Déjà vu all over again

By FRANZ BEARD

GatorBaitMedia.com

“It’s like déjà vu all over again.” – Yogi Berra

There are times – there must be – that Billy Napier thinks he’s re-living 2018 at the University of Louisiana. That was year one of Napier’s first head coaching gig. He took over a team that in the course of a 5-7 season in 2017 gave up 40 points a game, won an offensive shootout with a D1AA team, and lost games it should have won. The 2017 Ragin Cajuns committed too many penalties, turned the ball over too much and couldn’t get critical stops on third down. In part because they lost way too many games because of unforced errors and turnovers, Mark Hudspeth lost his job and Napier was hired.

Does that sound familiar or what?

The 2021 Florida Gators finished 6-7 and got to a forgettable bowl game only because they won a shootout with D1AA Samford and then beat a bad Florida State team in the final two regular season games. The Gators committed way too many penalties, turned the ball over too much and couldn’t get critical stops on third down. The 2021 Gators could have beaten SEC champion Alabama at home except for lack of focus mistakes. The Gators lost to 10-win Kentucky in Lexington in a game that could be best described as the great giveaway thanks to 15 UF penalties, a blocked field goal returned for a TD and an interception that gave Kentucky ideal field position for what proved to be the game-winning TD. In Baton Rouge the Gators lost a perfectly winnable game because they completed four passes to LSU defensive backs and couldn’t stop the same off-tackle blast play the Tigers ran at least 25 times. There is absolutely no excuse for Florida losing to South Carolina and Missouri.

Any way you slice it, Florida should have won at least 10 football games in 2021 which would have gotten them a fourth straight New Year’s Six bowl game. Should have. Could have. Would have. Didn’t largely because this was an undisciplined team with a penchant for shooting itself in the foot and losing winnable games because of penalties, unforced errors and turnovers. That cost Dan Mullen his job and for the second time in his coaching career, Billy Napier was hired to clean up a mess.

Just as cleaning up a mess isn’t uncharted territory for Billy Napier, turning to someone new to put Humpty Dumpty – also known as Florida football – back together again isn’t a newfangled idea at the University of Florida. Napier, it turns out, is the fourth Mr. Clean brought in to give the Gators a fresh start and regain championship aura gone astray.

The blueprint for what Napier is doing at Florida, where the Gators open the 2022 season with Utah in The Swamp on September 3, was first put to the test at Louisiana back in 2018. Napier took over a team that had far too many holes to patch, but he someone kept the Ragin Cajuns’ heads above water in a thrill ride of a season in which they either won games in shootout fashion or went down in flames. Because they beat Arkansas State in an early season 47-43 shootout that turned out to be the tiebreaker for the Sun Belt Conference Western Division title and won their final three regular season games, Louisiana made it to the Sun Belt Championship Game and went bowling. That the Ragin Cajuns lost the championship game to Appalachian State and the Cure Bowl game to Tulane seems irrelevant now. Finishing 7-7 was important. Changing the football culture was the most important accomplishment that year.

Florida offensive line coach Rob Sale, who was with Napier at Louisiana in 2018, says, “Coach Napier was able to – probably in my opinion – win games we probably weren’t supposed to be in there by slowing the pace of the game and then we were able to put it all together, play complimentary football in all three phases (offense, defense, special teams).”

The culture changed. Recruiting changed. The Cajuns went 33-5 the next three years, finishing the Napier Era in Lafayette with a Sun Belt championship.

Now Napier is in Gainesville finishing up his ninth month of restructuring the Florida football program from the ground up. Athletic director Scott Stricklin, who, like so many, sees a young Nick Saban in his football coach, has essentially given Napier carte blanche to restore Florida football to championship greatness. Essentially, whatever Billy wants, Billy gets. The requests haven’t been outlandish – an “army” of analysts and specialists have been hired but they were necessary and there were 39 key changes to the spectacular new Heavener Football Center – but what they’ve done is firmly establish that this is Billy Napier’s football program. Sure, Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen all had their chances to put their stamp on things, but either there was resistance at the top or a lack of vision on their part. Billy Napier has turned this into the football program everybody in the country better be paying attention to because there is a plan in place that covers every single imaginable detail.

