What will the Florida Gators offense look like under Billy Napier?
The Florida football team two days into spring practice. That means the Gators haven’t put pads on yet, but the coaching staff is always evaluating.
Up to now, UF fans have only been able to evaluate the coaching staff by its recruiting efforts. Florida was able to pull in a top-20 recruiting class during Napier’s transition class.
With two of their 15 allotted practices already done, the Gators are in the beginning stages of installing a new offense. Napier’s team has gone through the first two phases of his program: Foundation and Identity.
“We’ve been through two phases. A lot of our time early was spent recruiting, hiring people. They’re slowly trickling in and we’re getting people up to speed. But just in general for me, we have to maximize each opportunity that we have with the players. I feel like we’ve done that,” Napier said. “I feel like the performance group did a really good job with phase one and phase two. They were in condition and ready to go (Tuesday). Now we’ve gotta teach football. We’ve gotta teach our formula in terms of how we win games. We’ve gotta develop the team. Nobody wins or loses in practice. We’re trying to teach football.”
A rudimentary look at Napier’s offense on paper would lead one to believe it’s run-heavy. In actuality, Napier is about a 55-45 run-to-pass mix in terms of play calling in his career.
In this video, former Baylor player JD Pickell breaks down some of Napier’s favorite plays. Why does Napier place a premium on the line of scrimmage? Why does he like running inside zone runs, specifically inside zone? Can an effective zone run game help the downfield passing game? How will Napier be able to attack defenses with a mobile quarterback like Anthony Richardson or Emory Jones?
Similar to the breakdown we did of Patrick Toney’s defense, Napier’s offense looks to simplify. Make things look the same while having different variations off of each set. As Pickell notes, “this offense is all about being difficult to prep for and having answers.”
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About JD Pickell
JD Pickell grew up and played high school football at Orange Lutheran High School in California. He was a first-team all-league and all-county selection at Orange Lutheran HS, Pickell played running back, quarterback, wide receiver, and safety as well as returning punts during his varsity career.
Pickell left sunny California for Ithica, New York, where he played at Cornell for four seasons before finishing his career at Baylor.
Pickell now runs a YouTube channel where he breaks down players, schemes, coaches, and talks about college football daily. Check out his page and enjoy his breakdown of Billy Napier and what Gators fans can expect on offense this year.
Film breakdown of Florida Gators offense under Billy Napier
Breaking down the Gators offense and what it might look like in the first year of Billy Napier’s tenure.
