Who Is Billy Napier?

#26
#26
sonofUT62 said:
1)Extremely successful recruiter unlike Mullen and Fuente
2)Liked by his players unlike Herman
3)Beat Matt Campbell last year with lesser talent
4)Beat App State by 30 this year with about similar talent
5)Im not certain I would fear him as much as Aranda but hes not a "meh' level coach
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Not sure about #3... I'd take LSU rejects over Iowa kids any day. App State not who they used to be.

Personally, I would be relieved if they hire Napier and would rather him be there than Mullen.
 
#27
#27
It appears he has an eye for recruits who produce, the love of his players, and is a better than average playcaller whose offenses are adaptive and dangerous from anywhere on the field. That he's all but an in name Heupeleque guy. I think he'd be a dangerous coach if placed into Florida's rich recruiting environment. His defenses seem mostly hard to score on. How does his lower tier coaching translate to the SEC, that has yet to be seen.
 
#28
#28
sjt18 said:
Good coach. All promotions from G-5 to P-5 come with risks. A few succeed then you have more that end up like Sumlin.

Ten years ago Kevin Sumlin was the guy everyone wanted. He had produced a 12 win season at Houston and looked like a sure bet. TAM hired him in 2012. He had a good first season then was mediocre until they fired him in 2017. He took the Arizona job and was fired after 3 years with the final blow being a 70-7 loss to ASU. He appears to be currently living on his buyout... not employed in football at 57 years old.

There are so many factors that go into a coach's success. He has to be a quality coach... but the circumstances and situation have to match him too.
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Bingo.

Sumlin. Herman. Frost. Norvell. Strong.... the list goes on an on.

If Florida hires Napier that signals to me that they missed on a few guys, which I predicted would happen a few days ago. It's a good job but it's simply not as revered as it used to be.
 
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#29
#29
BlinghamptonVol said:
Florida isn’t all in as a school and athletic department. That’s the real thing we don’t want to see change. Napier will be good, but with full university support, uf becomes elite. Of course, ‘full support’ in Gainesville means covering for murderers, abusers, and weapons charges.
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From what I understanding, Napier is negotiating with schools to have full control of the program, massive funds for recruiting, and updates to facilities before he signs with a program. In other words, he wants the school to go "all in". He rejected offers because programs were not willing to comply. If Florida is willing to comply then they can be a powerful force.

I believe this is exactly what Kirby did before signing with UGA and he was given tons of resources that Richt never got, which explains why they are at the top. If Florida does the same, it's not good for us.
 
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#31
#31
Billy Napier is the next Derek Dooley from one of those La-La Tech universities.

Same AD = same collection of contacts on the mississippi / louisana cow college circuit.

With that high school system, Florida should be a good enough job to land a top-10 type coach.

Looks like they are playing small ball. The Gatorettes are accustom to getting the short end of the stick.

Fingers are crossed.
 
#33
#33
GoodlettsvilleVol said:
According to several Gator know it all's he is the odds on choice to be the new coach at Florida.

Do we like this?

We don't want a top coach at Florida needless to say.
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Please explain why we don’t want a top coach at UF? Were Zook, Muschamp, McElwain or Mullen top coaches? No. Ergo it doesn’t matter who UF gets. They beat us regardless.

Napier? He is off the Saban tree. Has done a good job at Louisiana. If he comes to UF, it will be like every other UF coach. He will circle the game against TN as an automatic win.
 
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#34
#34
sjt18 said:
Good coach. All promotions from G-5 to P-5 come with risks. A few succeed then you have more that end up like Sumlin.

Ten years ago Kevin Sumlin was the guy everyone wanted. He had produced a 12 win season at Houston and looked like a sure bet. TAM hired him in 2012. He had a good first season then was mediocre until they fired him in 2017. He took the Arizona job and was fired after 3 years with the final blow being a 70-7 loss to ASU. He appears to be currently living on his buyout... not employed in football at 57 years old.

