Winning games is 'the only thing' Billy Napier can do to quiet critics

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier is familiar with the critics. Through his first two seasons at Florida, he’s had plenty of them. Now, going into year three in Gainesville, the only way Napier can silence those critics is by winning games.

On3’s Andy Staples recently made an appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show. There, he shared some thoughts on those Gators and explained why winning games is going to be how to quiet critics of the job he’s done.

“You got to win games, right? Six and six, and then 5-7,” Andy Staples said. “You have to win games. There’s absolutely no speech you can give, no question you can answer, nothing you can do that will change anybody’s mind other than winning more games than everybody thinks you should. That is the only thing he can do. Everything else is just rearranging deck chairs.”

In his first two seasons at Florida, Billy Napier has a record of 11-14. The 2023 season was particularly frustrating, with the Gators starting 5-2 before losing their final five games to miss a bowl.

The recruiting has been strong under Napier. In the On3 2024 Industry Rankings, Florida had the 10th-ranked class. That class included the highly-anticipated five-star quarterback DJ Lagway. Still, winning on the field is what matters.

“Billy Napier wants to win more than the average Florida fan wants to win. Because it is Billy Napier’s livelihood. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to. They don’t all get to win,” Staples said. “And that’s the problem when you get to a level like the SEC or the Big Ten where the competition is absolutely cutthroat. The salaries are very high. The expectations are massive. And so you can work as hard as you can, do as good of a job as you can, and sometimes it’s just not good enough.”

The biggest problem for Florida and Billy Napier in 2024 is the schedule. The Gators play 11 power conference opponents. That includes non-conference games against Florida State, Miami, and UCF to go along with an SEC schedule.

Steve Spurrier calls out Billy Napier

One person who recently shared some criticism of Billy Napier was legendary head coach Steve Spurrier, who explained he wants the program to be better organized.

“There’s a feeling around the Gators of ‘What the heck are we doing?’ There’s a lot of questions that I don’t have the answers to about organization. Just because you hire the most people doesn’t mean you’re going to win. All these extra people, I question how much that really helps,” Spurrier said.

“Billy [Napier] is a good guy who works his tail off. I like Billy, good family man. But we do wish the organization was a little bit more tidy.”