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Florida’s hiring of Billy Napier has understandably sent shivers of excitement through the whole of the Gator Nation. There’s nothing quite like a new charismatic leader to revitalize the interest of a frustrated fan base with waning faith in the program. The staff here at Gators Wire is no exception; truth be told, we’ve all but completely bought into entrusting Napier with the reins of the football team.
From the jump, Napier has made it clear that he intends to take a lot of responsibility upon himself as the Gators try to dig out of Dan Mullen’s grave. In addition to spearheading recruiting efforts and personally overhauling the organizational and power structure among the team’s staffers, he’ll be coaching quarterbacks and calling plays on gamedays. That’s no small workload for a first-time Power 5 head coach.
Napier also demands a lot from his players. His expectations are inclusive of more than just gameday performance. Players must demonstrate a comprehensive adherence to his standards, from exceptional work ethic on practice days to concerted effort at self-improvement.
“At Louisiana, they had a pre-warmup to their warmup,” said one source to The Athletic. “There will be dudes in the portal. There’s zero doubt that some guys are going to bounce out of here once he starts putting in the Napier Way,” said another.
Though his methods may drive away some current players or future recruits, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The same thing happens to every coach. Personalities just don’t match sometimes. Furthermore, whether Napier’s style can work isn’t even a question. His intense focus on organization and discipline resembles that of Nick Saban, Napier’s former mentor and the undisputed monarch of the SEC.
On the other side of the coin, having apprenticed under the king doesn’t ensure success. Consider an NFL parallel: the many proteges of Bill Belicheck. A veritable parade of his assistants, such as Joe Judge, Bill O’Brien, and Matt Patricia, have tried to install the Patriot Way in other franchises. Instead, nearly to a man, they have became underwhelming or even downright bad head coaches.
Of particular interest is Patricia’s failure as the head coach of the Detroit Lions. He worked the players harder than ever in practice, enforced a stern code of conduct, and ruled the locker room with an iron fist. When his methods didn’t produce willing results, it cost him his job. What’s more, it cost him the respect of his players, many of whom unabashedly danced over his grave after the firing was made public.
It’s easy to just point and laugh — the Lions have been terrible for ages, it’s true — but this is also cautionary tale of what happens when a system that emphasizes extraordinary work ethic and personal decorum goes sour. Napier could share Patricia’s fate if he’s not careful.
There’s reason to believe it won’t come to that, though.
Patricia’s first mistake was to peddle his knockoff version of Belicheck’s system as the real McCoy. No matter how badly the fat cats who fund football operations want to replicate the dynasties of their rivals, it’s a fool’s errand. There’s only one Bill Belichick. There’s only one Nick Saban. On the other hand, while Napier uses what he learned from his legendary mentor as a foundation, he has already developed his own distinct fingerprint.
More importantly, though, Napier separates himself by the way he approaches the very task of coaching. Patricia didn’t fail because he was stupid. The man has a degree in aeronautical engineering, for crying out loud. No, he failed because he proved to be a pigheaded, selfish coach who didn’t care about his players and made took every opportunity to excuse his own poor performance. By all accounts, Napier conducts himself in the polar opposite manner.
A selfish head coach doesn’t surround himself with an “army” of analysts. A selfish head coach doesn’t insist on a hearty budget to hire assistant coaches when negotiating a contract. Napier demands excellence from those around him, but unlike Patricia, he demands excellence from himself as well. Furthermore, he knows that the only way to achieve personal excellence is to create a support structure he can rely on to help him along the way.
For the Napier Way to succeed, humility will be key on the part of Florida’s new head man. He’s gone to great lengths to create a safety net for himself when a problem inevitably rears its ugly head. He just needs to be willing to use it.
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