Billy Napier: "We absolutely have aspirations to be a playoff team"

(Photo by Chris Spears)

“Who am I? Why am I here?” – Admiral James Stockdale, 1992 vice presidential debate.

With the exception of DJ Lagway, who was an all-interplanetary 5-star high school stud ranked the best high school quarterback in the country, we might ask those same questions of the very talented roster that Billy Napier has assembled. From top to bottom, the Gators have a roster that is as deep and talented as anything at the University of Florida in years but it has been quietly, methodically assembled. The Gators may not have an abundance of household names but they have plenty enough to make a rather large splash on the national scene in the fall.

It is good enough that when asked Tuesday if the Gators are capable of making the College Football Playoff this year, Napier replied, “We absolutely have aspirations to be a playoff team. That's the intention of coming here is to win championships.”

When he answered that question, Napier bore the look of a coach who is quite content with a mostly homegrown ball club that has the look of a contender. In three years on the Florida job, Napier has become the master of the deadpan response. Tuesday, he didn’t exactly bubble over with enthusiasm but there was no mistaking the confidence. He has recruited players who fit the profile of what he expects athletically, academically and culturally.

This is a very impressive bunch, recruited to Florida without the fanfare of those high profile classes at Georgia, Alabama, Texas and Ohio State. For all their success on the recruiting trail, those four schools were forced to dip heavily into the transfer portal to fill holes in their 5-star studded rosters.

Without many 5-stars and only a bare minimum of outside help – only seven players – brought in from the portal, Napier can field a Florida team that can play with any team in the nation. Despite what some sources describe as a calf strain that will prevent Lagway from fully participating in the first few days of fall camp, Florida has a triggerman capable of spreading the ball around to one of the best collections of skill people to be found anywhere in the country. Up front there is one of the better offensives in the country, led by All-American center Jake Slaughter and left tackle Austin Barber – two of only seven holdovers from the first Florida team Napier sent running out the tunnel in 2022.

Slaughter and Barber could hear their names called in the first round when the NFL drafts next fall. They weren’t on everybody’s recruiting radar when they came to UF, but they’ve been developed and now they enter their senior seasons among the top lineman prospects for the 2026 NFL Draft according to Pro Football Focus. Slaughter stayed the course, didn’t transfer and instead chose to outwork everybody on the practice field, weight room and meeting rooms.

This is typical of how the Gators have built the roster to the point that Florida is capable of playing with and beating any team in the country. Napier has excelled in recruiting players who stick around and develop.  

“Got a lot of players that are in year two, three, four in this program, these systems, offense, defense and special teams,” Napier said. “And when I look around the room, I see individuals that I have extensive experience with, going all the way back to the recruiting process. So know their story, have been to their schools, have sat in their homes, know their parents and they chose us to some degree as well. So I think it’s a positive in that regard.

“I think that college football, the on-boarding process of rookie players is really important and when you have veteran players that have a good understanding of expectations and know what you want and can be a good example to young players, I think that's really important. And I think we've benefited from that. I thought last year's team benefited from that, and I think this year has been probably two or three times as impactful because there's strength in numbers, and I think we have that.”

Florida’s recruiting classes lack pizzazz and drool factor but credit Napier and his staff for developing players who evolve into SEC capable standouts. Careful roster construction has resulted in a team that hasn’t a lot of weaknesses and isn’t a patchwork of transfers.

The Gators carry a 4-game winning streak into September, which happens to be the longest streak in the SEC heading into 2025, is reason for optimism, but Napier is quick to point out that any success the Gators have in the future will be forged by what goes on in fall camp leading up to the season opener on August 31 with Long Island. Between now and August 31, it is critical for the Gators to establish trust among both teammates and coaches.

“So one of the things we're trying to do this month is establish trust,” Napier said. “Each individual has gotta earn confidence himself. He's also trying to earn the confidence of the staff and the confidence of his teammates and I think you do it right out there on the grass between the lines. So I think that's where you prove it to everybody that you can do your job, that we can trust you.”  

Trust is one of those intangibles that separates the great teams from those that have this habit of losing games that, on paper at least, they should win. For example, if the quarterback doesn’t trust a certain receiver he will be hesitant to throw him the ball even when he’s open. It is that way on both sides of the football. Coordinators would rather trust the outcome of a play to a lesser talent they believe in rather than put the ball or the game in the hands of someone who doesn’t go about earning trust every single day.

So what is the secret? How do players go about earning the trust of both their teammates and their coaches?

“It's about the work we do,” Napier said. “It's about today, okay. It’s not about yesterday or tomorrow. It's about today. A good today leads to a good week, leads to a good month, leads to a good season, and you look up and count them up at the end of the year. 

“I think for us it's about getting the most out of this group. It's the best thing about coaching football is the challenge of taking, okay, I'm a position coach, I'm going to take this player or this position group and get the most …  I'm the coordinator, I got this unit. How can we get the most out of this group? And for me, it's the team and organization as a whole, right? So I think for us we know that the results will be a product of really buying into the process, being present, stacking good days and creating habits that will hold up on game day. So we got a lot of guys that need to establish that we can trust them, and this next month will present that opportunity.”  

Of course, now that the Gators are practicing all eyes will be on Lagway. Healthy, he’s one of the nation’s best quarterbacks. With him there is reason to believe as Napier does that the Gators could be a playoff team, perhaps even a team that makes it to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.

Napier didn’t seem ready to sound any alarm bells but did point out that not having Lagway ready to go from day one isn’t the perfect scenario.

“He [Lagway], I think, understands what's required to be ready,” Napier said. “It's not ideal, but I think ultimately we'll come up with the best plan we can to have him ready.”

Napier clearly likes the talent with which he can surround Lagway. His is a personnel driven offensive scheme and now he has the trigger, the running backs, the speed at receiver and the bulk up front to build on last year’s end of the season winning streak.

“You build your system around what your quarterback can do and what he does well,” Napier said. “And then you build it around the skill players that you have.”

The Gators have the skill people to run a real 50-50 balance. With Jadan Baugh and Ja’Kobi Jackson, he has two running backs as good as you will find in the SEC. At wide receiver Dallas Wilson, J. Michael Sturdivant, Tre Wilson, Vernell Brown III, Tank Hawkins, TJ Abrams, Naeshaun Montgomery and Aidan Mizell, there is more speed than the Gators have had since the Tebow years.  

There is that teensy matter of defense. In seven of Florida’s eight wins last year and one of the four losses, the defense played very well. It was the Texas game that the defense was the last no-show by the defense. In the four games after that, Florida played at a very high level and there is expected carryover into 2025 under Ron Roberts, who will be in the booth the entire season making the play calls.

There have been questions about Florida’s defensive depth but neither Napier nor Roberts seemed particularly concerned.

“When I think about our defense, I think about building depth in the secondary, working contingency plans; who's the fourth corner, who's the fourth, fifth, sixth safety. You know, we've gotta develop these two young backers (Myles Graham, Aaron Chiles) and build some depth there at that position. And then after Caleb Banks and Michai Boireau, who else has played some significant snaps in a game? BT (Brien Taylor), Brendan Bett, Tarvorise Brown … and then the rookies obviously have a chance to impact the team: (Joseph) Mbatchou, (Jeremiah) McCloud, (Jayden) Woods. 

“So … how many guys can we get ready to play winning football on that side of the ball. We're going to need them. So I think that's the important part of training camp. And, look, we've been working on these things since January. So it's go time now. I think it's time for them to go prove it.”