Fixed special teams for Florida Football also reveals Billy Napier's core flaw

One of the main flaws Florida Football had in 2023 was their disorganization with special teams. While Billy Napier tried to point to advanced metrics as a sign the unit wasn't that bad, their cluelessness and lack of attention to detail was the reason the Gators lost to Arkansas last season.

Napier hired Joe Houston in the offseason, and two games into the season, the unit looks vastly improved, and advanced metrics back up that Florida is a great special teams unit so far in 2024.

But Napier's lack of meritocracy with the individual responsible for last year's train wreck is emblematic of his core flaw as head coach of the Gators.

Florida Football: Best Man For The Job

It is well documented that Napier has a gazillion analysts and support staff members on his coaching staff. If you want the official count, there are 66 individuals listed on Florida's website who are listed as "Support Staff" for the Gators.

We don't know what half of those people do, but two in particular on staff stand out.

Chirs Couch has been with Napier all three years in Gainesville and was on the Louisiana staff in 2021. He is listed on Florida's site as the GameChanger Coordinator, which is a fancy term for being an analyst who focuses on special teams. Houston was hired in the offseason to work with the unit and through two weeks the Gators haven't had any gaffes and are rated as the top unit according to ESPN SP+.

One of the other staff moves Napier made in the offseason was the demotion of Mark Hocke from being Florida's strength coach. We don't know for sure what was happening in Florida's weight room, but based on hints from former players, he trained Florida more like a track team than a football team.

Napier had hired Craig Fitzgerald to take over before he left after a month. Tyler Myles was then tabbed and is Florida's current head strength coach.

So What's The Problem?

"Ben, where are you going with this? How are you taking Florida being number one at something and turning it into a negative?"

Over the past two years, we have asked whether Florida's struggles with special teams were due to Couch specifically or to his limited analyst abilities. With Houston seemingly running the show and the unit looking more competent, one can draw conclusions about the answer to that question.

And this leads us to Napier's core flaw as an SEC coach.

He is unwilling to make hard choices regarding people within his friend's circle. Couch and Hocke were clear enough problems on his staff that Napier felt the need to make a change, but rather than set a clear standard of "Either be the best or be gone," he has set a standard of "Well, it's okay if you aren't good enough. We'll just shuffle you to a new position on staff."

It's the same mindset that leaves him unwilling or unable to make a clear choice at QB heading into Saturday. Rather than set a clear standard of "You're the best choice, we are playing you," he is playing the "We'll play both guys" card in an attempt to keep everyone happy.

On Saturday, Nick Saban called Napier out for a perceived cultural problem. In Saban's culture, nothing but perfection was accepted. Saban benched Jalen Hurts in the national title game because he wasn't good enough. Saban fired Lane Kiffin on the eve of another national title game because he wasn't good enough. Saban has gone on rants when up 50-3 off a false start penalty because it wasn't good enough.

In Napier's culture if you are one of his guys from Louisiana, glaring mistakes or inefficiencies become soliloquies with no real consequences.

One common critique of society as a whole is the idea that everyone just wants a participation trophy. But whether it's your local community or the Florida Gators, don't blame people for wanting a participation trophy when the adults give it to them in the first place.

And if all the coaches on the staff get a participation trophy, it might explain why Florida is 12-15 over the past three seasons.