By Will Miles
Press Conference
You don’t win anything by winning a press conference.
That really should be the takeaway from Billy Napier’s first appearance on stage as the Florida Gators new head coach. One press conference doesn’t win any games. It doesn’t win any recruiting battles. It doesn’t help Florida play in the SEC Championship Game that all of us were watching this past week and holding our nose regardless of whom we were rooting for.
But you can lose a press conference. You can reference recruiting season or show up dressed in your Halloween outfit. You can continually refer to things as “neat” or lash out when people ask you about a lookalike straddling a shark.
Time will tell whether Billy Napier is able to avoid those sorts of foibles. His measured approach during his first press conference suggests that he will be able to. You could see it in the way he deftly handled the question asking whether he was a Gator fan when he was little. He clearly was not, but he talked about growing up watching Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel, and the respect he and his father had for the program.
At the end of the day, all this press conference allowed us to do was get to know Napier a little bit better. Time will tell whether he’s the right coach for the job, but it was an interesting window into who he is as both a coach and a person.
People-centered
Napier set out three core tenets that I think are useful to take a look at. He talked about developing those under his stead as people, students and then football players.
He talked about building relationships with recruits and how it would be unfair to elope in the next couple of weeks with recruits just to say that recruiting has improved. He talked about bringing players back to campus not because they feel obligated or because they are paid, but because they want to give back to the university that helped them grow as people.
So Napier may win a lot of football games in his time at Florida. But if his initial thoughts are any indication, he’s going to win over a lot of people in his time at Florida as well. Normally, I’d say that is all just platitudes. It’s easy to look at the new guy and immediately believe that he’s better than the old guy.
But just seeing how Louisiana viewed him, even as he departed the program, makes that all seem real. Maybe it’s too good to be true. After all, Napier is fallable just like all of us are.
But the idea of a people-centered approach is something that any of us with jobs in the real world can relate to. Every single time we’ve had a good boss, that has been his or her attitude.
One day at a time, one person at a time
I loved this phrase that Napier repeated multiple times during his press conference.
The idea that Napier is going to build his program systematically is contained within this phrase. He’s definitely got a set of long-range, global goals that end up in a championship. But he also realizes that by putting one foot in front of the other, day after day, is the only way to achieve those goals.
But to combine that with the human element, of setting up those day-to-day goals individually tailored for his personnel, speaks of the people-centric approach that Napier is pledging to bring.
I took notice of the repeated incidents where it seemed like Dan Mullen just wasn’t in-tune with either his players or former players. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson tweeted about how the staff had badmouthed him to NFL scouts. Todd Grantham and Mullen took what seemed to be unnecessary shots at Jachai Polite after he flamed out with the Jets. And when Kamar Wilcoxson decommitted from Florida to commit to Tennessee (he eventually recommitted to Florida), a Florida staffer tweeted “Is this your final answer” in reference to the commitment.
None of these things individually were really all that bad. But in totality, they did indicate that the Gators program was not people-centric. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not all organizations can be, or strive to be, people centric.
But it does indicate where Napier is going to differentiate.
This is a talent acquisition business
One other place that Napier is going to differentiate is recruiting.
Yes, he did downplay the value of 4 and 5-star recruits, but he also stated words that should be music to every Gators fan’s ears. “This is a talent acquisition business.”
Just about every business is a talent acquisition business. In my day job, I hire chemists and technicians to do research and development. I have to identify talented people to do that kind of work. If I don’t, I’ll be out of a job quickly.
The same is true of Napier. I’m sure that he believes the the quality of the people that he brings in is important. In fact, that’s probably more of what he means when he talks about evaluation of recruits than their action on-field performance. Perhaps he even decides to pass on a 4-star or 5-star recruit because of what he thinks of as attitude issues or a poor cultural fit.
But let’s be clear. Nick Saban wins championships with a ton of 5-star talent. That level of talent doesn’t guarantee winning championships (see Smart, Kirby), but all evidence suggests that it is a prerequisite. Napier is still going to have to do a good job with his on-field game management and his people development. He’s still going to have to make sure that his players are eligible and put into positions to succeed.
