Why Not Read The Handwriting On The Wall? Billy Napier Already Has A Snapshot Of It And HBC's Plays.

Billy Napier stealing some of the "Secret Sauce" at Spurrier's Gridiron Grille

Photo courtesy of Spurrier's Gridiron Grille

“I’m just making fun of Billy Napier as an outsider coming in from Louisiana and bringing a lot of the Nick Saban stuff to Gainesville when you’ve already got the greatest coach in Florida history right there.”

By BUDDY MARTIN

GatorBaitMedia.com Editor

There is this myth among some college football illuminati that a special sauce recipe can be passed on from one coach to another. It’s not necessarily true. Just like the Italian grandmothers, coaches don’t always share those secrets. Besides, knowledge doesn’t always beget wisdom, which must be learned and not taught.

And even if you can copy something, you can’t always successfully emulate it.

I bring that up because of an incident that happened the other day when an agitator accused Billy Napier of snubbing Steve Spurrier and neglecting an opportunity to seek the advice from a Hall of Famer. As if the HBC had the nuclear codes that could be shared simply for the asking.

As we know, Spurrier had a knack for designing and calling ball plays brilliantly -- and at just the right time -- as we can see from the evidence in the trophy case. You can even observe the sketchings of some of those plays on the wallpaper in the men’s room at Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille – which Mike Griffith was quick to suggest on the Paul Finebaum Show that the new Gator coach should do. More like goading than suggesting.

“I’m glad he (Billy Napier) finally got Steve Spurrier’s phone number and decided to include him,” said the gas-lighting Griffith of Dawg Nation. Then explaining, “I’m just making fun of Billy Napier as an outsider coming in from Louisiana and bringing a lot of the Nick Saban stuff to Gainesville when you’ve already got the greatest coach in Florida history right there.”

Well, check the above photo, Mike. It would seem to indicate Billy Napier is way ahead of you.

While all of us would agree that the HBC would make a wonderful mentor for Napier – hey, Spurrier’s offensive genius changed the game of college football – it’s highly improbable that the new 42-year-old Gator coach will be running his game plan past the guy down the hall.

Griffith, who covers Georgia -- some would say he's virtually imbedded with Kirby Smart’s program -- was very transparent in his motive. No doubt in the future, every time Georgia beats Florida – which may be far too frequent for Gator fans in this Kirby Smart era -- the Dawg Nation writer will admonish Napier for not consulting Spurrier’s playbook.

BTW, Griffith is also the writer who insists on referring to Florida’s program as being armed with a “Nick Saban Starter Kit.” (A slap in the face of Napier.) He even went to the extreme of suggesting that Napier look at the HBC ball play sketches on the bathroom of Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille. (Which as you see, he already has done!)

All that rhetoric aside, and as much as we all respect Spurrier’s football acumen, we could see through Griffith’s attempt to patronize the HBC and set him up as a straw man to be weaponized against Napier.

So I decided to call up and ask Spurrier about his relationship with the new head coach.

“You can tell Mike Griffith,” Spurrier told me, “that I don’t have anything to do with coaching football. Coach Napier has a good plan and doesn’t have to ask me. Just as I didn’t ask Coach (Ray) Graves when I was at Florida.”

Spurrier showing former Gator Head Ball Coach Doug Dickey the "writing on the wall."

Photo courtesy of Spurrier's Gridiron Grille

Furthermore, as for “copying” somebody else’s playbook, Spurrier said that almost never works. “It’s something I read in the book by Sun Tzu (the Art of War). Go ahead and try to duplicate other people do, but good luck in trying to execute the plan.”

It's not that Spurrier was being arrogant, that’s just what is meant by “Secret Sauce.” The Plan is one thing, The Method is another. Successful play calling was almost sleight of hand by Spurrier. Ever since he was a young sophomore at Florida, calling his own plays, Spurrier put his own stamp on it, quite often improvising in mid-play.

Anyway, if Spurrier was still calling ball plays, it wouldn’t be the Fun’NGun.

“I don’t think I’d run four wideouts,” he confessed. “We’d play more under center. Run an occasional jet sweep.” In other words, the bathroom wallpaper wouldn’t be the same.

Actually, Spurrier says he’s talked very little strategy with Napier. But he likes what he’s heard. Also for the record, Spurrier DOES have Napier’s number and they sometimes converse, but not much about ball and not often, since Billy has been on the move a lot lately.

We don’t know much about Napier’s coaching yet, but we like what we see and here. So does the HBC.

“I notice his car is gone a lot when I pull in to work,” said Spurrier. “So that means he’s out there on the road a lot, recruiting and so forth.”

Indeed, Napier has been making the rounds on the rubber chicken circuit, north to Atlanta, south to Fort Lauderdale and points in between.

He’s playing to large, curious Gator crowds who want to press the flesh and hopefully pick up a good vibe. His message is resonating without making solicitous comments. They seem to love hearing about his plans. He also looks like, sounds like and IS a family man. Furthermore, he’s telling people that his confidence in the job is trending upward.

"I've got more confidence and conviction about what can be done here than ever before," he told Gators in Atlanta.

In this volatile world of college football where things are changing by the minute, Napier has plenty to keep up with when it comes to transfer portals and NIL deals. At the same time, he’s administering a massive support staff.

There is no official head coach of Napier’s Army, but one inside source estimated it totals 114! That must include everybody from the grounds crew to the Uber drivers.

At least so far, Napier isn’t embroiled in a screaming match with a fellow coach, or busy bailing players out of jail at midnight. He seems to be embracing the other challenges.

Them's got to be fighting words there, Coach Saban (Photo courtesy Steve Spurrier)

Which is not the case with Nick Saban, Jimbo Fisher and Deion Sanders. Basically, Alabama’s coach accused Texas A&M’s coach and Jackson State’s coach of cheating.

You knew it was coming one day and Nick just decided to light it up now with the accusation that Jimbo “bought every player” in his 2022 recruiting class. Then he ripped Deion for “paying one player a million dollars last season.”

As a former Saban staff member who claims to have learned more football in Tuscaloosa than all his other years, it will be interesting to see what Napier's take will be on Nick's inflammatory comments. One thing so far Billy hasn’t done is get into hissing a match with another coach. You think he might? I don’t know, maybe he can take the advice of Mike Griffith on that one and go call the Head Ball Coach.