5 moves Billy Napier made in his first offseason mirroring Steve Spurrier

Their Tennessee roots aren’t the only thing Billy Napier and Steve Spurrier have in common.

The first-year Florida coach has made a handful of moves this offseason mirroring Spurrier’s start at UF. Though he hasn’t coached a game yet, the HBC has been impressed the job Napier has done thus far.

They first met at Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille after Napier’s introductory press conference.

“He came here after he was announced. They had an announcement party in a restaurant that night. I talked to him on the phone before that after he got the job,” Spurrier said on the Gators Online Podcast.

“I haven’t had any long conversations with him. He knows what he’s doing. He has his plan in place and he’s going to run with it. … So hopefully, these guys with Billy’s the staff here will really give us a team to be proud of. I think that’s going to happen.”

Here are five Spurrier-like moves Napier made in his first offseason.

Won the team over with a gesture

The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. For the Florida football players, it was also through a parking lot.

Upon taking the UF job, Napier felt the player experience and their day-to-day lives needed to improve. He addressed some of the issues immediately by providing parking on campus and serving three meals a day in the Gator Room. 

“He’s brought a lot of good changes,” outside linebacker Antwaun Powell-Ryland Jr. said of Napier. “Player experience-wise, he made the food better. The parking. He got us parking spots so we wouldn’t have no problems with tickets or anything like that. He made a good impact coming straight in.”

Wide receiver Xzavier Henderson added, “It was really important. You don’t realize how much the little stuff makes an impact until you don’t have it. So, just being able to park next to the stadium, that’s real time-management. Food, gaining weight, preventing injuries, it’s a big impact.”

Spurrier made a similar gesture that immediately earned the respect of his players. During his introductory press conference on New Year’s Eve 1989, Spurrier said he was bringing back natural grass to Florida Field after artificial turf had been installed in the early 1970s.

“We ripped out the AstroTurf, which was by far maybe the best move I could have made when I got the job,” Spurrier said. “Because the players loved that natural grass, and they hated that hot AstroTurf. So, all of a sudden, the players said, ‘Hey, this coach actually is looking out for us. We’re gonna play on grass now!’ That was a huge boost for team morale, it really was.”

Hired former Florida players on staff

As a Gator himself, Spurrier made it a point to hire former Florida football players. He had a trio on his inaugural staff at UF.

“I had two guys who hadn’t coached before — John Reaves and Dwayne Dixon. Two former Gators and they were fantastic, excellent recruiters,” Spurrier said. “And I brought four of my Duke coaches down here with me. Kept Jerry Anderson, who was a Gator, on the staff and hired a couple guys who were free and available.”

Anderson and Reaves were on Spurrier’s staff from 1990-94, while Dixon spent his entire 12-year tenure as the receivers coach and was then retained by Ron Zook.

Anderson was also hired as Zook’s DL coach after coaching Florida’s defensive tackles under Spurrier. Reaves served as the tight ends coach from 1990-92. He was appointed running backs coach in 1993 and promoted to offensive backfield coach in 1994, assisting Spurrier with the QB coaching duties.

Like Spurrier, Napier hired three Gators as well. For the first time in eight years, the Florida coaching staff features a former UF player in outside linebackers coach Mike Peterson.

RELATED: Homecoming: Mike Peterson brings his ‘coach’s creed’ back to UF

Napier also has two more staff members who played for the HBC in Vernell Brown Jr. (senior director of player development) and Cheston Blackshear (quality control coach).

“I’ve always sort of recommended to all the coaches coming in, if they could get one or two former Gators here, it’d be neat,” Spurrier said. “So, we got Mike. Billy, I don’t know if he knew Mike much or not, but certainly Mike — wonderful reputation as a linebackers coach. He was up at South Carolina. Cheston Blackshear is here as one of their assistants to the assistant to the assistant coach (laughs). And Vernell retained his job as an administrative assistant. So, we’ve got several Gators now.

“It’s neat to have a few on the staff here. I think I always tried to have three or four, but I guess I was a little but more favorite to Gators than most of the other coaches.”

Took over as QB coach and play-caller

During his Dec. 5 introductory press conference, Napier revealed that he would serve as Florida’s quarterbacks coach and handle play-calling duties on offense.

“I’ll be calling the plays here. I think it gives us an advantage, in my opinion,” Napier said. “I’ll coach the quarterbacks with the help from an offensive analyst (Ryan O’Hara) and call the plays. And we’ll have the advantage of having two offensive line coaches.”

The last two coaches at UF, Dan Mullen and Jim McElwain, were offensive-minded and heavily involved in the play-calling (especially Mullen), but both had quarterback coaches on staff.

Napier’s approach is unorthodox, but not new to Florida. Spurrier never had an offensive coordinator or a QB coach during his 12 years at UF, calling his own plays and coaching the quarterbacks.

“I guess I was one of the first in the SEC. I don’t know if another head coach called the plays back then. But that’s what got me a head job,” Spurrier said. “Coach Napier, he runs around with the quarterbacks most of the time during practice. When I was watching, that’s what he was doing. So, that’s the way to do it.

“The NFL, they’re all hiring guys like that now. They are going after that offensive coordinator that scores points. And as we know, the game is outscoring your opponent now, it really is. … The trend is a guy who can coach the quarterbacks and coach them well, and score points. So hopefully, that’s what Billy does.”

A change in the Gators’ attitude

During his interview on the Gators Online Podcast, Spurrier summed up his start at UF with a quote from American philosopher William James.

“He said the greatest discovery of our generation is that a person, or a team, can alter their life with a change in attitude. So, when I got here in 1990, all we had to do is change the attitude of Florida Gator football. We had all of our excuses lined up,” Spurrier said.

“But the players were already here. We were loaded with players. All they needed was to believe we’re good enough. And Shane Matthews was already here and got his chance. So, a change in attitude (was key), and hopefully Billy Napier’s going to bring a change in attitude for our guys.”

In fact, a change in attitude was the thing that stood out to Spurrier when he watched the Gators during Napier’s first spring camp.

“I’ve been to a few practices, and I just think attitude’s matter,” Spurrier said. “I think guys are more accountable, discipline, effort, attitude. You know, it seems like last year that slipped.”

Punter Jeremy Crawshaw said Napier and the new staff “helped us turn the corner from last year” this offseason. What has been the most noticeable change in the program?

“I’d probably say just the change in attitude,” Crawshaw said. “Most of the staff comes in every day with a positive attitude. Shows us that they’re there for us and want to make us better. That kind of gets us going. They rally around us. They want us to do well, so we kind of feed off those attitudes that they bring, and it helps us get better every day.”

Spring game halftime awards show

Napier brought back an old Spurrier tradition at the Orange & Blue Game last month.

At halftime, both teams joined at midfield instead of going into separate locker rooms. Napier addressed the players, who then started walking up to a table filled with small trophies.

Napier handed out nearly 50 awards for various performances or accomplishments throughout spring camp. This was a page out of Spurrier’s playbook.

“One of the best things we used to do was we gave all the awards at halftime of the spring game,” Spurrier said. “We gave about 50 awards. The Everyday Award. Offense, defense, special teams. Hustle Award. Most Consistent. Big Play Award. Whoever made a big play.

“Those kids love hearing their name. We’d give them a little tiny trophy. Their parents are up there going crazy, especially (for) the walk-on kids. They got recognized in The Swamp, in front of a crowd and picked up a trophy. That was a memory of a lifetime for some of those kids and they certainly loved it, as their parents did also. We did it every year here. Halftime awards show.” 

Here’s the complete list of Florida’s 2022 spring awards.