Florida Football Coach Billy Napier is Already Apologizing to Fans

Billy Napier was the hottest Group of Five coach available on the coaching carousel. He turned down previous opportunities, namely South Carolina and Auburn, to find the perfect jumping off point from Louisiana. When Gainesville called, Napier answered.

After successfully landing Napier, the Gators were all set to be the big winners from the coaching carousel. Then Lincoln Riley went to USC, Brian Kelly jumped to LSU and Mario Cristobal returned to Miami. Florida got lost in the wash.

Even though the Gators weren’t stealing national headlines, Florida fans seemed to approve of the hire’s early returns. Taking a page from the Nick Saban and Kirby Smart handbook, Napier added an army of support staffers to revamp recruiting efforts in the Sunshine State. Just over six minutes into the experiment, it’s failing.

Napier lined up a commitment from one of the top 100 players in America, QB Jaden Rashada. Instead of pledging allegiance to the Gators June 18, he officially visited Miami, who is now the favorite in the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine. A black eye to the Gators’ recruiting efforts, Napier responded to recent recruiting shortcomings by writing an open letter to Florida fans.

Before you read all of Napier’s spin — ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

This dude is obviously in WAY over his head. You can’t write an open letter to the fans before ever coaching a football game. Similar to the “players only meeting,” this is a move that REEKS of desperation. You only pull it out as a last resort, typically after a bad, season-ending loss. Napier is preemptively shortening his shelf life by emptying his arsenal before day one. You love to see it.

An Open Letter to Florida Fans from Billy Napier

Gator Nation,

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for the tremendous amount of support you have shown our entire organization, team and our families since our arrival in Gainesville.

We recently had the opportunity to visit various cities across Gator Nation during my first spring speaking tour, and all we can say is that each day we are more and more excited to be part of the University of Florida. 

Our fans’ passion is evident and unmatched. 

We play in one of the most iconic places in college football: The Swamp. This year’s Orange and Blue Game gave us a small taste of what playing in front of Gator Nation is like, and we can’t wait to get started this fall by hosting Pac-12 champion Utah on Sept. 3 under the lights. 

We are working on creating a new future through a journey that emphasizes discipline, toughness, detail, accountability, integrity, and most importantly, teamwork.  

Our mission is to make a life-changing impact on our players and for them to experience success in life as a result of their time in our program. We want to promote their education and encourage them to not only get a degree, but to be engaged, network and develop relationships. 

As we enter a new era of college football with Name, Image and Likeness, we are fortunate to be at a place that is not only rich in history and tradition on the football field, but is also a top 5 public institution with more than 470,000 living alumni and incredible resources. We believe that NIL will be a strength at the University of Florida.

We also believe in the professional development of our athletes. For that reason, we established the GatorMade program, a holistic player-focused and purpose-driven initiative that seeks to develop Gators beyond the football field by providing them with the necessary skills to succeed in life. 

GatorMade provides opportunities in financial literacy, micro-internships, networking, mentorship, agent education, NIL, business weekend trips and even service abroad.  We want to have a place where we work toward having a life-changing impact as a person, as a student and as a player. And GatorMade provides the building blocks. 

We are also getting ready to move into the new James W. “Bill” Heavener Football Training Center this summer. The state-of-the-art 140,000 square foot standalone facility will be a game-changer as it relates to our day-to-day football operations, sports medicine and rehabilitation, recruiting, dining and recreation to name a few. The $85 million facility will not only make an impact within our program, but it will also benefit all Gators student-athletes. 

On the football field, our goal is to play a brand of football that creates a great sense of pride among not only our players and staff, but throughout all of Gator Nation. 

One thing we have learned in the past six months is that Gators are resilient and passionate. In all kinds of weather. 

I can assure you that no one has higher expectations for what we want to accomplish than me.

This will be a team effort. All of us, no matter what our role is, can make a positive impact in the success of our program. From our students cheering their loudest on Saturdays at The Swamp, to our boosters, alumni and everyday fans: We all must have a championship approach in all that we do.

You are part of this team, and we can’t wait to see you at The Swamp this fall as we embark on the journey to our new future.

Go Gators!