But there’s a reason why Saban didn’t win a championship at Michigan State.
The “Journey”
Program-wise, Napier is going to be implementing what he calls, “the journey”. It consists of eight phases throughout the year where players have specific goals and objectives broken down into each phase.
These phases are Foundations, Identity, Spring Practice, Discretionary Period, Summer, Training Camp, In-Season, and Post-Season. The fact that Florida is going to have this level of discipline within their program should excite fans.
So too should the commitment from the university. Napier has at his disposal $7.5 million for his 10 staff and another $5 million for support staff (note: I would be available as an analyst ☺). That level of commitment is on-par with the Alabama’s and Georgia’s of the world.
To beat the best, you have to first look at what they’re doing to scale that mountain. Money isn’t everything, but just like recruiting, it does appear to be a prerequisite. Are there other programs that do it a different way?
Perhaps, but not nearly as consistently.
Patrick Toney
Patrick Toney is coming with Napier from Louisiana as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach. This makes a ton of sense.
First, Napier has spoken extremely highly of Toney, going so far as calling him a star in the making. But second, Toney has performed at Louisiana when given the opportunity.
He took over a defense that had finished 113th and 52nd in yards per play allowed vs. FBS opponents in Napier’s first two seasons under DC Ron Roberts. Roberts was then hired away by Dave Aranda as the DC at Baylor. Toney took over at DC for the Ragin’ Cajuns and immediately improved the defense to 16th in the same category. He was able to sustain that in 2021, with a ranking of 15th.
You often see a defensive coordinator come in and make a difference in his second year. He’s had an opportunity to weed out any sort of malcontents and put his stamp on the unit. Indeed, if you look at Todd Grantham, I think that’s what we saw from 2018 to 2019. Of course, Grantham couldn’t sustain that success in 2020 and 2021.
So when Napier took over at Louisiana, the defense was ranked 115th in yards per play allowed. Roberts didn’t improve that in year one much, but improved it significantly in year 2. The fact that Toney was able to not just sustain that improvement, but improve things almost as much in years 3 and 4 as Roberts did from year 1 to year 2 suggests that Napier may be right about him.
Mark Hocke
Napier is also bringing Mark Hocke with him from Louisiana as the strength and condition coach.
This means the end of the Nick Savage era at Florida. That era started out fantastically, as the Gators were able to dominate fourth quarters in 2018 and 2019 in a way that they hadn’t in years. But that fortune reversed itself in 2020 and 2021, and while the injury and conditioning issues that plagued the program in previous regimes didn’t really show up, neither did the Gators have some significant conditioning advantage.
I like the Hocke hiring for two main reasons. First, he met Napier at Alabama and was a member of the strength staff for the Tide in 2009. That 2009 season is the one where Nick Saban essentially turned his scout team into the Florida defense in preparation for a rematch with Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow in the SEC Championship Game. Greg McElroy has said that he turned on the tape for the Florida game that year and realized he already knew what they were running. That means Hocke is intimately familiar with what it takes to climb the SEC mountain.
But second, I like this hiring because not all of the coaches are able to interact with players over the entire year. There are periods where only the strength and conditioning coach is allowed to interface with the players. While Savage might have done a fine job, the reality is that Napier needs to have someone in that role who he trusts completely, because it is during those times when the coaches can’t interface with the players that many of the most critical gains are made.
It’s for that reason that I think bringing in Hocke was critical to what Napier is trying to build.
Repeating Mullen’s mistakes?
With the hirings of Toney, Hocke and Jabbar Juluke at RB coach, you’ve heard some grumblings about Napier bringing his staff from Louisiana the same way that Mullen brought his staff from Mississippi State.
In some ways, I understand that. Just of the on-field coaches, Billy Gonzales, John Hevesy, Greg Knox, Ron English and Todd Grantham all came directly from Mississippi State. Add Savage to that mix as well and there was a distinct Starkville flavor.
