Will Florida Gators football fans embrace Billy Napier’s offense?

Ask Billy Napier how he wants his Florida Gators to play, and he sounds like any other football coach.

Eliminate turnovers. Create explosive plays. Win the rushing battle. Play complementary football with offense, defense and special teams working together to win a game.

One issue: Napier isn’t any other football coach. He’s the coach of the Gators, where fans don’t just want to win. They want to win by lighting up the scoreboard, as Florida did with Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel, Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow.

“I love those days,” Napier said during the recent SEC spring meetings. “Give me a Wuerffel, five receivers that run 4.4 (seconds in the 40-yard dash), and let’s go play.”

Alas, barring a remarkable, immediate transformation by Graham Mertz or Jack Miller III, Napier does not have a Wuerffel on his roster. And his receiving corps looks pedestrian by SEC standards.

Napier’s first season doesn’t inspire much confidence that he’ll lead an offensive renaissance in Gainesville. UF had a top-five pick (Anthony Richardson) at quarterback and scored only 29.5 points per game — the second-worst figure in Napier’s eight seasons as a head coach or offensive coordinator.

It’s fair to wonder whether Billy Ball is compatible with the fanbase’s expectations. Napier thinks it is, once the talent level, schemes and organizational structure click.

“If we do those things … if we evaluate well, we recruit well, we get good quarterback play, we get extremely fast and explosive skill players and we’re winning the turnover battle and we’re winning the explosive battle — the points will add up, right?” Napier said.

They did at Napier’s last stop. His 2019 Ragin’ Cajuns ranked in the top 10 nationally in scoring (37.9 points per game), total offense (494.1 yards per game), yards per play (7.01) and plays from scrimmage that covered at least 10 yards (18.1 per game). Louisiana’s statistics regressed slightly the next year, but he still fielded a top-30 scoring offense (33.6 points per game).

Napier didn’t have a stable of Jacquez Greens and Reidel Anthonys on that roster, either. He did, however, have great running backs. His 2019 backfield had three players who have spent time in the NFL: Elijah Mitchell was the 49ers’ leading rusher in 2021, Raymond Calais was a Bucs’ seventh-round pick in 2020, and Trey Ragas has been with the Rams and Raiders. Together, they fueled the nation’s No. 6 rushing attack; Mitchell and Ragas led a top-25 run game the next year, too.

Napier appears to be building the Gators similarly. Florida’s offensive strengths last year were a solid offensive line and a pair of talented running backs, Montrell Johnson and Trevor Etienne. That fits one of Napier’s stated offensive goals, winning the ground game.

Will that be enough to win over Florida supporters?

The question is relevant because of the unique nature of this fan base. Jim McElwain won the SEC East in each of his first two seasons but was chewed up in Year 3 partially because of fans’ frustrations with his ugly offenses. His successor, Dan Mullen, knew from his time as UF’s offensive coordinator that victories weren’t always enough. During his first spring as head coach, he reminisced about how fans reacted if the team hadn’t scored four touchdowns by halftime.

“There were people telling me I was No. 1,” Mullen said. “Different fingers.”

Those fingers waved goodbye to him in 2021 because his entertaining offenses couldn’t overshadow a historically bad defense and subpar recruiting.

The last point is key. Though Napier developed overlooked prospects into Sun Belt standouts at Louisiana — lightly recruited quarterback Levi Lewis threw a school-record 74 passing touchdowns under Napier — he’ll need more than three-star recruits to put up 40 points per game or win titles in the SEC. He is starting to win the recruiting battles necessary to make that happen.

The Gators’ 2023 class featured three blue-chip receivers, including speedsters Aidan Mizell and Andy Jean. Florida has non-binding oral commitments from five-star quarterback DJ Lagway, one of the nation’s top tight ends (Amir Jackson) and a pair of four-star receivers (IMG Academy’s Jerrae Hawkins and Carrollwood Day’s Izaiah Williams).

Napier’s rushing history suggests his Gators will probably never be as wide open as Spurrier’s Fun ‘n’ Gun. But he has shown that Billy Ball can pile on points in a differently entertaining fashion. One Florida fans can probably embrace — as long as the wins come, too.

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