Florida coach Billy Napier’s course of hasn’t led to many good finishes on sport days over the past two years, so he made wholesale adjustments within the offseason that stretched from protection and particular groups to the power program. He even modified what his gamers eat.
“Annually we attempt to ask ourselves: In case you have been beginning over, what would you do otherwise?” the third-year Florida coach advised CBS Sports activities. “And make the required adjustments. We have got to proceed to evolve and alter.”
It is desperation time in The Swamp, the place a proud program fears sinking into the depths of the SEC amid a brand new period of riches, convention growth and unprecedented competitors. How and why this blueblood fell on laborious occasions will not be essentially price rehashing. The previous is the previous, and solely the outcomes — not the method — matter. Napier enters an important third season with an 11-14 document marred by late-game teaching errors. He is an unbelievable 1-9 towards Kentucky, Florida State, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee.
He’s additionally the primary Florida coach for the reason that mid-Forties to outlive back-to-back shedding seasons (Raymond Wolf, 1946-47).
Florida supporters won’t stand by after a 3rd shedding yr. How Napier saves his job is straightforward but unquestionably daunting: End 12 months 3 with a successful document towards maybe the hardest schedule in school soccer historical past.
Eight high 25 groups within the CBS Sports activities 134 pepper the schedule, and the ultimate 5 video games present a slate of fire-me-now contests: 5 ranked groups, together with 4 top-10 applications, and solely two opponents journey to The Swamp. The Gators open the season Aug. 31 towards rival Miami, a program with ACC championship aspirations, in The Swamp.
Curiously, Napier has seemingly requested for persistence since a disastrous 5-7 season ended with 5 straight losses. “After we took the job, what we inherited, the work that wanted to be carried out, I feel we’re on schedule to a point,” he advised a small gathering of reporters at SEC Media Days.
That remark raised eyebrows throughout the nation and fairly a little bit of ire from the Florida trustworthy. Napier, nonetheless, has by no means been one to shrink back from contextualizing the Gators’ rebuild. The previous Louisiana coach has remained regular in his perception that it could take a number of years to place Florida again on the nationwide map.
“We reside in a society that desires it now,” Napier stated two weeks in the past, punctuating his level with a loud clap. “It does not occur that manner, in something, a lot much less soccer. So once you’ve bought lots of and lots of of individuals to coordinate in the identical course in right this moment’s local weather, it is much more tough to ascertain belief. We’re over the hump. Youngsters which are on our group now, they picked the College of Florida, and our employees picked them. The make-up of our group is completely different, and it is going to be very apparent after we begin taking part in this fall.”
The Gators will definitely look completely different, however will the outcomes change? Florida shed 500 kilos of fats and added 500 kilos of muscle after shifting to a brand new power and conditioning program that was fueled by an entire shift in dietary science, Napier defined. He promoted Tyler Miles to steer the power program and introduced in a nutritionist from the NFL’s Washington Commanders to retool gamers’ diets.
“The whole lot we do in there has a objective. The whole lot is pushed by knowledge,” stated quarterback Graham Mertz.
“We made important progress,” Napier stated. Our group appears to be like completely different — all of the numbers, the metrics, the speeds, the power enchancment, to not point out the tradition.”
Napier additionally made wholesale adjustments on protection and particular groups, siding with seniority over the comforts supplied by the acquainted faces from his previous within the Solar Belt. He demoted first-year coordinator Austin Armstrong in favor of veteran Ron Roberts on protection. Within the offseason, Roberts virtually instituted a Soccer 101 class on the sphere, reteaching tackling fundamentals, linebacker Shemar James stated. From gator-roll tackles to the basics of main the identical shoulder with the identical foot, the Gators went again to the fundamentals.
Napier additionally pushed apart “GameChanger coordinator” Chris Sofa, who oversees particular groups, and employed former New England Patriots assistant Joe Houston to appropriate a large number of in-game substitution points over the past two years. They lastly put in a substitution mat on the sideline, a typical instrument utilized by many groups to assist coordinate substitutions for all 11 gamers on particular groups. A participant merely stands in one in all 11 circles on the mat. Such a instrument may need led to a successful season in 2023 when 20 gamers ran onto the sphere for a game-winning discipline purpose try towards Arkansas.
The roster can also be notably deeper and higher than final season. Seventeen starters return. Mertz is in his second yr main the Gators offense, ballooning a veteran profession to 6 years after an up-and-down tenure at Wisconsin. The group’s returning gamers mixed for almost 41,000 snaps final season.
“One of many causes I consider in our group is now we have credible management,” Napier supplied.
How so?
“I knew this group had an opportunity to be completely different. Return to January. I am taking the boys to the workplace. (Sons) Sammy and Charlie are with me. … We stroll across the nook, we have 70 guys within the weight room on a Saturday doing further work. I used to play for an previous coach that stated champions do further. I’ll let you know, this group, that has continued. It has been constant.
“Only a few weeks in the past, 4th of July, now we have 53 guys which are in there on Saturday doing further work.”
Napier’s profession has been extra about what he is misplaced than what he is gained. Three of the ultimate 4 losses final season have been by single digits.
Regardless of Napier’s good intentions, the Nick Sabanesque course of and his openness to evolve and make wholesale adjustments, not all the attrition was a part of a grand design. It took two years for Florida’s NIL applications to align, which definitely hindered recruiting. Former Florida prospect Jaden Rashada, now at rival Georgia, is suing Napier over a failed NIL deal.
In March, working again Trevor Etienne ruffled feathers when he left for rival Georgia and defined: “I can keep Operating Again 2 on a shedding group or go someplace and probably be Operating Again 1 and win a natty.”
In late July, Florida misplaced its chief of employees, Mark Robinson, to Georgia.
If it isn’t clear already, circle Nov. 2 as doubtlessly Napier’s last toast. The World’s Largest Outside Cocktail Celebration towards Georgia can also be the beginning of the Gators’ five-game sentence on murderers’ row.
Honest or not, Napier’s profession will probably be outlined by how he performs towards essentially the most tough stretch within the sport’s historical past. Ought to Napier make it by November with a successful document, he is the game’s coach of the yr. Something much less means one other wholesale change, bu this time with out Napier calling the photographs.
