Billy Napier’s last day in Lafayette was a good one.
Before the newest Florida head football coach hopped on a plane Sunday morning to begin his stint in Gainesville, he led his Louisiana team for one more game: the Sun Belt title against Appalachian State.
Since Napier was hired to replace Mark Hudspeth in 2018, he has won the Sun Belt West division in all four seasons, even in a 7-7 Year 1. But he lost the championship game the first two years (both times to the Mountaineers) in the 2020 Sun Belt Championship Game was canceled due to COVID-19 cases within the opposing program, Coastal Carolina.
This was his day, though. The Ragin’ Cajuns led 24-10 in the fourth quarter, and though a late Appalachian State touchdown made the game interesting, a 117-yard afternoon for freshman running back Emani Bailey and a defensive performance that held the Mountaineers under 300 total yards led Louisiana to a 24-16 win.
It was the fourth time the school has won a share of the Sun Belt title and the first time it has won the league outright.
Napier has now officially taken over at Florida, but after a departure that was almost unprecedented in this industry in terms of the response from the Louisiana fanbase, it’s a happy ending to his Ragin’ Cajuns tenure.
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