Billy Napier’s first year at the University of Florida didn’t produce the kind of results any Gators fans wanted to see, and he enters Year 2 a spot lower at No. 11 on USA TODAY Sports‘ SEC football coach rankings heading into the 2023 season.
There’s reason to believe that things will turn around now that Napier has a team full of players he recruited to the school, but the Gators aren’t getting much love from the national media.
“Napier’s Louisiana tenure took off in his second season,” Blake Toppmeyer wrote for USA TODAY. “If he’s primed Florida for a similar Year 2 ascent, he’s done a good job of hiding it. Napier inherited a program thinner on talent and depth than it should be, and deficiencies remain. Napier’s biggest issue: He hasn’t developed or attracted a quarterback to Florida’s standard.”
Toppmeyer suggests that all Napier needs to do is win enough games to avoid getting fired after just two seasons on the job. While it may sound a bit ridiculous to fire a man who hasn’t had adequate time to fix the problems he didn’t create, it’s the reality of the SEC right now.
At the top of the list, of course, are Nick Saban and Kirby White, but perhaps not in the order you might expect. Georgia‘s head coach has taken over the No. 1 position, moving the Alabama legend down to the No. 2 spot. Brian Kelly (LSU), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss) and Josh Heupel (Tennessee) round out the top five.
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