Gators hire Napier as new football coach

Louisiana-Lafayette head coach Billy Napier has been named the new head football coach of the Florida Gators (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Louisiana-Lafayette head coach Billy Napier has been named the new head football coach of the Florida Gators (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

The University of Florida announced they have agreed to a deal that will bring Billy Napier to Gainesville.

Napier, who has turned the University of Louisiana-Lafayette football program into a perennial winner, will take over a Gator football program that has fallen mightily over the past calendar year.

Former Gators head football coach Dan Mullen.

Dan Mullen was fired as Florida head coach on November 21^st after a multitude of disappointing losses in 2021, along with what appeared to be a disinterest in leading the program any longer.

Mullen was seen as a candidate for a handful of NFL coaching vacancies after the 2020 season, but never received serious attention from any teams.

What followed was a nosedive of epic proportions.

The Gators stayed close with Alabama, losing by 2 points in an early season match up. But after subsequent losses to Kentucky, LSU, and Georgia, Mullen found himself firmly on the hot seat.

The final straw came in what seemed to be an unorganized and uninspired loss to Missouri in overtime.

The next day, Mullen was gone.

Scott Stricklin, the University of Florida athletic director, wrapped Florida’s coaching search in about a week.

“I’ve followed and studied Billy Napier’s career with interest,” Stricklin said. “He became the primary target immediately after the position came open.”

Stricklin stated that Napier was the only candidate he met with during the coaching search.

Napier will be formally announced as the new Gators head coach at a press conference on December 5^th, after Louisiana’s contest with Appalachian State for the Sun Belt Conference championship. Louisiana takes on App State this Saturday, December 4^th.

In a press release, Napier shared his excitement to lead the UF football program.

“We are excited and honored to accept this incredible opportunity to be the head coach at the University of Florida,” Napier said. “Our team, staff and entire organization will work daily to establish a program with integrity and class that we can be proud of.”

Napier is widely known as a tireless recruiter, one talent that Mullen seemed to lack. Stints as an assistant for Dabo Swinney at Clemson and Nick Saban at Alabama appear to have provided Napier with the blueprint to building a successful football program.

After taking over a program that went 5-7 in 2017, Napier amassed seasons if 7-7, 11-3, 10-1 and currently stands at 11-1 going into the Sun Belt title game on December 4^th.

Napier will inherit a program with talent but will need to use his recruiting acumen to return the Gators to the prominence they enjoyed with Urban Meyer during the ’06 and ’08 national title runs.

Napier has turned down overtures from other SEC programs such as Auburn, Tennessee, and South Carolina. LSU was seen as a natural fit for Napier, but Stricklin and UF swooped in and hired him before the Tigers could get a meeting.

Napier will arrive around ten days before early signing day takes place on December 15^th.