Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As he departed 1 Jets Drive on a recent evening in Florham Park, N.J., Max Mitchell attempted to explain how unlikely it was for him to be calling from his first NFL mandatory minicamp.

A kid built for teenage trips to the big & tall section, the 6-foot-6, 307-pound Mitchell stood as a redwood in a forest of oaks at Neville (La.) High School. He was a towering, bulky, long offensive lineman. Still, the only scholarship offer he had was from Northwestern State, about a two-hour drive through central Louisiana from Mitchell's home in Monroe.

Mitchell considered the option and faced his reality. He wanted to continue playing but realized he was not on the radar of Power 5 coaches. His fortunes turned when a young coach named Billy Napier arrived from Arizona State to become a head coach for the first time, taking over the program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Napier jumped into his new job headfirst, scanning the state for potential hidden gems. Soon, Mitchell's scholarship offers doubled and, in the summer of 2018, months before Napier made his regular-season debut at Cajun Field, Mitchell arrived in Lafayette to play for the Ragin' Cajuns.

"I didn't have any massive aspirations to play in the NFL,'' Mitchell said of that period. "I just thought of it as a good opportunity to play some college football, which I didn't even really anticipate coming out of high school. I figured I would walk on or have some kind of small scholarship somewhere and that I would make the most of it." Over the next four seasons, Mitchell developed from an obscure transition-class signee into an NFL draft pick. The New York Jets selected Mitchell in the fourth round in late April, the 111th overall pick. Mitchell's climb in the draft surprised some, but not draft pundits who crunch the numbers throughout the year.

Mitchell was the highest-graded offensive tackle in the draft according to Pro Football Focus, his 94.8 grade surpassing that of No. 6 overall pick Ikem Ekwonu (91.6), first-round pick Tyler Smith (92.3) and second-round pick Luke Goedeke (92.2). Perhaps the most eye-opening number of Mitchell's senior season was this: he played 879 offensive snaps without committing a penalty, the most of any tackle in the country.

His journey at Louisiana under the guidance of Napier and offensive line coaches Rob Sale, Darnell Stapleton and the late D.J. Looney still causes Mitchell to reflect in awe.

As Mitchell went through the NFL draft process this spring, his improbable story was a favorite topic during his team meetings. He credited Napier and his staff for taking a chance and for having a plan.

"Every scout who has asked me about this, I really poured out my appreciation because it's immense,'' Mitchell said. "On my own and in a different program, I don't think I would have gone very far. I was in the perfect place at the perfect time that allowed me to grow and blossom into something I couldn't even imagine. It's amazing that I got the opportunity to do it, and 100 percent I would do it again."

With his first game as Florida's head coach two months away, Napier seeks to build his UF program using a similar approach to recruiting. He has more resources and a flashier brand to swing recruits than he did at Louisiana, but it all starts with the evaluation process.

Napier carries folders around the office full of information and details on recruits and how they might fit into the puzzle the Gators are trying to assemble.

"A very objective approach,'' Napier said. "We worked extremely hard each year improving our evaluation process relative to what would translate. What traits are we looking for? What measurables are important? We really got into the data part of that and making decisions based on those things, projecting, a lot of research with NFL personnel departments.

"At that level, you can't just pull up the top 300 list and go recruit. You are flipping over every rock, and you may sign a player that has no offers. You're saying, 'he is going to be able to do this job for our team.' That was the fun part to me. It really has translated here. It's helped us here already, and then I think once they arrive, you are very much acquiring an unfinished product."

Over the same three days Mitchell participated in the Jets minicamp this month, defensive back Percy Butler, Mitchell's former Louisiana teammate, did the same in Ashburn, Va. Butler was the Washington Commanders' fourth-round pick, selected two slots after Mitchell.

A former receiver at Plaquemine (La.) High on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi, Butler signed as part of Napier's first class at Louisiana and later moved to safety. Butler impressed Washington coaches with his mental game in his first minicamp.

"I've been thrilled with Percy,'' Washington defensive back coach Chris Harris told Commanders.com. "The thing that's most intriguing about Percy is he's a very cerebral player, so he picked up the defense really fast."

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LOUISIANA LIGHTNING
A look at Ragin' Cajuns drafted under head coach Billy Napier:
 

YEAR	PLAYER	TEAM	ROUND	PICK
2020	OG Robert Hunt	Miami	2	39
2020	OG Kevin Dotson	Pittsburgh	4	135
2020	RB Raymond Calais	Tampa Bay	7	245
2021	RB Elijah Mitchell	San Francisco	6	194
2022	OT Max Mitchell	New York Jets	4	111
2022	DB Percy Butler	Washington	4	113

 

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In the wake of the draft, Butler expressed similar sentiments as Mitchell about the impact Napier and his staff had on his development, specifically defensive coordinator Patrick Toney.

Butler arrived at Louisiana as a gifted athlete but needed to grow his understanding of the game to succeed in college.

"Coach Toney, he has that mental aspect of the game times 10, and he makes football understandable,'' Butler old SI.com. "It's like a classroom type of setting. He basically teaches football like it's math. He simplifies it for you, and he makes sure that you can simplify the offense or whatever the offense is about to do, even before they do it."
 

Before Napier arrived, Louisiana produced only eight draft picks in the previous 15 seasons. The Ragin' Cajuns had six players selected in the draft over Napier's final three seasons, highlighted by running back Elijah Mitchell.

A sixth-round pick by San Francisco in 2021, Mitchell rushed for 963 yards as a rookie, breaking the franchise record set by Vic Washington (811) in 1971 when one of the 49ers quarterbacks was former UF Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier. Mitchell's position coach in college was Jabbar Juluke, another former Louisiana assistant Napier brought with him to Florida.

A similar theme emerges when dissecting the thoughts of recent Ragin' Cajuns to make the NFL. There was BN — Before Napier — and AN.

Playing in the NFL seemed far-fetched for most Ragin' Cajuns before meeting Napier. Running back Raymond Calais was Tampa Bay's seventh-round pick in 2020 and is now with the Rams, attempting to come back from a broken foot that sidelined him a season ago.

Calais said once he bought into Napier's program and learned to use the tools at his disposal, the rest took care of itself.

"Coach Napier helped me with the process and just being professional," Calais told the Acadiana (La.) Advocate. "We'd always watch film and always be talking about these moments. Coach Juluke would do a lot of those things too. To be honest, I never thought I was going to get the chance to play in the NFL and even be able to go to the NFL combine."

Napier's mission is to duplicate that success at Florida. He has tweaked the approach to fit the place, but the blueprint is as steady as his demeanor.

Mitchell and Butler are the latest NFL rookies serving as living proof.

"You're not selling hope,'' Napier said. "You've got a little bit of a testimony to some degree. I think the experience at Louisiana really made us dig into the evaluation process in recruiting. Our year-round process has grown as a result of that. We have added many more layers and a lot more detail to the fundamentals: the football intelligence and the situational part of the game. We improved the developmental process. It worked.

"They were in our first class and weren't highly recruited. They were height-length speed guys that really translated. Smart, tough, added lean mass, got faster, stronger, learned the game, developed as players, improved production. We improved that roster. We're hopeful we can do that here. It's going to be a lot of fun."