Billy Napier - UF Head Football Coach

[Double Gator Dad]

What really rankles me is how many on this board immediately discounted Luke Fickell.
He’s accomplished much more at the group of 5 level than Napier, and may even make the playoff this year.
Think about that for a second…

As far as Pedigree, he’s in Urban’s coaching tree.

He’s another not so splashy hire but, in my opinion, much more accomplished than Billy, at the Group of 5 level.

I mean, if we aren’t going to swing for the fences and get the best possible coach at this time, Then why settle for a guy that has a boring offense and a bunch of Sunbelt level coaches on his staff?

Huge reach for Florida to pick Napier.
Huge

I have discounted Fickell only because of the consistent feedback that he has zero interest in living in this part of the country for family reasons.
I am only repeating what I have heard but I have heard it a lot.

 

[LongTooth]

Several LSU pundits are panicking over Napier’s potential move to UF.

They want LSU to stop trying to pry Riley out of OU.

They are saying Napier prefers the LSU job. I think he’s using UF to get better conditions from the Tigers. He’s LSU’s fallback. We’re his.

Oh yeah, elite program we are. Sheesh.

We’ll end up with the guy from Wake Forest.

 

[Spurdog98]

I have discounted Fickell only because of the consistent feedback that he has zero interest in living in this part of the country for family reasons.
I am only repeating what I have heard but I have heard it a lot.

Sounds like his wife has been talking to Urb's about how easy it is to score young poon in "this part of the country".

 

[Silverback Gator]

... with timeouts remaining, several times this season...

Inexcusable doofus. He had already lost confidence.

 

[Concrete Helmet]

I agree with that Ox has said. But the safety video has got me puzzled. I hope this is not his typical game management?

No that was one of his better days...

 

[BMF]

Good response. NorveLLLL never built anything at Memphis. His first actual rebuilding is what he is doing at Clown College. And, he seems have turned them around a bit. His recruiting is still way below any sort of national title chances though. Napier built ULL all on his own. He built a recruiting system that lead to 3 straight no. 1 classes in the Sunbelt. Those classes are also the highest rated as far as points go. So, not only is he getting the highest rated class, it is at improvement talent wise. This season's class is number 1 in the SB with 163 points. That is literally 50-60 points higher than before he arrived. Can he do that in the SEC? We have no idea. Will the admin actually do what he wants and spend the money? We have no idea. I think this may be his biggest hurdle.

Mullen - who had a completely disorganized recruiting operation, didn't GAF about recruiting, made little to no effort bringing in talent - still managed two #9 classes (before the non-qual's, early departures, etc). I imagine Napier (or anyone else we hire) will be told that recruiting is a priority and will come in here and do a complete 180 from what Mullen did. If Mullen's lazy ass landed two #9 classes, I imagine the new guy (Napier or not) will get us into the top 6. Hell, if the new guy can just land one 5-star per class, and keep 3 or 4 of the top 25 kids from Florida from leaving the state it would push us into the top 8.

 

[G. Gordon Gator]

Stanford has been the template for several years now and I agree with your description.

However you left off one detail:
You said that the focus on athletics is secondary but I submit that only the high profile, revenue generating sports are secondary. Nothing is more important to Stanford than being the very best at virtually every sport that nobody cares about.

Stanford fields nearly twice as many sports teams than any other school and they excel at all of the meaningless ones. They win the national All Sports trophy every year on the women’s side and are highly rated on the men’s side in each sport other than the Neanderthal ones like football and basketball.

This is the mentality of the current regime running UF.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Napier will be our Taggert.

 

[Silverback Gator]

Several LSU pundits are panicking over Napier’s potential move to UF.
They want LSU to stop trying to pry Riley out of OU.
They are saying Napier prefers the LSU job. I think he’s using UF to get better conditions from the Tigers. He’s LSU’s fallback. We’re his.
Oh yeah, elite program we are. Sheesh.
We’ll end up with the guy from Wake Forest.

Riley has no reason to leave OU, even if the money is better. He's solid there. Could he? I suppose.

If Napier does not want to be at Florida, so be it. I can imagine LSU has some major advantages for him, one being he already recruits the Lowziana HSs. At UF he has a lot of work ahead of him just to catch up to the other top schools that recruit here.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Mullen - who had a completely disorganized recruiting operation, didn't GAF about recruiting, made little to no effort bringing in talent - still managed two #9 classes (before the non-qual's, early departures, etc). I imagine Napier (or anyone else we hire) will be told that recruiting is a priority and will come in here and do a complete 180 from what Mullen did. If Mullen's lazy ass landed two #9 classes, I imagine the new guy (Napier or not) will get us into the top 6. Hell, if the new guy can just land one 5-star per class, and keep 3 or 4 of the top 25 kids from Florida from leaving the state it would push us into the top 8.

