Buddy Martin Blog: Look Up In The Sky! It’s a Bulldog! It’s An Elephant! Where Is The Florida Gator?

The first time Napier set foot on the field was the Gasparilla Bowl, where he couldn't coach -- only observe. But he quickly found out about the challenges ahead. (UAA Photo)

'The bad news is that the Bulldogs wound up being very Kirby Smart after all. And it feels like Kirby may have lapped the field on Dan Mullen’s Gators. Now the baton has been handed off to Billy Napier…'

Hey diddle-diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow – and the Bulldog and Elephant – jumped over the moon. The Gator is still trying to get off the launch pad. Perhaps there is help on the way, but at this moment, the new SEC bar is so high that the moon cannot be found in Gainesville with The James Webb telescope.

Has anybody got a slide rule or tape measure? We need to gauge just how high Georgia and Alabama raised the stakes after that bombastic national championship performance Monday night. This is getting to be serious bid-ness. How serious? A gambler friend of mine suggested the other day that the hottest new card game in Vegas is called GEORGIA Hold ‘Em. “We ain’t ever seen nothin’ like that around here in these parts of Texas,” said my friend from Austin.

There’s got a to be a better measuring stick than the unreliable one used by the previous Gator coach. Remember how Dan Mullen described the distance between the Florida and Georgia programs after his second straight loss to Georgia in 2019, 24-17? “Seven points,” said Mullen. “We are seven points behind Georgia.”

Technically Dan was right and he backed it up by beating Georgia the next year, but it sounded more like a point spread than a team vs. team evaluation. While Mullen may have won that battle, he was in the process of losing the war. And he did lose the war, plus his job. By a mile.

The bad news is that the Bulldogs wound up being very Kirby Smart after all. And it feels like Kirby may have since lapped the field on Dan Mullen’s Gators. Now the baton has been handed off to Billy Napier, whose early speed looks impressive. But Napier knows he wants to be the tortoise, not the hare.

Frankly, that Georgia advantage Mullen described as “seven points” looks more like “seventy” at the moment.

The last time Georgia won a national championship (1892). Just kidding! (UGA Photo)

And yet, as grim as that forecast might seem for Gator fans, the young 42-year-old Tennessee-born, Georgia-raised, son-of-a-coach Napier proffers the one commodity lacking these days around The Gator Nation: Hope. I am here today to offer you a little bit of that, but also tempering it with a bit of cautious optimism.

Many Gator fans are stuck in the middle between hope and despair, still striped with the recent scars of the failed romance with Mullen. We may never know what was behind the crashing and burning of The Dan Mullen Flying Machine, with pieces on the ground. And while there is no shame in seeking a self-diagnosis for what looks and feels like Post Disorder Stress Syndrome, let me assure you there is no need for PTSD symptoms brought on by the disappointment of failed expectations over games.

Less than 40 days ago after the dismissal of Mullen and hiring of Florida’s 25th full-time head coach – there have been five interims -- many of us began educating ourselves, drilling down on the potential, prospects and the personality of Billy Napier.

Here’s what I do know:

--Napier said he was drafting an “army” of coaches and support personnel. Consider it done. One source told me they saw information that said the number is 78 and that number is close to being reached.

--Napier said he doubted he’d corral many – if any -- commits out of the current 2022 class. He got nine, including 5-star safety Kamari Wilson, and the forecast for signing day No. 2 in February is bright and sunny. Stay tuned for As The Transfer Portal Turns drama. You can bet Napier has plans for strip-mining that resource. He picked up another player Tuesday when he added sophomore running back Montrell Johnson from Louisiana-Lafayette, who rushed for 838 yards last season.

Courtesy of FloridaGators.com

--In this world of Name-Image-Likeness fondness, those who hesitate are lost. I’m told that Napier has big plans for using all legal means to cultivate the agencies who are signing up his players to deals, but that he’s very much in favor of immediate action. Apparently, NIL is going to be a big deal at Florida under Napier.

--And speaking of immediate action: Since the football players started parking their cars on campus or near the practice stadium 100 years ago, campus police have been ticketing and/or booting them into oblivion and probably have a line item in their budget for “Football Players Parking Revenue.” In almost no time Napier reached out to the administration to “borrow” the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium North Lawn space. Immediately players were tweeting how thrilled they were after new warm breakfasts to be able to park their car without fear of being ticketed or towed away.

These are good omens. I’m not claiming to have cracked the code, but I do consider myself somewhat of a graduate student of college football, with a minor in football coaches – having lived with and around them for more than a half century. While I’m not going to get into the prophesying and coach prediction business, I am fairly confident Napier can be successful, based on what I’m seeing, hearing and feeling. And I like the hire. But it should come with a warning label of “Do Not Try This At Home.”

Steve Spurrier recently admitted after having stated that “Dan Mullen will break my record for wins and I only hope he will allow me to be there to present him with the game ball,” that he was dead wrong and that he planned to “get out of the coach predicting business.” If the HBC is swearing off the coaching crystal ball, so am I.

in his presser Friday, Napier carefully outlined his plan, point by point, laid out his 13-day evaluating process, embraced the cooperative spirit of current players like Emory Jones and congratulated his rival Georgia because “I know a lot of people in that building.”

He assured the media that every member of his mammoth support staff would have a purpose and nobody would be there “eating popcorn and watching the game on TvV.” They will be assisting in the development of a big roster that will eventually include 85 scholarship players and 50 walkons. Napier has a plan and a vision, but was was quick to add: “Vision without action is a dream."

Seems like Napier is a man of action doing and saying all the right things. But let me check myself right there, remembering what I saw from the behemoths in Lucas Oil Stadium. It brought about a new definition for “Big Boy Football.” It’s time for another Gator coach to begin scaling this mountain again. At least it will be in the right direction, a few steps closer to the moon. Hey diddle diddle.