By
Billy Napier and the Florida Gators are building an army
in Gainesville.
Billy Napier, 42, was hired by the Florida Gators to uplift a brand which has been missing in
recent years at the facilities of the University of Florida’s football program. The brand of great
work ethic, dedication to the athletes education and to compete for titles in the SEC. The Gators
ended their 2020-2021 season with a 29-17 loss against the University of Central Florida in the
Gasparilla Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida. The Golden Knights of
UCF scored 2 touchdowns off the run and even ran 288 yards against a Florida defense who
ranked 39th in the country in yards allowed per play, according to saturdaydownsouth.com.
Despite the Gators defense improving in 2021 compared to their 2020 season (which is a low bar
to go over) they found themselves struggling in the regular season. And if the defense was
playing their best, it seemed that the offense was playing poorly to balance the beam of efficient
talent on the field. With Billy Napier now in control of a Gators team that went 2-6 against SEC
competition, he realized that coaching would be the first thing to tackle.
“Our first task will be hiring a quality coaching and support staff” Napier tells the media in his
introductory press conference. When hiring or interviewing someone for his staff, Napier
explains his hiring process to fully focus on evaluating the history of production on the field,
communication, academics importance and how the feel of adding a specific new staff member
is going to be on the team. However, the one quote that Napier gives to the media, the students
and all the Florida Gators fans out there that has already found its way onto multiple
merchandise items (including on barstool sports), “ Scared money don’t make money”.
Napier, since that quote, has hired more than 50 plus staff members that are still growing to this
day. Napiers’ “army” has so far 113 years combined working with him, 145 years of combined
SEC working experience and 32 years of combined NFL experience. This staff includes an on-
field staff that was ranked number one in a ranking by 247sports.com for new on-field coaching
hires for 2022. This ranking included 29 overall different programs which included Oklahoma,
Oregon, Southern California and others.
Some of the biggest on-field hires were made in the coordinator jobs. This includes names such
as Patrick Toney, Sean Spencer and Rob Sale. Sale and Toney were actually coaches who were
with Napier when he coached the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns. Toney, who coached Louisiana’s
defense to a 31st nationally ranked defense in scoring(22.0) last year, will serve as the Co-
Defensive Coordinator/Safeties coach. Sale, who coached the offense of the Cajuns’ to average
33.6 points per game in the Sun Belt Conference in 2020, will be the Offensive Coordinator for
the Gators under Napiers inaugural year. Both coaches, with Billy Napier, constructed a winning
program at Louisiana as they won two Sun Belt Conference Championships in 2020 and 2021.
Sean Spencer, who was hired as the Gators Co-Defensive Coordinator/Defensive line coach,
previously was with the New York Giants in the NFL as a defensive line coach(2020-2021).
Spencer coached the Giants D-line to become aggressive towards the quarterback as they
registered 40 sacks in 2020. The most since 2014 for the Giants. With Napier hiring some A-list
options for his coaching staff, the Gators found themselves in a better position in the competitive
battle of recruitment in the SEC as highly talented, in-coming players from high schools took
notice of the change in scenery at Florida.
“It was fire, I ain’t gonna lie. It was fire”, says 5-star linebacker Harold Perkins when asked
about his official visit to Florida. “ They really be what I look for in a school…I’m gonna go
cray, Im tellin you”. Even though the Gators couldn’t convince the #1 linebacker in the nation to
sign on, according to 247sports.com, they still made a splash in recruitment in 2022. The Gators
signed multiple 4-star recruits under Napiers little time as head coach, including 4-star safety
Kamari Wilson who is already enrolled at the University of Florida. Wilson was just one of
many commits who decided to sign with Florida over top SEC programs like Georgia, Texas
A&M, and even Alabama.
Napiers nucleus of his inaugural singing class came from O-linemen and defenders. The Florida
Gators after National Signing Day were ranked by 247sports.com as the 19th school in 2022
football recruitment . A huge improvement since they were ranked 70th when the previous
coach, Dan Mullen, was at Florida. Napier, bringing a new coaching staff, recruitment strategy
and a star-studded cast of new players fresh off of recruitment continues to build the brand at the
University of Florida.
“Florida is a strong brand,” says Napier in a press conference on National Signing Day. With a
fanbase backing everything that Napier has done with his time at Florida, it seems the Florida
brand is coming around. The Gators will show their brand to the world as they play their first game of the 2022 season against the Utah Utes on September 3rd, 2022.
Written by- Brandon Hernandez
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