Especially with linemen. O'Cyrus Torrence was a 3-star player out of high school with a .8302 composite rating. Yet he turned into a 1st team All American and 1st round NFL draft pick. 4 & 5 star High school potential only translates into big time D1 production if they get the right coaching and are willing to put in the work to develop. This D-lineman we got from Louisville, Caleb Banks, was only a 3 star out of high school with a .8578 composite rating who barely saw the field as a redshirt freshman. Napier must believe the kid is willing to work his tail off to break into the rotation at Florida. Film analysis, relationship building, intuition and a good bit of luck is needed when you take portal guys, IMO.
Yep O line is the one spot a lot of 3 stars end up being really good if they develop. Banks is an interesting portal pickup for the D line. He looked good enough in his limited playing time for some services to make him a 4 star transfer despite being a 3 star recruit. I think he will play a lot in 2023.
Someone mentioned what space did we have to sign players. I read somewhere yesterday we had 9 scholarship slots if you count the portal guys as being gone and the incoming players. Not sure if that counts the OSU LB as coming here or not. So when we lose a couple after spring that should mean we have room for double digit portal players if we choose to try and improve that way. I would be happy if we just brought 4 more key ones in to help with the departures but they need to be guys that have shown they can play at a high level.