Billy Napier on rebuild of Florida: 'We came to Florida to work'

In his first two seasons as Florida’s head coach, Billy Napier has compiled a record of 11-14. After a 5-2 start in 2023, the Gators suffered five-straight losses to end the season to kept them out of the postseason.

According to FanDuel Sportsbook, the Gators will enter the 2024 regular season with an over/under win total of 4.5 meaning Florida is expected to miss the postseason for a second-straight season. Something that hasn’t happened since the mid ’80s.

With two years of experience under his belt, Napier knows there’s still work to do before the Gators can return to national prominence.

“Ultimately, we’re 15 years removed from a conference championship or national championship,” Napier told reporters during the SEC Spring Meetings. “We’ve got three Eastern Division titles in the last 15 years. So we came to Florida to work and establish those expectations again. I think it’s important that you evaluate things relative to history and part of taking the job was doing homework and research about what has been wrong at Florida and what needs to be fixed. I think part of taking the job was — look, we’re up for the challenge. We know there’s work to do.

“We know there’s work to do. When we got boots on the ground, that was evident. And we’ve been working hard to correct some of those things.”

The recruiting has been strong under Napier. In the On3 2024 Industry Rankings, Florida had the 10th-ranked class. That class included the highly-anticipated five-star quarterback DJ Lagway. Still, winning on the field is what matters.

The Gators will be facing an uphill battle in that respect thanks to their strength of schedule this fall. The Gators play 11 power conference opponents. That includes non-conference games against Florida State, Miami, and UCF to go along with an SEC schedule that includes games against Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, LSU and Ole Miss.

“We’re getting ready to field the most experienced team that we’ve had since we’ve been at Florida,” Napier continued. “We’ve got 41,000 snaps of experience coming back. We’ve got a returning starter quarterback, we’ve got one of five runners that’s got 2,500 yards in his career, and I think we’ve made critical additions to our team in the secondary at offensive tackle. It’s the deepest most experienced team that we’ve had.”

The Gators will get to show off their experience when Florida kicks off its 2024 regular season against Miami on Aug. 31 in Gainesville.