The Florida coach has overhauled the program, but on-field results haven't followed. Will that change this season?
"There" was not only 13 years removed from its last national championship and its last SEC title, but far behind rival, now a national power. Florida fans had been accustomed to winning championships. Even Napier grew up in Georgia watching Steve Spurrier dominate the Bulldogs.
As Florida struggled to find stability at head coach, Kirby Smart elevated Georgia to a national championship contender in short order, turning the tables on a rivalry the Gators dominated in the 1990s and 2000s. In nine seasons with the Bulldogs, Smart has lost to Florida just once. That has only added to the consternation among a Florida fan base eager to see a return to success.
"Once upon a time, there was a standard out there that we were the best of the best and we are working to get back to that," running back Montrell Johnson said. When Napier made his calls during his interview process to find out why Florida had not won consistently enough, he learned the Gators had fallen behind with both their facilities and budget and were woefully behind from a recruiting, staffing, organization and sport science perspective.
Now Florida is in line with other SEC schools after years of complaints that these two specific areas were holding the program back. As one person familiar with the program pointed out, Napier has been given everything he wanted. But the on-field results are not there yet. Napier points to the rapidly changing college football landscape -- including transfer rules and NIL -- as one reason.
To address the issues, Napier overhauled his staff headed into 2024. Joe Houston came from the New England Patriots as an analyst, specifically focusing on special teams. Ron Roberts came in as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, a veteran presence to help Austin Armstrong, the youngest coordinator in the SEC at 31. Napier also hired a new strength and conditioning coach and nutritionist.
"You go back and you just turn on the games we lost, we just didn't execute," Mertz said."We had too many penalties. We might have made the wrong read on a play. There are so many different things. We needed to get better, and that's where I've seen across the board everybody's been putting in that effort to hold up their end of the bargain."
"I don't think he has to do too much to save his job because there's so much invested in the whole staff and everything," Spurrier said."I hope we can have a winning season. I predicted a winning season and a bowl game. If we can do that, I think that would make everybody happy right now."
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