Before we begin, let's make something perfectly clear:
Billy Napier makes $7 million a year for seven years with an 85% buyout. If you straight-up offered the Florida Gators job to any high school coach in America with the same contract terms, every single one would take the job because even if they failed, they could retire and set up their family for life off the $40 million they would make.
And yet there are high school coaches making a $4,000 supplement who run circles around Napier when it comes to game-day management and decision making, as once again Napier's organization and process would barely be accepted on a JV football squad.
Florida looks lost in 18-16 defeat to USF
There is a ton we can muse about the overall scheme the Gators use and how it doesn't maximize the talent that is on the roster, but that's not the biggest sin of the Billy Napier Era.
Time and time again, there are moments when a dude drinking beer in the stands has a better feel of what to do than Napier.
Against Kentucky in 2022, he started erratically going for it on 4th down from his own half of the field and had his squad woefully unprepared for USF and Vanderbilt that season.
In 2023, there was the infamous double number three penalty against Utah, the inability to send the field goal unit out correctly against Arkansas, and the infamous failed double-reverse against FSU.
That was on top of being unprepared for UNC Charlotte and Kentucky, as well as giving up a literal college football record to Jayden Daniels.
Last year, there was another field goal mishap against Tennessee, on top of five other moments Napier botched to blow that game.
And oh yeah, Florida was unprepared to play Miami, Texas A&M, and Texas.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
Napier's handling of the final three minutes of the game should hang in a museum somewhere on how to gift wrap a win to the opponent.
It started with USF missing a 58-yard field goal to give the Gators the ball on the 40-yard line with 2:52 left.
The drive started with... a timeout... from Florida...
"BuT thE FLOriDa BAnd WAs PLAyinG"
Let's not act like this is the first time Napier has been forced to call a timeout coming out of a timeout.
Coming out of the called timeout, rather than give the ball to Jaden Baugh, who averaged 5.2 yards per carry on the night, Napier opted to have DJ Lagway throw an out route even though he had been struggling to hit those all night.
Shocking, incomplete.
Then a run by Baugh for two yards led to 3rd and eight when Florida tried to pass again, and once again went incomplete.
So rather than the worst-case scenario leaving USF with a 1:50 a no timeouts, the Bulls got the ball with 2:25 left and two timeouts (their own time out and the two-minute timeout).
Then there is the spitting penalty Brendan Bett took.
"YoU THiNk thE COAchEs toLD HIm To SPiT ON thE UsF PLAyEr?"
No, but Napier's whole gambit is how "process-oriented" the Gators are and how they are to play "complementary football." Mind you, this isn't the first spitting incident in the Napier Era to extend a key drive (see Jamari Lyons against FSU in 2023).
Then, after USF got down to the 14 on 2nd and 4 with 1:13 left, Florida still had two timeouts. If you get a stop on 2nd and 3rd down, stop the clock with the two remaining timeouts, the Gators still could have gotten the ball with a minute left, needing a field goal.
So the fact that USF got a 1st down on the next play is immaterial (though perhaps Florida got its defense set), it once again showcased that Napier has zero ability or awareness in crunch time situations on how to best maximize his team's chances to win.
20-20 vision, but the wrong kind
Billy Napier beat LSU and Ole Miss last year. He also has six losses against unranked opponents in 3+ seasons at Florida.
If you are keeping score at home, Nick Saban lost four times total in 17 years at Alabama to unranked opponents.
Perhaps when Billy Napier ran around all summer saying "Spot the ball," he wasn't talking about having his team ready for the season.
He was asking a genuine question of where the ball was to be spotted because it would fall in line with the rest of his lack of awareness that has defined his time in Gainesville.