This is the one.
This is the coach who will finally build the Florida Gators into a program that can consistently compete for SEC and national championships.
Are you ready for some Billy Ball?
Remember where you heard it first:
This Billy will be the greatest hire at the University of Florida since the last Billy.
Let me rephrase that:
Billy Napier will become UF’s football version of Billy Donovan.
I’ll explain later, but to all of you future athletic directors out there, take notes because what you have seen over the last week at UF is the textbook way to hire a coach in today’s whacked-out world of college football firings and hirings.
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin fired Dan Mullen last Sunday, immediately identified who he wanted to be UF’s next head coach, interviewed but one candidate and hired Napier — the up-and-coming Louisiana head coach — on the following Sunday.
Boom.
Boom.
Schedule the Zoom!!!
Yes, we could rightfully and logically argue that college football needs some hiring protocols and should implement its own version of the Rooney Rule, but until that happens there is only rule. For our purposes, we will refer to it as the Stricklin Rule, which states: “You better get your man while you can or you could end up being forced to hire Lane Kiffin.”
Just look at how LSU has conducted its weeks-long coaching search, swinging for the fences and apparently striking out time and again. Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher has said he’s not interested in LSU. Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley not only turned down LSU; he took the USC job instead. Former LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda seems as if he’s staying at Baylor. Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker, another former LSU, assistant, reportedly is signing a massive extension to remain the Spartans’ head coach.
There was a thought that Napier would be LSU’s “fallback " candidate — until Stricklin swooped in this week and hired him on the spot.
“He was the only candidate I met with about the job,” Stricklin said in a statement. “Billy’s ability to bring highly-talented people together — players, coaches, and staff — along with his vision for having a strong, relationship-based culture is what made him such an attractive choice. Add in how detailed his plan is for player development, staffing and recruiting, along with a sustained desire to improve, and it’s easy to see why he’s been successful.”
Translation: Napier is the antithesis of Mullen — a brilliant game-planner and play-caller but a head coach whose staff hires, organizational acumen, relationship skills and recruiting prowess were sorely lacking. It’s certainly no secret that Mullen was simply in over his head when recruiting against the likes of Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Alabama’s Nick Saban, and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Napier worked under both Saban and Swinney during his rise up the coaching ranks. Of course, this doesn’t mean he will automatically turn into the next Swinney or Saban. Don’t forget, two failed UF head coaches — Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain — were both coordinators under the great Sabanator.
However, I believe Napier is an excellent hire, but, then again, I thought Mullen and Muschamp were good hires, too. And, honestly, I didn’t think Mullen, despite his shortcomings, should have been fired after compiling a 34-15 record at UF and leading the Gators to three New Year’s 6 bowl games in his first three years on the job before the wheels came off during the final half of this season.
It’s extremely troubling that Napier becomes UF’s fourth head coach in the last eight years, and the Gators have now joined Kansas and Washington with the most head-coaching hires (seven) this century. Obviously, this is a monumental, job-defining hire for Stricklin, who has been at UF for five years and is 0-1 in hiring football coaches. If Napier succeeds, Stricklin succeeds. If Napier fails, I don’t believe Stricklin would survive being 0-2 in football coaching hires.
His iconic predecessor, Jeremy Foley, made some unsuccessful football hires, too, (see Ron Zook, Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain), but Foley built enough credibility, equity and good will by being the AD during the golden years of the legendary Steve Spurrier and by hiring an up-and-coming coach out of Utah named Urban Meyer.
Foley also made one of the greatest hires in college sports history when he plucked a young Billy Donovan out of Marshall and watched him become a living legend at UF.
I believe this Billy (Napier) will be the greatest Gator hire since that Billy (Donovan).
If not, let’s meet again in another three or four years when UF names its next head football coach.
