POZqYR5g

— Sports by Tampa Bay Times (@TBTimes_Sports) January 19, 2023

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.