Billy Napier shares how he will leave mark on Florida construction of new football facility

Billy Napier is taking over at Florida during an interesting time. The Gators are in the process of building a new football facility, and he has a chance to leave his mark on it.

He addressed that this week. A reporter asked if Napier had made any changes to the plans considering he inherited a pretty big project.

He said he hadn’t done anything yet, but things are progressing.

“We had about an hour and 15 minute meeting yesterday with that group of people,” Napier told reporters. “But you have to compliment administration, their professionalism. We’ve hired the absolute best in the country, two different companies, that are working on that dynamic. I think the administration did a good job of doing their research. They visited a number of places throughout the country, some of the very best facilities out there. And that’s the goal, right? We want to have not only the most impressive, but the most functional facility in the entire country. I think we’re in the process of evaluating that and there’ll be a lot of back and forth there.”

The facility is unique for a few reasons, though. Napier said the football players won’t be the only ones who can access it. Instead, it’ll be available to all student-athletes.

“The good thing is we’ve got an opportunity to make ourselves different, to improve our product, to improve the experience of not only football,” Napier said. “I think that one of the cool things that I like about this new facility is it has the all [student-athlete] dining, the inside lounge, the outside lounge area that all student-athletes will have an opportunity to access. That’s a huge component, and it will help all of the athletic department in that regard.”

Billy Napier: ‘A lot of work to do before we worry about a lazy river’

As construction goes on, questions have risen about a lazy river. That idea even made its way to The Swamp message board on Gators Online.

A reporter asked Napier whether it’d be part of the plan or not, and he didn’t really say much about it.

“I’m not really concerned about the lazy river as much as maybe I’m concerned with other parts of it,” Napier said with a smirk. “A lot of work to do before we worry about a lazy river. I can promise you that.”