Steve Spurrier reveals first impression of new Florida coach Billy Napier

A new era of Florida football has begun as the Gators are now being led by head coach Billy Napier. After a successful run as Louisiana’s head man in the Sun Belt Conference, Napier has made the transition to the SEC and is tasked will rebuilding a program that significantly declined the past two seasons under former coach Dan Mullen.

While Florida has been a prestigious football school for quite some time and led by coaches such as Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, there are high expectations for Napier – who went 40-12 in four seasons at Louisiana – to take the Gators back to the top, but it’s certainly going to take some work.

During an appearance on the Ronnie and TKras radio show on 95.3 WDAE, Spurrier – who went 122-27 in 12 years in Gainesville from 1990-2001 – discussed Florida’s hire of Napier and the type of coach he is.

“I think Billy is a very strong individual coach who will demand effort and attitude with the players,” Spurrier said. “He wants to run the ball. He uses three running backs, keeps them fresh and so forth. They balance the run and the pass and he’ll have a good defense that plays with sound technique, don’t beat yourself and make stupid penalties. I think we had a lot more penalties this year than normal. I think he’s a real solid ball coach that is going to get it going.”

Spurrier: Napier isn’t taking over a ‘great team’

Although “the Head Ball Coach” had some nice things to say about Napier and his coaching style, Spurrier did make it clear that Napier isn’t taking over a team that’s loaded with talent and has work to do on the recruiting front.

“Now, he didn’t inherit a great team the way I did in 1990. I stepped in and we had eight starters on defense returning from a team that was third in the nation in total defense,” Spurrier said. “Those guys could play.

“Billy is not inheriting a tip-top team.”

Napier is taking over a Florida team that went 6-6 during the 2021 regular season. The head coach signed a seven-year, $51.8 million contract with the Gators that will pay him $7.1 million during the 2022 season and increase his annual salary by $100,000 each season.