Slingblade is going to find that recruiting against bama for 5*s is a lot different than wooing 2 and 3*s away from... **** I can't even name another team in the Sunbelt.

 

[Silverback Gator]

Why would he not want the LSU job. It's a much easier set up for him.

Napier will be our Taggert.

Could be. He does not recruit well and there are a plethora of good players in Louisiana that do not go to LSU. My point is, if he could recruit U of Louisiana he could recruit anywhere. So that is a question mark. The other thing we learned from Taggert is, without his OC/DC he was just a boy.

So if Administration believes Napier is really good they must attribute some of that to his assistants and part of the process is to find out if his assistants are coming and if not who he would hire as assistants.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Riley has no reason to leave OU, even if the money is better. He's solid there. Could he? I suppose.

If Napier does not want to be at Florida, so be it. I can imagine LSU has some major advantages for him, one being he already recruits the Lowziana HSs. At UF he has a lot of work ahead of him just to catch up to the other top schools that recruit here.

and limited competition for that east Texas and LA talent. There is a ton of talent around LSU that has limited colleges around it.

 

[BMF]

Why would he not want the LSU job. It's a much easier set up for him.

Could be. He does not recruit well and there are a plethora of good players in Louisiana that do not go to LSU. My point is, if he could recruit U of Louisiana he could recruit anywhere. So that is a question mark. The other thing we learned from Taggert is, without his OC/DC he was just a boy.

So if Administration believes Napier is really good they must attribute some of that to his assistants and part of the process is to find out if his assistants are coming and if not who he would hire as assistants.

He does not recruit well? He's had 4 classes in 4 years, 3 were ranked #1 in his conference....and the current class, which would be his 5th class, is also ranked #1. smh Stop talking out of your ass and learn how to use google. smh

 

[williston_gator]

Several LSU pundits are panicking over Napier’s potential move to UF.

They want LSU to stop trying to pry Riley out of OU.

They are saying Napier prefers the LSU job. I think he’s using UF to get better conditions from the Tigers. He’s LSU’s fallback. We’re his.

Oh yeah, elite program we are. Sheesh.

We’ll end up with the guy from Wake Forest.

I think Riley is more likely to take an NFL HC job then leave for another CFB job.

I'd hope the Napier using UF as leverage isn't true but you never know. They have a lot of issues so don't think he'd want anything to do with it.

 

[TheDouglas78]

I'd hope the Napier using UF as leverage isn't true but you never know. They have a lot of issues so don't think he'd want anything to do with it.

Four years ago Chip Kelly showed him how...

 

[oxrageous]

Napier absolutely wants the UF job over the LSU job. No question about that by all accounts.

In my opinion a deal has already been struck.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Why would he not want the LSU job. It's a much easier set up for him.

Could be. He does not recruit well and there are a plethora of good players in Louisiana that do not go to LSU. My point is, if he could recruit U of Louisiana he could recruit anywhere. So that is a question mark. The other thing we learned from Taggert is, without his OC/DC he was just a boy.

Mullen could recruit SW Louisiana.
When asked to describe Special Bill's recruiting style the guys that have covered him for 4 years said it's "comfortable". Not relentless. Comfortable. When asked if he was they type of recruiter that was a closer they again said that he goes with the "comfortable" approach. Sounds like Mullen's style.

Also they talk about how he does things "the right way". "The right way" is a built in excuse for failing at recruiting.

Simple Billy has a lot of red flags that are being ignored. Don't believe the puff pieces.

 

[oxrageous]

Mullen could recruit SW Louisiana.
When asked to describe Special Bill's recruiting style the guys that have covered him for 4 years said it's "comfortable". Not relentless. Comfortable. When asked if he was they type of recruiter that was a closer they again said that he goes with the "comfortable" approach. Sounds like Mullen's style.

Also they talk about how he does things "the right way". "The right way" is a built in excuse for failing at recruiting.

Simple Billy has a lot of red flags that are being ignored. Don't believe the puff pieces.

This take is moronic, even for you. He's set to have the #1 recruiting class in his conference for the fourth straight year.

 

[soflagator]

Four years ago Chip Kelly showed him how...

Let's just hope that's the only thing Chip showed him how to do.