On the hot seat entering his third season in Gainesville, Billy Napier insisted Wednesday that Florida’s rebuild is “on schedule to some degree.”
The Gators went 6-7 with a Las Vegas Bowl loss in Napier’s first season and 5-7 in 2023. The coach Napier replaced at Florida, Dan Mullen, went 34-15 in his four seasons on the job, a loss total Napier is danger of matching before October due to a highly challenging schedule.
The pressure is on Napier, who was a successful Group of Five-level coach at Louisiana before taking over at Florida. Before taking the podium at SEC media days Wednesday in Dallas, Napier spoke with a smaller group of reporters.
“Change doesn’t happen overnight,” Napier said. “I think ultimately, timing is everything. When we took the job, what we inherited, the work that needed to be done, I think we’re on schedule to some degree. Should we have won a couple games down the stretch? Would I have liked to close some of those games out in the fourth quarter? Absolutely. But the reality is, I think from a systems standpoint, a process standpoint, in-house, the culture, I think we’ve made tremendous progress.”
Florida was seen as behind the times when Napier was hired. The program opened a new state-of-the-art practice facility in 2022. The Gators were also involved in an NIL melodrama with quarterback Jaden Rashada, as the sought-after prospect revoked his commitment when a reported $13.85 million NIL agreement fell through. Rashada is now suing the school and Napier.
“(College football has) changed significantly every six months, every season, every offseason,” Napier said. “Not only are we trying to create culture at Florida; we’re building new facilities, we’re creating infrastructure.
“You go back to the very beginning, you’re hiring a staff, you’re trying to improve the roster. The game continued to evolve while we’ve been doing that, so that’s where the challenge has been.”
Florida stuffed its nonconference schedule with in-state rivals. The Gators open at home against Miami. After its first two SEC games against Texas A&M and at Mississippi State, they host UCF, expected to be one of the better teams in the Big 12 this year. And as usual, they end the regular season against rival Florida State, which will be in Tallahassee this year.
“It’s a unique year,” Napier said. “I think ultimately when you think about all the P4 teams, each conference represented to some degree, two teams from the ACC and the Big 12, it’s an incredible opportunity, and I think it’s going to be huge. Each one of those matchups is critical. We have a ton of respect for each one of those teams and coaches, and it’s part of the schedule that everybody likes to talk about.”
Napier will be relying on Graham Mertz, who’s returning as the starting quarterback. Mertz had a statistically middling campaign for Wisconsin in 2022 (57.3 percent passing, 2,136 yards, 19 touchdowns, 10 interceptions) but improved his game by a large margin with the Gators last year, completing 72.9 percent of his passes with a 20-3 touchdown-interception ratio.
Mertz said the idea of his coach being on the hot seat and the pressure to perform in 2024 is just chatter.
“That’s exactly what it is,” Mertz said. “For us, and I always tell my guys every day, ‘Look, we can focus on what people are saying or we can focus on what we are doing.’ I think that’s where, regardless of what you are doing in life … if you’re worried about external things, that’s where your focus is, that’s where all your energy is gonna go.
“For my team and my guys, I see a group of guys that are all striving to get a little bit better every day.”
