Billy Napier on the process of rebuilding Florida: 'Our players believe in it'

Billy Napier goes into Year 3 at Florida with a lot of pressure and expectations. While there’s still been some recruiting wins since his arrival, it’s been a rollercoaster.

That speaks to the performance on the field where Florida is 11-14 in two seasons. The team went 6-7 his first season, losing the Las Vegas Bowl.

But without making the postseason in 2023, perhaps 2024 could be make or break. EIther way, Napier’s been encouraged by the rebuilding process and the players bought in.

“Well, I think the offseason has went well,” Napier said at the SEC Meetings. “We’ve made some philosophy changes, leadership changes in strength and conditioning and nutrition. I think that’s really impacted the culture of our team. Like the discipline, accountability is better, like ultimately the programming, the design and the results. We look back at the work that’s been done. That part’s working, our players believe in that thing. 

“I think back to December, January, when I’m going into the office on Saturday, and we’ve got 75 players in the building doing extra. That kind of speaks to this group of players and the leadership that we have at the top of the group.” 

As far as what’s next, Napier said the changes made after his second season were beneficial to the program. It could pay dividends for the Gators.

“We didn’t make progress in some of the areas from year one to year two that I would like,” Napier said. “We made some changes. And I think those have proved to be beneficial. So coaching, infrastructure, strength, conditioning, nutrition. We’ve added people in front office roles (and we have) solidified our NIL processes and systems. I mean, there’s a lot of work that’s been done. And I think that gives us some confidence going into the second half of the offseason.”

That healthy culture could be on display to sell for transfers, according to Napier.

“I think, ultimately, we’ve got a staff and an organization that’s worked really hard,” Napier said. “We’ve added 35 players to our team. 20 high school players. 15 transfer players. We wouldn’t have been able to do that if we didn’t have a healthy culture, if we didn’t have good systems, if we didn’t have a good product to sell.”

Napier and Florida put together the 10th-ranked recruiting class overall and the seventh-ranked recruiting class in the SEC during the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. That’s a class that includes two five-star recruits in quarterback DJ Lagway and defensive lineman LJ McCray.