But there is a significant difference here. Gonzales, Knox and Hevesy were with Mullen for his entire tenure with the Bulldogs. None of them were given other opportunities (or decided to take other opportunities) despite the success Mullen had at Mississippi State. Knox was 54 in 2018 while Gonzales and Hevesy were 46.
While both Juluke and Toney were with Napier his entire tenure at Louisiana, that was only four years. Juluke is 48, but Toney is only 32. Perhaps more importantly, I suspect that someone would have come calling for Toney in the not-too-distant-future at the Florida level for him as defensive coordinator in the next year or two.
The point isn’t that these guys are great. The point is that 1) it is just two on-field coaches from Louisiana compared to Mullen’s five and 2) Neither of them has had an opportunity to show what they can do long enough to get another opportunity.
We knew what we were getting with the Mullen 5, especially Grantham. Maybe Toney and Juluke will be better or maybe they will be worse, but this isn’t a repeat of how Dan Mullen built his staff.
Gasparilla Bowl
Does anybody actually care about this bowl game?
It’s interesting, but I actually do. I like that Florida’s opponent is UCF instead of some generic (i.e. Purdue) Big Ten team. The Outback Bowl rarely holds much intrigue to me, but this Gasparilla Bowl certainly will.
Of course, that’s not because of the bowl itself but because of the Gators opponent. UCF has perhaps been the most annoying little brother in college football over the last 4 seasons. After declaring themselves national champions in 2017 without playing anybody of significance (sorry, Auburn was the third best team in the SEC), then AD Danny White decided to take shots at Scott Stricklin about not wanting a 2-for-1 arrangement with the Gators.
The irony of this scheduling debacle should not be lost on us this season. Cincinnati scheduled Notre Dame on the road this season and used that as the main justification for being in the playoff. Had UCF played Florida in 2017 – with the Gators struggling mightily – they might have been able to use that sort of win as an argument for being included.
Instead, they complained.
I’m sure if UCF wins this bowl game, their fans will start yapping at the Gators again. That might be annoying but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. The Napier era hasn’t started yet on the field. This is just an exhibition.
But to take a 6-6 team that has been massively inconsistent this season and wax the Knights would be pretty sweet. Because UCF finally has its shot at a Florida team that is as down as a Gators team has been since that 2017 squad.
Win this one, and Florida casts more doubt on the fake national championship. But I’m sure Gators fans won’t let UCF fans hear about it at all, right?
Mike White being Mike White
You’d have to be deaf to have not heard the noise about Gators basketball coach Mike White.
White – ironically the brother of Danny – has done just enough to keep his job in Gainesville, but not really all that much more. I’ve written about his point differentials and how those compare to Billy Donovan and how they aren’t trending in the right direction year-over-year as my reasoning for understanding why some want a change.
Well, that narrative started to change a little bit this year as Florida started off the season 6-0, with wins over Florida State and Ohio State. Through those six games, the Gators point differential was more than 21 points.
But the last two games show why Florida fans struggle to embrace White. First came a loss to Oklahoma on the road, 74-67. A 7-point loss on the road really isn’t that big of a deal, and with Texas Southern, North Florida, Maryland and South Florida on the schedule, Florida figured to enter SEC play with a robust 11-1 or 10-2 record.
Well, 10-2 is still possible, but it would require winning all of those games since the Gators dropped the game, at home, to SWAC bottom dweller Texas Southern. The Tigers hadn’t won a game all year (0-7). They came into the game ranked 273rd in the NCAA’s NET rankings. But then they shot 54% from the field and outrebounded Florida 46-23.
Those two stats suggest exactly what happened. Florida got outworked.
Defense was the bellweather for the 2020 Gators squad. When the defense played well, the Gators won. That appears to be the case again this year, though the hope was that the effort that waxed and waned last year would be more consistent.
The point differential is still at 13.1, which if the Gators put up over an entire season would indicate that the program is heading in the right direction. But this is the sort of loss that sticks in your fans’ memories even as time moves along.