Billy Napier explains what he hopes Florida's identity will be under his leadership

Billy Napier helped turn around a Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns program that once middled out in the Sun Belt and turned it back into a conference power, and now he hopes to do the same — albeit, on a much bigger stage, working at Florida in the SEC.

In Florida’s last four years under former head coach Dan Mullen, the Gators had their fair shares of highs and lows. Mullen amassed a 34-15 overall record at the helm and was fired after going 5-6 this year; Mullen brought the Gators to the SEC Championship game a mere year ago, but things just fell apart at the seam following that game. Now, Napier hopes to build a brand-new identity for the Florida football program, one that has a core set of values — centered around integrity.

“I think that the things that we mentioned earlier, we’re trying to teach a set of values here,” Napier said of his locker room culture at Florida. “Integrity is important. I think that this program will challenge your integrity because you’re going to have to tell yourself the truth. You’re always having to answer that question, ‘Am I doing the very best that I can do? Am I cutting a corner that nobody knows about? Am I living a lie?’ Or whatever the case may be. I think honesty is a big component here.”

Napier comes to Florida with an intriguing resume, with his most recent stop being a four-year stint as the head coach at Louisiana-Lafayette. Napier in 2018 took over a Louisiana program that had not eclipsed six wins since 2014, and he turned the Ragin’ Cajuns into a top-25 program with apparent ease; after a 7-7 campaign in his first year, Louisiana amassed two 11-win seasons and a 10-win finish. The Ragin’ Cajuns finished 2020 as the No. 15 team in the AP top 25, and they should finish in the top 25 once again this year.

“I think that we want to have a team that’s together. A group that’s selfless. We want to have guys that are known for being great teammates,” Napier said. “This game gives you that opportunity. Discipline, effort, toughness, and then a certain level of belief. I think that’s what we’re trying to establish here as our identity as an organization, as a football team. We want to compete with those things in mind. When people talk about our team, we’d like to think they’d talk about those traits.”

Billy Napier addresses his role as play-caller, how the Florida staff will be made up

Billy Napier, Florida’s new head coach, brings an offensive-minded play style to the Swamp: he’s coached tight ends, quarterbacks and been the offensive coordinator at Clemson, he’s coached quarterbacks at Colorado State, tight ends at Florida State, wide receivers at Alabama, quarterbacks at Arizona state and more — getting a new gig at Florida, he says, won’t change that.

Napier still plans on calling the plays for the Florida Gators offense moving forward, regardless of who he hires as his offensive coordinator. He plans on maintaining his strong foundation of offensive principles.

“I will be calling the plays here,” Napier said in his introductory press conference. “I think it gives us an advantage, in my opinion. We’re one of the only teams in the country to have two offensive line coaches (at Louisiana). We’ll have an offensive line coach and an assistant offensive line coach (at Florida).”

Napier has not yet filled out his coaching staff at Florida, but as he pointed out, his Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns had a unique support staff. He had two assistant coaches working specifically with the offensive line: Jeff Norrid and Darnell Stapleton. Napier has some work to do with filling out the rest of his staff, but a recent report indicated that Napier will bring two Louisiana-Lafayette coaches — defensive coordinator Patrick Toney and running backs coach Jabbar Juluke — with him to Florida.

“We will construct our staff on both sides of the ball and put a premium on the line of scrimmage. The offensive line, defensive line and edge players will be very important,” Napier said. “Certainly, when you’re coaching offensive line, you’ve got to coach five players. Nobody’s got one coach coaching five DBs. I don’t know why you wouldn’t have two guys coaching the offensive line. So, I’ll coach the quarterbacks with help from an offensive analyst, and then call the plays. And we’ll have that advantage of having two offensive line coaches.”

Napier comes to Florida with an intriguing resume, with his most recent stop being a four-year stint as the head coach at Louisiana-Lafayette. Napier in 2018 took over a Louisiana program that had not eclipsed six wins since 2014, and he turned the Ragin’ Cajuns into a top-25 program with apparent ease; after a 7-7 campaign in his first year, Louisiana amassed two 11-win seasons and a 10-win finish. The Ragin’ Cajuns finished 2020 as the No. 15 team in the AP top 25, and they should finish in the top 25 once again this year.

He’ll have plenty of work to do turning around a Florida program that made it to the Gasparilla Bowl by the skin of its teeth, clinching bowl eligibility by winning the regular-season finale. But Napier has made clear his intentions of revamping the Florida offense heading into the 2022 season.