The only thing missing are the victories and with every press conference in which he outlines progress and answers questions from the media, Napier oozes a very unpretentious confidence. There isn’t the fanfare of Jimbo Fisher and his big deal at Texas A&M nor the newfound bravado of Georgia, fresh off its first national championship in 41 years. Nor is there Nick Saban’s chilling been there, done that, we’ll do it again monotone delivery that convinces you it will be a cold day in hell before Bama isn’t a threat to win another national championship.

No, this is different. Napier’s entire demeanor is different. There is none of the “my dog Clarabelle” nonsense or Dan Mullen smartest guy in the room arrogance yet when he speaks it’s not difficult to believe. Perhaps it’s because he seems to have this whole person approach. His better people make for better football players approach – yes it sounds like it’s straight out of a “Better ingredients make better pizza” Papa John’s commercial – has not only won over the players, but it’s winning over recruits as well.

“This is what are we trying to do with the players,” Napier said recently. “We’re No. 1 trying to improve character; No. 2 we’re trying to increase knowledge; and No. 3 we’re trying to develop skill. Notice, I didn’t say talent, we said skill level. So I think we projected, we took height, length and speed – and we worked hard on improving character. We were able to do that independent of the talent level, the physical traits.”

Character first. Football second. The late, great Dean Smith always believed that if you win over the hearts and minds of your players, winning basketball games would take care of themselves. That’s what Napier did at Louisiana in doing a full 180 with the Rajin Cajuns, turning them from undisciplined losers into a Group of Five powerhouse.

That’s what he intends to do with the Florida Gators.

“Ninety percent of all mental errors are in your head” – Yogi Berra

“You know more games are lost than won,” Napier said before reeling off victory-killers like undisciplined penalties such as eight false starts in the Kentucky loss in 2021, turnovers (four interceptions in the loss to LSU), lack of effort plays (illegal participation against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game in 2020, for instance, cost UF a TD in a game the Gators lost by six points) and focus flaws such as a missed assignment that cost the Gators a game-tying 2-point conversion in the loss to Alabama or the blocked field goal that Kentucky ran back for a touchdown.

When it comes to penalties, Napier’s goal for 2022 is that the Gators will average no more than one penalty every 30 snaps. A year ago the Gators were 119th out of 130 Division I teams in penalties. Napier’s Louisiana team was 48th.

Penalties have plagued the Gators the last 10 years. Only the 2019 Gators (36th) finished among the top 50 teams in the country. A year ago the Gators compounded the penalty situation by finishing dead last in interceptions thrown. Who knows how many blown assignments there were. Dan Mullen’s inability to get a handle on those things ultimately unhinged the confidence the team had in the coaching staff.

Back in the 1970s, Doug Dickey drove Florida fans crazy when, on more than one occasion, he said, “Before you can win, first you have to avoid losing.” Never did it make Florida fans’ blood boil more than the 10-7 loss to Georgia that cost UF the SEC title. Dickey sent out his field goal kicker to try to tie the game on a muddy field rather than go for the first down that could have led to a game winning TD. Dickey’s philosophy was straight out of General Bob Neyland’s Seven Maxims of Football. There is a rather large measure of truth to that statement and Napier isn’t afraid to offer his own version of it.

“We want to eliminate the chinks in the armor, make the other team beat you and we’ve always taken great pride in that,” he said. “I think incrementally each year at the previous stop we’ve gotten better in those areas.”

Napier also isn’t afraid to keep bringing up the role character plays in winning football games. General Neyland never said the team with the most character has a better chance to win games. Billy Napier believes it does.

Last Sunday, Napier was asked about the progress the Gators have made since he took over the team. After mentioning that the Gators have improved fundamentally, he said, “I do think we’re much more of a close-knit group. I think we know each other and that we’ve actually got true connection and I’m hopeful that will affect how we handle adversity, our ability to stick together. I think football is a game of momentum. It’s a game of emotion, but I think it’s important that we, you know … how is that going to affect our team? Are we going to splinter? Are we going to stick together? Is it going to galvanize our team? And I think one of the things we have taken great pride of in the past is we were a group that was together, right? I’m hopeful we can have that kind of team here.”

