Billy Napier joins The Paul Finebaum Show at SEC spring meetings

Billy Napier returned to the Panhandle on Tuesday for his first SEC spring meetings, joining Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin and hoops coaches Todd Golden and Kelly Rae Finley.

Stricklin and Napier both made an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show to discuss the opening day of meetings and major items being addressed in Destin this week.

Check out Finebaum’s interview with Billy Napier below, where he comments on his experience thus far, the Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher feud and name, image and likeness.

Billy Napier interview on Paul Finebaum Show

Finebaum: We would all like to know, what’s been going on at these meetings all day?

Napier: “It’s going great. I’m just the rookie in the room, right? So, try to keep it quick and concise and do a lot of listening. But certainly a unique time to be in those meetings, for sure.”

Finebaum: What is it like to realize that you are now at the pinnacle of your profession?

Napier: “I think [Greg] Sankey obviously is a phenomenal leader. Certainly is years and years ahead of his decision making, his thought process. Very impressed overall with his organization skills, his leadership. And you got some iconic people in the room, right? Some very accomplished people in the room. So, for a guy like me, there’s a lot to be learned and certainly have taken that approach.”

Finebaum: What’s it like to watch the Saban vs. Fisher feud from the sidelines?

Napier: “You know, we’ll let those gentlemen handle that. Very accomplished coaches, certainly Coach Saban in particular. He hired me two different occasions, wouldn’t be here today without him, the wisdom, the experience there. And we’ve taken a lot of what we learned — not only from him but a lot of the coaches that we’ve worked for — and applied that. We had tremendous success at Louisiana and really excited about applying that wisdom and experience to our situation at the University of Florida. So, these guys are veterans. They’re cutthroat competitors. Very accomplished and they’ve got conviction about who they are and how they do things. And certainly, it comes with the territory.”

Finebaum: Fisher said a lot about former assistants who have worked with Saban. Was that uncomfortable for you to hear?

Napier: “I can’t complement my experience enough. I was there five years with Coach Saban. And really at a critical point in my career in 2011 where I had been in college football coaching for 10 years. To be on the inside at the University of Alabama as he was just getting that thing started, there’s a lot to be learned about that in-house process. So, I think the things discussed there were relative to those two individuals, right? And I think I’m wise enough to not get in the middle of that conversation. But Jimbo is a great competitor, and certainly it’s been great to keep up with him and observe his career. These people are who they are because they’re great competitors and they have conviction about their process, what they believe in and how they do things.”

Finebaum: I don’t mean to mischaracterize, but you have embraced NIL as much as you can possibly embrace it?

Napier: “I think it falls under the leadership opportunity. Your job as a leader of the team and organization is to position your team to have success. It’s unfortunate that we’re in a very uncertain time, right? I think uncertain times present opportunities for leadership. We’re trying to be competitive. We’re trying to put together a winning product at the University of Florida. These are the rules, this is the current dynamic that we’re competing in. I’ve always taken the approach; tell me the rules and we’re going to be relentless in the way that we approach things and compete. So, right now, I think NIL is part of the game. It’s part of competition. So, I continue to believe at the University of Florida that name image and likeness will be a great strength. We have incredible resources, we have 415,000 living alumni, we’re located right in the middle of multiple big-time media markets, we have 55,000 students and we play in the SEC. So, if you’re putting together ingredients for name, image and likeness, we got a pretty good list.”