Paul Finebaum goes in-depth on Billy Napier, how NIL collectives have impacted his job

Billy Napier hasn’t gotten off to the best start as the new Florida Football coach. In fairness, the deck was stacked against up the moment he took the job, though he’ll still face the pressure to win and win immediately once the season starts.

Former coach Dan Mullen didn’t get much done on the field (6-7 last season) or on the recruiting trail before Napier’s arrival — and little progress has been made there under Napier. Part of which can be explained by the school’s messy NIL situation.

All this hullabaloo surrounding their football program has Florida fans up in arms. They expect the gold standard from their program, and the last 365 days have featured one disaster after another. But Paul Finebaum believes all the finger pointing at Napier is uncalled-for given that he just took over the job and everything off the field is a whirlwind fiasco.

On his recent radio appearance with Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic, Finebaum shared his thoughts at length regarding the Florida football situation, given how fans are criticizing Napier for NIL mishaps that Finebaum believes are not his fault.

Read below.

Finebaum on Billy Napier

“It’s terribly unfair. Billy Napier was hired to win football games. He wasn’t hired to run the business end of the university of Florida. I think he’s done a phenomenal job so far in reorganizing that place and rebooting it. And letting people know: ‘I don’t know what the jinx is and what the voodoo of the past has been, but we have to move forward.’

“So I think that’s absurd for any reasonable person with any knowledge to blame Billy Napier for something that is not under his purview. Now ultimately, this is his program and it’s a bad look I think we all would agree. But also, there’s a lot of people driving around the country listening to us…and they’re still trying to sort this out.”

Finebaum ended his comments by saying:

“In fairness, you have to give Billy Napier a moment here. If this thing can’t be figured out, it’s going to be a bad way to start. That goes without saying.”