Well, Billy Napier was not my first choice, but relatively speaking, I am okay with the hire because he is better than any of the candidates I thought Fuchs & Co. would be willing to sign off on hiring.
Frankly speaking, due to the current political climate, I was convinced there would be an insistence by The Powers That Be that it was time for UF to hire its first minority head coach, since FSU and UM have already done it.
Mind you, as a matter of principle, of course I have no objection to hiring a minority coach. I just didn't think there were any highly qualified candidates available right now, and didn't like the idea of "settling" just to satisfy a demographic criteria. I was resigned to that being what was going to happen, though. I still have not gotten over my surprise that they hired a guy like Napier.
To be honest I am still a little concerned that Napier's extremely Southern manner might be a little off-putting to some "urban" recruits, just because it's coming from a guy without a P5 track record as a head coach. When Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney throw their rings on the table, nobody cares how they talk. In fact, they hardly need to say anything. Napier's going to have more persuading to do. We shall see if he is persuasive or not. I am keeping a totally open mind and hoping for the best.
As I said, I never really thought he'd be hired in the first place, so I only started doing a lot of reading about him yesterday. I have been encouraged by everything I've read so far. If he can find a way to get off to a good start next year, and create the impression that the Gators are the hot, up-and-coming team...
then I reckon it won't much matter how Sling Blade talks mhmm hmmm.