Florida football: No, Billy Napier isn’t on the hot seat
By Will Thomas
![Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier waves to fans during Gator Walk before the game against the South Florida Bulls at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, September 17, 2022. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]Ncaa Football Florida Gators Vs South Florida Bulls](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F6b9bd8252c4c3d6668491ea51f283ce79a161d52ef5f188246d88f6b6f5e940d.jpg "Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier waves to fans during Gator Walk before the game against the South Florida Bulls at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, September 17, 2022. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]Ncaa Football Florida Gators Vs South Florida Bulls")
Florida football struggled in Billy Napier’s first season. Nobody with a sharp mind is trying to convince you otherwise.
The offense was clunky at times and the defense was flat-out terrible. It just wasn’t a good football team.
And for some reason, people are putting all that blame on Billy Napier. And including him in preseason hot-seat conversations.
What?
How good of a spot was the program in when it fired Dan Mullen, had just lost to Kentucky, South Carolina, and Missouri, and dropped its bowl game to UCF?
Napier walked into a program that was sputtering, and that was just a shadow of what it was only two years ago.
And what did people expect, for him to win 9 games?
Don’t hit me with the “Well he had a top-five pick at QB.” Because guess what, he used him very well, and a misuse or underutilization of AR was not the reason for the Gators’ struggles.
The Gator defense was historically bad last season, and yes, Napier did make the hire of Patrick Toney.
But just as fast as he hired him, he told him to look for and accept jobs elsewhere, something that Mullen never did to his underperforming assistants.
Fans can’t get tunnel vision and just scoreboard watch either when it comes to evaluating Napier.
The energy around the program, for those of us who follow it closely, is just different. The recruiting weekends are different. The hype around Gainesville among the nation’s top players is different.
It all just feels different.
And no, I’m not saying that on-field results aren’t the most important indicator of a coach. But to give up on Napier after one season is lunacy.
If three more years go by and Napier isn’t getting more wins, we can talk.
But no school has ever won championships cycling through coaches every three years, which the Gators have been doing for about a decade.
Give him time, be patient, and trust in the people who do this for a living.
The Gators aren’t as far back as you might think.
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