Other tidbits:
- He mentioned leveraging the new football facilities
- He emphasized academics and overall development
- He mentioned that he has a plan to take advantage of NIL for recruiting
- He did not go into details but he mentioned starting a new program called “Journeys”. I am not sure what that is.
One interesting story: his father was a high school football coach up in Georgia and after seeing Spurrier’s Gators in the 1990s he changed the school uniforms to look like the Florida Gators. He also calls himself a football junkie, so he is well aware of the culture here.
Fun fact: he coached against the Gators in the Swamp as an offensive analyst at Alabama in 2011.
Consider this a reply to “ALL of the above” here, PLUS assorted “other stuff” coming up “out there” regarding our latest hire:
My basic, “bottom LINE” take comes down (ESPECIALLY after some of the—albeit relative FEW—more negative comments turning up) to,
“OK—a lot of good and encouraging reactions, a few LESS-so...and then his actual arrival and first appearance at his first presser in Gainesville...
Now, all we can do, all I CAN DO now is wait and SEE...
Say ‘Welcome Billy, GO GATORS!’, and then, well, there is: We go from there!”
I mean, the man has credentials, sure seemed like he was our administration’s first choice, and he came in and SAID the “right things”.
Never mind stuff like that article and comments from some columnist out of Nashville, someone named “Zack Ragan” who says in a headlined article that “Napier LOST the First Press Conference as Florida Coach”, and goes on to elaborate as to how he did that in somehow not saying “the right things” about his recruiting approach...
I’ll say no more about that (the fool doesn’t DESERVE further detail or focus on his questionable, grasping-at-negative-straws effort to downgrade our new Coach AND the otherwise positive buzz out there), but the fact still remains: ANY such hire was going to come with “risks”—and THIS one, the fast-riser suddenly moving up from a certain level (Sun Belt) all the way up to the generally-accepted “toughest of them all” (ie. the SEC), was and IS gonna be a certain “gamble”, after all. No use denying it; might as well EMBRACE IT now (of at least TRY).
So “GO GATORS!”...and the trick now will be to walk the tightrope of patience AND vigilance between here and there. Let the results speak for themselves—but give the man, his staff and players the chance, the time and room to build something special here.
“Hope springs eternal”, obviously—so “LET IT RIDE!” now from HERE!
Far as I’m concerned:
Alright. This is who “we” (the people we PAY to evaluate such things) wanted, he’s here, he and his people appear to have the skills and attitude...As far as I’M concerned he said all the right things (and F*CK Zack Ragan, etc), so now we ALL hunker down and let them get TO it!
