Just saw ESPN's piece about how the portal has killed QB competitions and they used Florida as one of the exceptions that still lets it play out in camp. That might be the most accurate thing they've written all offseason.
The Gators ranked 67th in QBR last season at 56.3. That's not good enough to win in the SEC regardless of who is under center. But here's what nobody is talking about with this coaching hire evaluation angle. The staff went out and brought in competition through the portal knowing full well that the incumbent had a rough year. They didn't hand the job to anyone. They didn't panic and grab a sure thing who would demand to start. They built a room where the best player has to earn it.
That tells me more about the culture being built than any press conference or recruiting ranking ever could. A lot of programs in this era would have either thrown massive NIL at a proven starter or just handed the keys back to last year's guy and hoped for the best. Florida did neither. They created actual leverage. The QB room knows that nobody's job is safe and that has a way of raising everybody's floor.
The 2026 class sitting in the top 15 nationally on ESPN's board is encouraging but the real evaluation of this coaching staff won't come from recruiting rankings or spring practice hype. It will come from whether they can develop whoever wins that job into a player who doesn't rank 67th in QBR. The portal era makes roster construction easier but it makes genuine QB development harder because guys transfer the second they lose a competition. Florida is betting that the right system and the right culture can still produce a quarterback who grows through competition instead of running from it.
That's a bet most programs aren't making anymore.