Florida football: Napier’s game management is infinitely better than Norvell’s
By Will Thomas
After both teams won their respective games this weekend, there is a lot of hype around Florida football and FSU.
The Gators beat the 7th-ranked defending PAC-12 champs, and FSU barely beat the worst LSU team in years without their best defender in Maason Smith.
So of course they both deserve recognition.
But after looking at both of these games and how they played out, there is a stark contrast in how each coach managed their games.
Napier got his guys to lead a game-winning drive that took 14 plays and 5 minutes off the clock as the 4th quarter winded down.
On the other side, Mike Norvell’s team held a 24-10 lead with 4:14 left in the game, quickly got stopped on offense on what could have been their game-winning drive, then had the ball on LSU’s one-yard line with 1:25 left and a game-winning field goal literally right in front of them.
The logic behind a toss play on the goal line eludes the world’s smartest minds.
They could’ve kneeled it 3 times, burned LSU’s timeouts, and gone up by 10. But no, we are watching the Mike Norvell experience.
Aside from the difference in play-calling ability, the circumstances for these two games were also entirely different.
Napier had to get his team going again after a fumble and score early by Utah which took a bit of juice out of The Swamp (which still earned its reputation for being the most hostile environment in CFB this weekend).
Norvell just had to get his guys to not blow a 14 point lead in 4 minutes. And it took the worst missed blocking assignment in PAT history to avoid OT.
One thing that really showed Napier’s coaching prowess was his clock management on the Gators’ final drive. As UF was about to go for a critical 4th down, Napier let the play clock run all the way down to 0 before calling his timeout.
Most of the time, this is just dumb. Why would you take time off the clock for your offense who needs a score to stay alive?
Napier knew that his defense wouldn’t be able to contain Utah’s offense for 3 minutes. He did know that his offense couldn’t be stopped.
The 4D chess that Napier employed won the Gators their game. Norvell trying his best almost cost the Nole’s theirs.
To FSU’s credit, that is absolutely a game that they would’ve lost last year. They’ve at least improved in the blowing leads department.
But to say “they’re back” is absurd. Beating a top ten, defending conference champ means you’re back. Not beating fake accent Brian Kelly and run happy Jayden Daniels.
Mike Norvell will win the easy games, but lose you all of the tough games. He even tried to lose their easy game last night.
Billy Napier has already proven he’ll win the tough games, and his players will go to war for him.
That’s something that Norvell will never have in Tallahassee.
Keep up with Florida football at Hail Florida Hail.