Since UF hired Billy Napier as its new head coach 10 days ago, Gators fans have adopted a new battle cry: “Scared money don’t make money.”
Almost immediately after he was hired, fans began slapping that phrase on clothing and using it as a hashtag on Twitter.
So, how did Napier’s famous quote originate, and what exactly does it mean?
Well, on Sept. 16 against Ohio, he decided to bypass a field goal attempt on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with three seconds left in the first half. Louisiana scored a touchdown on the play, which prompted a question from the ESPN reporter about why he decided to risk coming away with nothing in that situation as he walked into the locker room.
Napier responded with the exact same phrase that he used when he explained to the coaches on the headset why they were going for it.
“Scared money don’t make money,” he said.
"Scared money don't make money."
Billy Napier is a national treasurepic.twitter.com/LkTb1QcQwd
— The Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) September 17, 2021
The clip quickly went viral on social media and became just as big of a claim to fame for Napier as his years coaching at Clemson and Alabama.
Napier said that he’s played “lots of different types of poker,” and he’s heard that expression used frequently during poker games. So, that was the first thing that popped into his mind when he explained his decision to his coaches and later to the whole world.
It basically is a modernized version of “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” In order to accomplish something big, you’ve got to be willing to take risks and deal with the fallout if it blows up in your face.
“I’m never going to live that down,” he said.
He joked that “I think it’s going to help me justify all these times I go for it on fourth down and don’t get it.”
Napier said that it’s important to note that he isn’t reckless with his decisions to go for it on fourth down. He’s not just going to take risks for the heck of it and say, “Scared money don’t make money” to justify it after the fact. He uses analytics to guide his decisions.
Scared money doesn’t make money, but neither does reckless money.
“The big thing here is that these decisions are very calculated,” Napier said. “We work closely with several analytics companies who spend a ton of time in the offseason researching all the different things that affect playing winning football, and certainly going for it on fourth down is one of those things that we research really closely, and [it’s] certainly part of our formula to win.”