There are so many factors that go into a coach's success. He has to be a quality coach... but the circumstances and situation have to match him too.
Click to expand...

Sumlin’s biggest issues were personal, of the Steve Sarkisian kind. It was affecting him on the field and Arizona was a mess when he went there. He’ll end up back in the P5 one day.
 
#36
#36
GoodlettsvilleVol said:
According to several Gator know it all's he is the odds on choice to be the new coach at Florida.

Do we like this?

We don't want a top coach at Florida needless to say.
Click to expand...

Why should we care so much about who is their coach? We just have to be better than them and beat them, no matter the coach, and that victory will be all the sweeter. .
 
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#37
#37
BigOrangeTrain said:
Please explain why we don’t want a top coach at UF? Were Zook, Muschamp, McElwain or Mullen top coaches? No. Ergo it doesn’t matter who UF gets. They beat us regardless.

Napier? He is off the Saban tree. Has done a good job at Louisiana. If he comes to UF, it will be like every other UF coach. He will circle the game against TN as an automatic win.
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Nah, the power shifts around. UGA vs Florida used to be very one sided with Florida beating them 80% of the time. Now it swung in UGA's direction. Same thing will happen to Tennessee overtime. We just have to get out act together.
 
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#38
#38
volzonemat said:
Nah, the power shifts around. UGA vs Florida used to be very one sided with Florida beating them 80% of the time. Now it swung in UGA's direction. Same thing will happen to Tennessee overtime. We just have to get out act together.
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Since the division split of the SEC, Tennessee has only beaten Florida a few times in now a span of 30 years.
 
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#39
#39
I'm sure he is a fine coach and all, but this doesn't move the needle coming from the FBS. Put this hire in the same category as Zook and Jim Mcelwain. Florida needs to land someone like Luke Fickell to capture an Urban type hire.
 
#40
#40
He's not a proven/experienced Power 5 head coach. So that's good for us.

G5-to-P5 promotions can be crap shoots (see: Butch Jones, for example, or Justin Fuentes, or Scott Frost). So that's good for us, too.

But G5-to-P5 can also work out nicely, as we're finding out with Josh Heupel. And this fella has a solid G5 resume, preceded by assistant coach time as some elite programs, just as Heupel did.

All in all, too early to tell. Gainesville are hoping he works for them the way Josh is working out for us. We're hoping he doesn't, and that we're part of the reason for that. Heh.

Go Vols!
 
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#41
#41
Justin Fuente took over a Memphis program that was 3-21 in the previous 2 years and helped them ascend from the CUSA to the AAC (same conf as Cinci, UCF) and by Year 3 had them at 10 wins and 9 in Year 4. Everyone, myself included, thought he'd do exceptionally well at VaTech... he did not.

Mike Norvell took over for Fuente at Memphis and continued their success posting a 38-15 record including 2 division and 1 conference title in 4 years and 2 Top 25 finishes. Everyone thought he was an outstanding hire at Florida State... he is 8-12 so far after 2 years.

Tom Herman was 22-4 at Houston before taking the Texas job. He did not make it as he was fired with a 32-18 record and no losing seasons in 4 years.

Scott Frost was 19-7 in 2 years at UCF before taking the Nebraska job. So far he's 15-28 in 4 years but Nebraska, unlike a LOT of other schools, is showing patience and is giving him time.


Point is there are no sure things. There are plenty of examples of light-the-world-on-fire G5 coaches that have gone to a P5 program and have failed. And the impatience of these programs is only getting more and more thin. Look at Gus Malzahn... fired after 8 years, a 68-35 record (39-27 SEC) and 4 Top 25 finishes. Tom Herman had a good record at Texas. A lot of these programs (USC, FSU, Auburn, Florida, etc) demand immediate results and the pressure and toxic environment seemingly weighs on these G5 coaches.

