Steve Sarkisian shows significant respect for Billy Napier ahead of their second career matchup

It’s obvious that there’s a lot of respect between Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and Florida head coach Billy Napier.

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Usually, the type of respect displayed by Sarkisian during his Monday press conference emanates from some sort of close connection. In the case of the two head coaches of the teams set to battle on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Austin, they share ties to Alabama under Nick Saban.

Napier was wide receivers coach from 2013 to 2017 for the Crimson Tide, a period of time that included Sarkisian’s stop as an analyst and interim offensive coordinator in Tuscaloosa after his dismissal at USC.

From seeing how Napier operated at Louisiana from 2018-21, a four-year stretch where the Ragin’ Cajuns won two Sun Belt titles and played for two more, to seeing how the Gators have attempted to overcome adversity this season despite a multitude of injuries, Sarkisian gave a significant amount of praise Monday toward his upcoming opponent.

“We’ve got to put in a lot of work and it starts this Saturday against the University of Florida, a team that’s very talented and really well-coached,” Sarkisian said Monday. “I know a lot of people are going to look at the record, so on and so forth. But you can just look at their last three games, they lose in overtime to Tennessee, they’re beating Georgia and have got a chance to kick a field goal to go up late in that ball game, and they muff the snap. They’ve been playing good football.”

Sarkisian spoke about how Napier’s offense has some similarities to his, and that despite questions under center in Gainesville, Texas has to prepare for an intricate scheme with “a lot of shifts, a lot of motions, a lot of formations and adjustments that they tax you with.”

When it comes to the Gator defense, Sarkisian acknowledged the challenge of their front that features 449-pounder Desmond Watson and a number of other athletic defenders.

“This will be arguably one of if not the best-looking teams in our conference,” Sarkisian said. “They’re big, they’re long, they’re athletic. I think they played 14 guys in their front seven this week against Georgia. They’re depth got challenged in the secondary this week with a couple of corners getting nicked up, but they’ve got versatile guys there.”

The two coaches met as opponents once before just as Sarkisian’s career at Texas was starting. Sarkisian’s first ever game at Texas was a 38-18 win in September of 2021 that would stand as the only blemish for the Ragin’ Cajuns that year as part of a 13-1 campaign.

Napier’s offense battled Pete Kwiatkowski‘s defense. While Napier has a different defensive coordinator wearing orange and blue than he had while at Louisiana, there are some defensive staffers that made the trip East with him. Plus, Napier exercises a significant amount of control over the offense.

Familiarity from being on the same staff is one thing. What about in an actual on-field battle?

What happened the first time Sarkisian and Napier faced off

The context

This was a ranked game, a rarity for Texas whenever it plays Group of Five opponents. The Longhorns entered ranked No. 21 while Louisiana’s No. 23 ranking had a bit more substance to it.

The Longhorns also were in the midst of a quarterback trade-off, though Hudson Card received more snaps under center with the first-team offense. The switch to Casey Thompson would be made the following week after Texas was demolished at Arkansas.

These Cajuns had a decent amount of quality players, including OT Max Mitchell, DB Percy Butler, DE Andre Jones, and OT Nathan Thomas.

Texas held Louisiana under its eventual season averages for total offense and rushing offense and overshot means for total defense, rushing defense, and passing defense with ease.

The respective seasons went in drastically different directions. Louisiana wouldn’t lose another game and marched through the Sun Belt on the way to a final AP poll ranking of No. 16. Napier used a third-straight 10-win season to make the leap to Florida, where he’s struggled since arriving in Gainesville.

Sarkisian’s team would go 4-7 the rest of the way, including a six-game losing streak in the second half of the season.

What Sarkisian and Napier have done since 2021 could not be more different. Sarkisian is 27-8 with a Big 12 Championship and a College Football Playoff appearance, while Napier is 15-18 at Florida without a winning season.

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Whether those respective trajectories continue on Saturday will be determined on the field in the two head coaches’ second matchup against each other.