Jay Bateman is gone, and in his wake is a lot of frustration. (Photo credit: Alex Shepherd, Gator Bait Media)
The college football world is a dirty one by nature, especially in the new world of NIL. But even by those low standards, what happened overnight between Signing Day and the day after set off some shockwaves within and around the Florida Gators program.
The day after four-star linebackers Myles Graham and Aaron Chiles signed with Florida, fans awoke to some startling news. Jay Bateman, the linebackers coach who signed the pair, had suddenly bolted for Texas A&M. The how and why this could happen so suddenly can be debated, but that’s a “later” problem. For now, there’s fallout to deal with.
Number one, there’s now another staff position opening. Billy Napier was already in the process of reshuffling his staff after firing defensive backs coach Corey Raymond and defensive line coach Sean Spencer (who, by the way, signed on with Texas A&M almost immediately), and after filling the defensive back slot with Will Harris from the LA Chargers, Napier once again finds himself down two assistants.
But the far more existential, and frankly frightening, problem at play here.
The parents of Florida linebacker signees are genuinely infuriated. To call them “upset” would be an understatement.
Rivals’ Adam Friedman texted with the parents of a Florida signee this morning asking about the departure of Jay Bateman. The parents, Friedman said, “had no idea Jay Bateman was going to leave.” That’s most decidedly not good.
Earnest Graham, a legendary Gator running back who totaled 3,000 rushing yards in the twilight of the Steve Spurrier days, was far more blunt with his feelings. His son Myles, a four-star linebacker who committed to Florida back in August 2022– making him the first Gator commit of the 2024 class– finally signed yesterday after looking forward to playing for Bateman for almost a year and a half. After the news broke, Graham let his feelings fly.
“My son was raised to understand the business as it exists but there has been new levels of disconnect with this program that I have NEVER ever experienced,” Graham wrote on X/Twitter. “No calls, no communication and the dryest experience imaginable. I’m just going to START there.”
That is a mortifying look for the Florida Gators, and whether you want to redirect some frustration at Graham for posting his feelings publicly, the bottom line is that the parents of Florida commits and signees are currently feeling victimized by a bait and switch, and that is a major league problem. It’s bad enough that Billy Napier sports an 11-14 record as the Gators’ head coach, and it’s even worse that a Florida recruiting class that was once ranked #3 in the country has plummeted all the way out of the top 15, but now to have the parents of signees– not to mention the signees themselves– feeling rooked creates an additional level of difficulty for Napier to right this ship.
In other words, it’s not like Napier is sunk, but that’s another chunk of cinderblock that’s been tied to his leg as he desperately tries to keep his head above water. Can he survive?
Time will tell.