And these schools basically have to hire either a coordinator or a G5 HC because no P5 coach will leave (and it seems a lot of good G5 coaches won't even leave) because of how insane these programs are. That's why guys like Matt Campbell, Luke Fickell, etc are staying put. Why would you leave a good thing to go to a swamp of toxicity?


I think Napier might be a good coach but IMO Florida will chew him up and spit him out just like they've done with every other coach... regardless of how successful they've been. We'd kill for Herman/Mullen's success in Hype's first 4 years. If he's not pulling in Top 10 classes AND winning 9/10 games by Year 3 out the door he'll go.
 
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#42
#42
GoodlettsvilleVol said:
According to several Gator know it all's he is the odds on choice to be the new coach at Florida.

Do we like this?

We don't want a top coach at Florida needless to say.
Click to expand...

A lot more coaches fail than succeed. Project him to fail and you're likely to be right.

Any coach moving to SEC is a risk. Coming from lower level is even higher risk, even when successful.

I would not fear any hire. Just see how they adapt to SEC. Even Bama supporters have far, far exceeded any expectation they had when hiring Saban.
 
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#44
#44
Billy Napier has been on the list of up and comers for about two years now. Word was that S Carolina heavily courted him before settling on Beamer and that Napier turned them down in the end for a variety of reasons....mostly that it really wasn't the program he saw himself joining. His dream job according to most was the LSU post and he spends multiple days each week calling in to the Jordy Culotta vid podcast talking up his Rajun Cajuns but in reality putting himself out there trying to garner support among the Tiger faithful for the LSU job. Of course Culotta sauces him up and it sounds pretty obvious and self-serving to me. He was clever taking the ULL job where he could take LSU reject recruits and create a good solid program and recruit out of a station wagon instead of a jet. So he has been crafty in creating a buzz about himself. We shall see if he can now make some magic in Gainesville. Whether he has the stones to run a big program put under a level of scrutiny he has not faced before is yet to be seen. And whether he is anything more than just a good solid coach who knows how to self promote will be known before long. Not a home run hire, but I would say he has a reasonable chance to be consistent at UF. Compete with UGA and continue the mastery over us Vols? We shall see.
 
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#45
#45
Jax_Vol said:
Billy Napier is the next Derek Dooley from one of those La-La Tech universities.

Same AD = same collection of contacts on the mississippi / louisana cow college circuit.

With that high school system, Florida should be a good enough job to land a top-10 type coach.

Looks like they are playing small ball. The Gatorettes are accustom to getting the short end of the stick.

Fingers are crossed.
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Dooley was 17-20 in his three years at laTech. Napiers last 3 years at UL are 31-5 with 3 division championships. All of this while playing in the at minimum second toughest non P5 conference. As a matter of fact hes never not had at least a share of the division... even in his first year. Tell me more about how he and Dooley are the same. I cant wait to hear this.
 
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#46
#46
Jax_Vol said:
Billy Napier is the next Derek Dooley from one of those La-La Tech universities.

Same AD = same collection of contacts on the mississippi / louisana cow college circuit.

With that high school system, Florida should be a good enough job to land a top-10 type coach.

Looks like they are playing small ball. The Gatorettes are accustom to getting the short end of the stick.

Fingers are crossed.
Click to expand...

Derek Dooley was 17-20 with 2 losing seasons in 3 years. The only school that showed any interest in hiring him from LA Tech was a bottom feeding Memphis team and they passed him over for Larry Porter.

Billy Naper is 38-12. He has been pursued by numerous P5 schools

Quite a difference
 
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#47
#47
I know Billy. I’d be very surprised if he went to UF.
 
#48
#48
GoodlettsvilleVol said:
According to several Gator know it all's he is the odds on choice to be the new coach at Florida.

Do we like this?

We don't want a top coach at Florida needless to say.
Click to expand...

Fired by Dabo. I want to say he’s the only coach he ever fired, but I’m not 100% on that.
 
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