Billy Napier thinks being part of Florida-Florida State rivalry is 'pretty awesome'

This season will be Billy Napier’s first chance to play coach against Florida State as the head coach of the Florida Gators. Even in a down season for the Gators, this game is a big deal and Billy Napier knows it. This game is an opportunity.

While speaking during his weekly press conference, Billy Napier spoke about why he was excited to be a part of this rivalry.

“You know, when I was growing up, Florida and Florida State were dominating college football,” Billy Napier said. “It was Steve Spurrier. It was Bobby Bowden.”

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“Pretty awesome to be a part of this game, and certainly I having been in the ACC for seven years and played against Florida State in the past, a ton of respect for that place and the history and tradition there.”

The Spurrier-Bowden days are the glory days for this rivalry. That, perhaps most famously, included the 1996 season. While the Gators were the top-ranked team in the country, they traveled to play the second-ranked Seminoles. Florida State won a close game. They met again in the Sugar Bowl that year, where Florida won and was able to claim the program’s first national championship.

Now, the question is whether or not Billy Napier and Mike Norvell can build these programs into national powers again and usher in a new era of prestige to this rivalry.

“So, excited about the opportunities that come with this game. Certainly, we all are very aware of the history, the tradition, the rivalry, and the things that come with that,” Billy Napier concluded.

Florida leads the all-time series 37-26-2.

Billy Napier is looking at the big picture

Losing to Vanderbilt was bad in the eyes of many fans. It was a stark reminder of how big a rebuild Billy Napier is working on at Florida. That’s also why Napier wants everyone to look at the big picture.

“I think you’ve got to get consumed with the things that you know are under your control. You’ve got to get consumed with improvement, efficiency, refining every part of the systems that you run, what you do with your time. We’ve been through this before. This is a process, you don’t just flip a switch and the house is built,” Billy Napier said.

“I think that it is truly one step at a time and one person at a time. I think that there’s lots of things that contribute here, but we’ve been here before. I’ve got a ton of confidence in what we do and how we do it.”