“It’s too coincidental to be a coincidence.” – Yogi Berra

Character will have a lot to do with the type of team Napier will have in season one in Gainesville, but so will depth. Every team in the Southeastern Conference has 22 good players. To win more than two or three games it takes at least 33 players. To be more than a break-even team, you have to have a full two-deep or 44 players capable of playing at an SEC level. To win championships you better have 50 ready to go and the bulk of them better have some experience.

What Napier saw back in April when spring practice ended was a bit alarming, but all that did was make him and his assistant coaches work harder over the summer to get the team ready to play. What he sees now, four-and-a-half months later, is a two-deep that has enough talent to compete but is lacking experience.

“I’ve always felt kind of like going after the spring, I would say we’ve got one-and-a-half units, if that makes sense, but I do believe we’ve made progress, right?” Napier said Wednesday.

One-and-half units means 33 players.

After summer workouts and August camp, there is far more confidence because he sees a team that is far more responsible and dependable. He also sees young guys who don’t lack for talent, but do lack for experience.

“We need more players that can play winning football,” he said, adding that in the months since spring football “we’ve developed some players, right, that maybe had not played a significant role in the past.”

He mentioned redshirt freshman Tyreak Sapp, so talented that he may wind up playing all three spots on the D-line. He mentioned unheralded redshirt freshman offensive tackle Austin Barber, who has carved his way into the top eight among O-linemen who will see the field early and often. Freshman linebacker Shemar James has been impressive. Redshirt freshman Justus Boone is going to play defensive end and could play some on the inside even though he’s not quite 270 pounds. Sophomore Princely Umanmielen has spent a good portion of the fall pestering QBs from his defensive end position. Antwaun Powell-Ryland is a redshirt freshman who looks good coming off the edge. Redshirt freshman O-linemen Jake Slaughter and Kamryn Waites are going to play.

It will be hard to keep freshman corner Devin Moore and freshman safety Kamari Wilson off the field and freshman wide receiver Caleb Douglas has been making plays in the passing game. Montrell Johnson, who was in the running back rotation for Napier at Louisiana where he scored 12 touchdowns last year as a sophomore, will probably be the No. 1 option at running back.

Even quarterback Anthony Richardson fits that inexperienced mold. He’s completed 40 passes in his UF career. Everybody recognizes Richardson has first round talent but he hasn’t played much.

“If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it all over again” – Yogi Berra

The talent is better than Napier had year one at Louisiana. That’s the difference in the SEC and the Sun Belt. The 2018 Ragin Cajuns had to fill out their two-deep with younger, inexperienced players but it paid off in years two through four. Napier knows from experience that he will reap the benefit of playing the young guys now. It may take a year for some of these kids to start showing real consistency, but others he expects will show improvement week-to-week.

“I do think we’re going to have a lot of players on this team that make significant strides throughout the season,” Napier said.

Back in 2018, Napier signed unheralded offensive tackle Max Mitchell out of Monroe (LA) Neville. He arrived in Lafayette with no stars to his name, but he worked his way into the rotation, played in every game, and was getting significant minutes by season’s end. By 2021 Mitchell was a second team All-American who didn’t allow a sack and only 13 QB pressures as a senior. He was drafted by the New York Jets and will likely start as a rookie.

A year later, Napier signed O’Cyrus Torrence out of Greensburg (LA) St. Helena Parrish. He transferred to UF when Napier became UF’s coach. He hasn’t allowed a sack in more than 1,300 passing protections. He started as a freshman, got better with every game and was first team All-Sun Belt the last two years.

The history of Mitchell and Torrence tells you Napier has a keen eye for talent, but also lets you know he has a system of putting young players on the field, coaching them up and turning them into productive players from day one.

“Keep trying. Stay humble, trust your instincts. Most importantly, act. When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” – Yogi Berra

This final Yogi-ism might be the best way to sum up what we’ve seen and what we should expect from Billy Napier. He plans his day down to the minute so there is never going to be a lack of effort. He’s got the humble thing down pat. He trusts his instincts enough to rely on a basic blueprint that he’s willing to implement. If the years have taught him one thing, it’s you have to be flexible enough to take on something new.

The Florida Gators are the fork in the road. Billy Napier took it and now he’s a little more than a week away from showing us just how much progress he’s made. Yogi once said you have to be careful because if you don’t know where you’re going you might not get there. Billy Napier knows exactly where he’s going and he knows what it’s going to take to get the Florida Gators there with him.