Legendary Florida coach Steve Spurrier could also be in a brand new position as an envoy to Florida athletics, however “The Previous Ball Coach” nonetheless is not shy in the case of expressing his opinion concerning the course of his former program. Going into Yr 3 of the Billy Napier period at Florida, the person who guided the Gators to a nationwide title in 1996 has loads of considerations about the best way Napier’s employees is organized.
“There is a feeling across the Gators of ‘what the heck are we doing?’ There’s a number of questions that I haven’t got the solutions to about group,” Spurrier informed Jacksonville.com. “Simply since you rent the most individuals does not imply you are going to win. All these further individuals, I query how a lot that basically helps.
“Billy [Napier] is an efficient man who works his tail off. I like Billy, good household man. However we do want the group was just a little bit extra tidy.”
Napier is simply 11-14 with the Gators and recent off a 5-7 marketing campaign in 2023. There was hypothesis that he would surrender playcalling duties to focus extra on program oversight going into 2024, however he lately confirmed he’ll proceed his energetic position on that facet of the ball.
“Yeah, I do,” Napier stated on the Gator Tales podcast when requested if he needs to retain play-calling duties. “I believe that big-picture clever, we’re taking the group of those who we’ve and we’re attempting to develop some individuals, groom some individuals. We have completed a ton of labor within the offseason to type of consider that when it comes to what that appears like.
“I believe down the stretch, we performed fairly good offense. We created a bunch of explosive performs. We scored factors. I believe we have got a quarterback that is returning in the identical system. I believe in the end for me it is about all these different areas being taken care of in order that I can focus, do my finest for the group in that regard.”
There may be some motive for optimism as Florida opens spring apply on March 7 forward of a pivotal yr for this system. The Gators return veteran quarterback Graham Mertz for a sixth season of eligibility, recent off the very best yr of his prolonged profession. He threw for two,903 yards and 20 touchdowns to only three interceptions and 14 of his touchdowns got here throughout Florida’s offensive uptick over the past seven video games.
The longer term on the quarterback place appears to be like vivid as properly with prized five-star freshman DJ Lagway already on campus. Lagway was the No. 1 quarterback and No. 3 general prospect within the 2024 class, in accordance with 247Sports.
