My criteria is rather simple: record and championships. Unless Napier wins 10+ games a season for 6 years he will not match Dan Mullen’s winning percentage, which is behind championship coaches Urban Meyer and Steve Spurrier. Granted, these numbers do not tell the story of Urban Meyer quitting on the 2009 Gators only to come back in a zombie state, or UAA getting complacent with football investments since Spurrier’s days.
- Meyer was 65–15 (81.25%) with two national championships.
- Spurrier was 122–27–1 (81.88%) with one national championship. He is my personal favorite as coach and restaurant owner.
- Mullen was 34–15 (69.39%). I wish he could have worked out. His record at Florida was 29-9 before he seemingly gave up.
- Zook was 23–14 (62.16%). One thing in his favor is that he never had a losing season.
- McElwain was 22–12 (64.71%). Between the shark humping, the Claribelle QB dog arrogance, the Will Grier situation, the strength and conditioning program, plus his handling of racism at the end (which I happened to see firsthand) I really disliked Mac for a long time. I dropped him below Zook for the reasons above plus the losing season.
- Muschamp was 28–21 (57.14%). I debated putting him below McElwain just for losing to Georgia Southern irrespective of winning percentage. I liked him at first, but his sideline temper tantrums became annoying.
- Napier is 11–14 (44.00%). He seems to be a nice guy with a plan that works better on paper than in the real world. He would need to go undefeated in the 2024 regular season just to match Zook’s record at UF. If he makes it to 2025 he would need to go undefeated in the regular season to beat Mullen’s winning percentage. Even if he went undefeated three years in a row he would not match Spurrier’s or Meyer’s winning percentage.