Florida coach Billy Napier reacts to vote of confidence from Scott Stricklin
Florida head coach Billy Napier met with reporters on Saturday afternoon after Florida’s disappointing loss to Texas.
Athletic director Scott Stricklin recently gave Napier a ringing endorsement, indicating that he will be Florida’s head coach moving forward.
During his press conference on Saturday, Napier spoke about what it meant to get that vote of confidence from Stricklin.
“First of all, I’m thankful for our players. I think you ultimately that’s a reflection of the players,” Napier said in the postgame press conference after the 49-17 loss to Texas. “We would not have made some of the progress we made over the last 4, 5, 6 weeks without a great group of players relative to what I’ve talked before, the character there at the core of that group, their leadership.
“Obviously, the staff has done a good job. And again, I do think when you look at the roster as a whole, we have a ton of young talent that I think will continue to develop. They’re learning, they’re going through this experience, and I think that will prove beneficial in the future.”
With the loss, Florida is now 4-5 on the season. The Gators have won back-to-back games since their big win over Kentucky back on Oct. 19.
Florida will look to get back on track as the Gators face the No. 14-ranked LSU Tigers at 3:3o p.m. ET in The Swamp this weekend.
Strickland: Napier is Golden!
Not sure why this article was necessary, what else was the man going to respond with? “Ha! Good question but I can assure you that I’d never work for a guy like me!”?
Meanwhile, back at the Swamp……….
A lot of the players, including Lagway, reacted favorably to Stricklin’s statement. That means a lot. Look what Ward did for Miami, without him they are a .500 team or less. And look what DJ U did for FSU. A good QB is a difference maker, and I think that Lagway and the rest of this good young team will be explosive next season.
GFA, I also think player buy-in is the key to both what remains of 2024 into 2025, and thus far we’ve got that in spades (so kudos to CBN) …. beyond that, the other key is 2025 recruiting, which right now is at a low ebb. At 4-5 with two tough games ahead (not discounting FSU but their implosion is nearly complete) we’ve got to finish at least 6-6 before the first signing day and 7-6 before the second. With some critical returns and Lagway healthy that is entirely possible absent brain cramps. Without a doubt, these back-ups have played admirably and shown tremendous grit against the odds. As we improve depth, the future is a lot brighter than even the most pessimistic among us see. I still worry about brain cramps and the injury rate/frequency, but overall, the forecast is positive. Should we not finish, I’m not sure.
Napier’s strength has always been evaluating and recruiting talent. Fact is, now that he’s back next season and the Gators have an additional $10 million to invest on TP talent, he can go for winning big in 2025 by bludgeoning opponents on offense and suffocating them on defense with superior talent and depth.
It would be great if he agreed to hire a real OC, but he probably won’t be needed if the Gators pile up the talent like cordwood along the OL and DL.
That’s basically what Kiffin did at Ole Miss.
Except Kiffin is the kind of OC Napier wishes he were. Yet, Kiffin hired an OC so he can have time to manage the clock at the end of each half and make sure only 11 guys line up on kicks.
Details, details.
Napier is afraid of winning. It’s always something he’s working toward with his lessons on resilience from losing, it’s never something he’s embracing in the now. Until he changes his mentality the gators will always be one or two plays/scores/good play calls away from being winners again.
I get it. As my daughter says “This is taking ages…” I think he believes he can win but on his terms. I respect his terms but also that singular approach needs some creativity, flexibility and – regarding OC – humility.
That’s exactly right – I’m impressed by Napier’s overall humility and would be even more so were it to extend hiring a quality OC, but at the same time he’s built a bubble around himself there. What worked in the GOF doesn’t necessarily translate to the SEC.
Not sure any endorsement from a truly bad AD with at least two and possibly three strikes when it comes to coaching hires could be considered ringing. Stricklin also never said in his letter that Napier will be back in 2025, merely that “Billy Napier will continue as head football coach of the Florida Gators.” That’s like saying the rain is going to continue, you just never know for how long.
My guess is that with the first signing window being from December 4-6 and the playoffs starting on December 20, that Napier and Stricklin won’t “continue” at UF for much longer than that. Just enough time to get a recruiting class in place, hopefully keep Lagway from hitting the portal, and then grab a new coach once one drops out of the playoff race. I want to say I’m a bit shocked that Golden hasn’t been put on administrative leave until the Title IX investigation has been completed, but that seems to be Stricklin’s MO. Push it under the rug in the hopes that this isn’t the year he gets fired. UF desperately needs to get a new president asap so they can make the big decisions and rebuild this thing from the ground up, because this is getting truly embarrassing.