After years of flirtation, Billy Napier is finally headed to the SEC.
Napier, who has spent the last four seasons at Louisiana, has been hired as head football coach at Florida, the school announced Sunday. The former Alabama and Clemson assistant had been linked to openings at Auburn, South Carolina and Mississippi State in recent years, but turned them all down to stay in Lafayette.
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“We are humbled and honored to accept this incredible opportunity to be the head football 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 all can be proud of. More importantly, we will build a culture that is centered around making an impact on our players: as people, as students, and on the field.
“We embrace the expectations and are excited about the challenge ahead. We will assemble a special group of people and immediately get to work building a great program.”
The 42-year-old Napier, a Tennessee native who grew up in Georgia and played quarterback at Furman, replaces the fired Dan Mullen in Gainesville. The Gators slipped to 6-6 this season after winning the SEC East Division title in 2020.
Napier is 39-12 in four seasons at Louisiana, with four straight Sun Belt Conference West Division championships and the 2020 conference title. His 2021 team is 11-1, having won 11 straight since a season-opening loss to Texas.
“I’ve followed and studied Billy Napier’s career with interest, and he became the primary target immediately after this position came open,” Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin said. “We felt confident he would be an excellent leader for the Gators, which is why he was the only candidate I met with about the job.
“Billy’s ability to bring highly-talented people together — players, coaches, and staff — along with his vision for having a strong, relationship-based culture is what made him such an attractive choice. Add in how detailed his plan is for player development, staffing and recruiting, along with a sustained desire to improve, and it’s easy to see why he’s been successful.”
Napier served two different stints under Nick Saban at Alabama, working as an analyst in 2011 and as wide receivers coach from 2013-16. He was also offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Clemson in 2009-10, quarterbacks coach at Colorado State in 2012, tight ends coach at Florida State in 2013 and offensive coordinator at Arizona State in 2017 before getting his first head-coaching job at Louisiana.
Napier was briefly among the front-runners to replace Gus Malzahn at Auburn before withdrawing from consideration last Dec. 21. The Tigers hired Bryan Harsin as head coach the following day.
According to the Associated Press, Napier is expected to coach the Ragin’ Cajuns in next weekend’s Sun Belt championship game before taking over full-time at Florida. Louisiana hosts Appalachian State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.
Napier’s hiring at Florida leaves five Power 5 head-coaching openings: LSU, Virginia Tech, TCU, USC and Washington. TCU is expected to announce SMU’s Sonny Dykes as its new coach as soon as Sunday.
Though he coaches in the state, LSU did not serious consider Napier for its opening, according to SI.com’s Ross Dellenger:
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