Everything Billy Napier said at SEC Media Days in Nashville

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier spoke at SEC Media Days on Wednesday afternoon. Below is a transcript of everything the head coach said.

Billy Napier’s opening statement

This is my sixth year as a head coach, and this is the sixth Media Day. Typically, my wife, Ali, and I, always finish up our vacation time and summer break with an anniversary trip and we back that right up to Media Day. My mom and Ali’s parents will keep Annie, Sammy, and Charlie. And this year was special. We celebrated 15 years together, so it’s been a good break. I don’t know how your break has been. I don’t know that we ever stopped working, and I hope you’ve enjoyed your break like we have.

We are excited to be here in Nashville today as we kind of turn over focus to one of my favorite times of the year. What a blessing it is to be here representing the University of Florida. I’ve come a long way since my first year with this place about how much the people care, the people that I’ve met. The University of Florida is a special place because it is impacted so many people. The experience, the memory, the relationships, you know, the caliber of the degree of the alumni network. We have, we are approaching 500,000 living alumni at a prestigious place.

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I think a flagship institution in a thriving state with 22 million people, we really, really have a unique experience to offer. This is a unique combination: A challenging education with an opportunity to compete against the very best in the SEC and be part of an athletic department that leads the way: 47 national championships, 261 SEC Championships. They call it the everything school for a reason.

Napier on being considered for the Tennessee job and what has transpired in recent weeks

We were fortunate to have success at the University of Louisiana, and it was really a result of a lot of people’s hard work. And we had fantastic staff. We had a great group of players. And that created opportunities for myself and other parts of our staff and it’s humbling, that’s what I would tell you. But all the success we’ve had has been a reflection of a lot of great people’s hard work, and thanks for the question.

What made Graham Mertz the right choice for you and what’s the battle in that room like between he and Jack Miller? 

I’ve been very impressed with Graham. Graham is a 32-start player. He’s played over 2000 snaps at a really established program in Wisconsin. We went through an extensive process to make that decision. I think Graham is an accomplished player but more importantly, I’ve been impressed with the person, the leader. This guy has an incredible motor and work ethic. He is in the building and he is fanatical about his preparation.

That’s helped the competition. I think that’s caused Jack to respond. Jack has had an incredible off-season and he’s in position for great camp. And we have been really pleased with a young player, Max Brown. He’s had a good summer. He’s impressed the staff and he’s impressed his teammates. We are excited about that competition. We’ll go into training camp and we’ll make a decision when we see fit for the team.

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How important is the state of Texas for your recruiting plans?

One of the things that we’ve benefitted from at the University of Florida, we spent an entire year completely rebuilding the player experience and we’ve got a unique combination that we offer, right, and I think players from all across the country do think that there’s research relative to kind of what we call the five core states: Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama.

But when you are at a brand like the University of Florida and you have things that we have to offer, given who is joining our league, there’s no question with the direct flights that we can get in here from Texas, we’ll be competitive out there. If the guy is a good enough player and passes the evaluation physically, has the right character, we can get him on campus and we’ll have a chance.

Would there ever be an interest to make a home-at-home with the Florida/Georgia rivalry, or maybe turning it into a Jacksonville/Atlanta transition? 

I think that the Florida/Georgia game is an incredible rivalry. I think there’s history there. There’s tradition there. There’s a ton of economic implications relative to these decisions. We are going to have to cross that bridge at some point due to the renovations in Jacksonville but there’s benefit to home-at-home from a recruiting perspective, and I think there’s benefit from an economic standpoint for both athletic departments and institution.

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Right now we have three more years of the same model. I’ve got enough grass to mow right now, so I’m going go focus on the things that are in front of me.

Napier on the season opener vs Utah

You know, one of the things, we’ve got a unique schedule this year, and that starts with a Thursday night opener at Utah, and it’s a challenging place to play. I spent a year in the Pac 12. I was at Arizona State. We actually went there to play. So have a little bit of a feel for what that’s going to be like.

But we’ve got a ton of respect for their program, the brand of football that they play. It’s less about where we’re playing and more about their brand of football.

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So there’s no question, they are one of the more established and successful programs in the country. You know, I do think we spent a lot of time with our performance team in the off-season researching the altitude. We’ve done a lot of work with NFL teams and go through that process consistently. We’ve got a good plan. All of that is already mapped out and ready to go. It’s going to be a great challenge and one that we look forward to.