Emmitt Smith candid on Billy Napier future, fourth year: 'I don't see it happening'
Florida coach Billy Napier is under the gun not even halfway into his third season in charge of the program, with the clock ticking on a turnaround. Gators great Emmitt Smith doesn’t see it happening.
Smith, who served as the program’s Mr. Two Bits on Saturday for a home loss to Texas A&M, appears to have seen enough despite the fact that Billy Napier can envision a path to a fourth season in charge.
“It’s going to be very tough to watch this season,” Smith said on the Up & Adams show. “If coach is right that he has nothing to worry about, he can see a fourth year, kudos to him. But I’m not seeing it happen. I don’t see it happening.
“I think the losses are going to force the alumni, going to tick a lot of people off. The loss this past weekend and the loss to Miami at home, both of those at home and the way we lost those games, it’s not a good look.”
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Smith hasn’t always had the smoothest relationship with his alma mater, though things have been much more cordial in recent years. That was evidenced by Florida asking him to serve as Mr. Two Bits last weekend, for a game in which his son, EJ Smith, was also playing.
The former NFL great actually picked against Florida on pre-game talk shows, sticking with family on that one.
In any case, Smith appears to have renewed interest in the orange and blue. And he’s less than thrilled with the current state of affairs. He did, however, offer some insight on what he believes is the team’s best approach going forward in 2024 with Billy Napier.
“Well, I’m not sure. I have mixed emotions because I think DJ Lagway gives us the best opportunity to be successful as an offensive unit because of his throwing ability and his ability to move around in the pocket,” Smith said.
“It’s tough. It’s so tough, because our schedule is going to be so tough. I mean we’ve still got LSU. We still got Georgia to play against. South Carolina. Tennessee. We’ve got some tough games ahead of us and we haven’t really shown that we have the ability to go out and compete at the level that we need to.”
Florida no longer plays the whole old SEC East, so South Carolina doesn’t appear on the schedule this year. But Texas, Ole Miss and Florida State do, among others.
Billy Napier will have to do quite a bit to survive at this point.