Florida football finds itself a deep hole to dig out of after [autotag]Dan Mullen[/autotag] left the program in shambles ahead of his ignominious exit. Newly hired head coach [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] has since assumed the helm and is charged with the task of turning the Orange and Blue around, and so far things are looking pretty promising.
Nonetheless, the Gators start off 2022 outside the top 25 and buried in the preseason polls, but a lot of that has to do with the team’s 6-7 finish the year prior plus the unknowns that come with a head coach who has never held the top position at a Power Five school. To be fair, those are perfectly cromulent reasons to temper one’s expectations of Florida.
What this does, however, is set the table for a season of intrigue as many eyes will be fixed upon Gainesville waiting to see how things shake out. Athlon Sports believes that the building narrative in the Swamp is one of college football’s 15 things to watch this fall. Here is what they had to offer.
8. Cajun-Flavored Gators
The Dan Mullen era at Florida ended abruptly, unraveling last fall over the course of just a few weeks. Startling as it was, though, the end was also depressingly familiar: Before Mullen, the bottom fell out on both of his predecessors, [autotag]Will Muschamp[/autotag] and [autotag]Jim McElwain[/autotag], in similar fashion, running the Gators’ record on head-coaching hires to 0-for-3 for the decade.
Enter Billy Napier. At his last stop, Louisiana, Napier turned the Ragin’ Cajuns into an unlikely mid-major power: His last three seasons there were easily the best in school history, yielding 34 wins, back-to-back Top 25 finishes and, in 2021, the program’s first outright conference championship in more than half a century. The man can coach. But can he recruit? In four years in Gainesville, Mullen signed just two 5-star prospects out of high school. The top priority for his successor is closing the gap in the Jimmys and Joes department.
On that front, Napier does have experience in high-stakes, hard-crootin’ regimes, having paid his dues as an assistant under Dabo Swinney, Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher. He was known in Lafayette as an energetic recruiter, landing the Sun Belt’s top class per 247Sports’ Composite rankings three years in a row from 2019-21. Florida, still less than 15 years removed from its last national title, remains one of the sport’s premier opportunities. But as the last three guys who sat in Napier’s seat can attest, it can be a short-lived one, too.
That is a fairly concise overview of the situation, though one major point omitted was the pattern of over-achievement for new head coaches at Florida that dates back to the 1980s, which would give Napier a much-needed boost. Hopefully, he will snap the coaching carousel schneid and bring the Gators back to national prominence this season.
[mm-video type=video id=01gb8g841z8h0r7cebw8 playlist_id=01eqbz250mdknqvm5z player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gb8g841z8h0r7cebw8/01gb8g841z8h0r7cebw8-f5080e1b4dc72a4e9ba303a6a6c62536.jpg]
[lawrence-related id=90082,90045,90031,90028,90027]
[listicle id=90051]
[listicle id=89316]
[listicle id=89575]
[listicle id=89822]
Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
Let us know your thoughts and comment on this story below. Join the conversation today!