Billy Napier gives incredible response to 'why Florida, why now' question

Florida’s recently hired head coach Billy Napier was one of the hottest and most attractive hires of the 2021 coaching carousel thus far. He’s fairly young at 42 years old and he did a remarkable job at turning the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns into a top 25 program. During his introductory press conference with Florida on Sunday, a reporter asked him why he decided to come to Gainesville to be the head coach of the Gators and the timing of his decision.

“First of all, it was a very difficult decision, right. The last few years this time of year has been hectic. But I would say this. I didn’t feel like we had done our job at the University of Louisiana [Lafayette]. We were able to win the [Sun Belt] West Division, get in the championship game, came up short a few times,” Napier said.

“The third year, we were in position to compete for a championship, we’re playing Coastal Carolina. The rug gets pulled out from underneath us right at the end (Covid-19). This year, I felt like we were in position to do the job. We were literally one week away from the championship game until we came to an agreement.”

“I think we felt like that you’ve done your part, basically. People hire you to do a job. You’ve got a contract. You want to fulfill your contract. You want to follow through with your word. And when you combine that with what I would say is very unique timing and situation at the University of Florida,” he said.

A very religious man, Napier added that, “There’s a lot of prayer that goes into these decisions.” Like any job or decision in life, a lot of it came down to timing for the up-and-coming head coach. “It’s the right place at the right time with the right people, right leadership. I’m extremely thankful for the opportunity.”

Florida Gator fans should be very excited with Billy Napier

The SEC is a brutal, brutal place to be a head coach in college football. The conference has chewed up and spit out so many coaches over the years. It’s certainly not for the weak of heart. But Florida fans should be very excited about Napier’s responses. So often college football and college basketball coaches say one thing and do another. For Napier to want to finish the job at Louisiana-Lafayette, that should make fans smile. He sounds like a man of not only great coaching acumen, but high integrity. That combination is incredibly rare in college athletics.

It was an excellent hire by the Florida Gators, and many others are echoing those same sentiments, like On3’s Jeremy Crabtree. He called it “The perfect hire to revive Florida Gators’ recruiting.” Napier’s going to be a great head coach to watch and what type of players he brings to the “The Swamp” to revive the program.