Defining expectations. Not-so-great forecast for Gators doesn't bother Napier | Whitley

It’s never a good sign when the nicest thing you can say about a football team is how great its academics are. But that’s what was on Greg Sankey’s note cards as he introduced Billy Napier on Wednesday.

Florida had 62 players on the SEC Academic Honor Roll last year, the commissioner noted. The team’s spring semester GPA was a robust 3.3.

“And doesn’t Billy look great today in that light-blue suit?” Sankey said.

Not really, though Napier did look dapper as he took the podium at SEC Media Days. This week is the official start of talking season, though yakking about college football is a year-round activity in the South.

If you’ve been talking, listening, watching and reading about the Gators, you know why Sankey highlighted their off-field accomplishments. You also know that a lot of people don’t think the script is going to change much this year.

That’s just fine with Napier.

“One of the things we’re not going to do with our team,” he said, “is we’re not going to allow outside opinions or a created narrative to define the reality of the 2023 season.”

Actually, Napier has got to love the narrative. It says UF has less chance of making the College Football Playoffs than Kanye West does of winning the 2024 presidential race. Seriously, bookies currently give West at 0.5% chance of being sworn in as our 47th president.

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ESPN’s FPI Index gives Florida an 0.2% shot at making the playoffs. ESPN’s SP+ ratings predict UF will be the No. 7 team in the SEC, which is about as high as it gets for the Gators.

247Sports poll says Florida will be the league’s 10^th-best team. The Athletic predicts a 5.5-win season. DraftKings concurs.

Talking season is also rich with pseudo polls and personnel rankings. When it comes to coaches, CBS and On3 both tab Napier the 11^th-best coach in the SEC. No doubt, it’s an A-List coaching league. But it must sting Napier a little to be ranked behind Hugh Freeze.

If it does, you’d never be able to tell. Napier will maintain the pleasant, business-like demeanor that was on full display Wednesday in Nashville.

But he’s a football coach. All who’ve come to the podium this week talked to some extent about how much NIL and the transfer portal have transformed their profession.

One thing will never change. Coaches love it when their team is told it stinks.

Kirby Smart devoted countless hours last season telling his players they weren’t getting the respect they deserved as defending national champs. He’ll try it again this year, despite the Bulldogs being ranked No. 1.

Napier probably has six volunteer grad assistants whose sole duty is to collect negative reviews on the Gators. They haven’t had to look hard this summer.

Of course, all that bulletin board material won’t matter if the Gators really are as stinky as people say. In talking season, you are free to make any case you choose.

Quarterback Graham Mertz is a Big Ten washout at best. The defense will still lead the league in missed assignments. The schedule’s a killer.

Or, Mertz will excel in UF’s run-centric offense. Austin Armstrong is a defensive wunderkind. UF’s win total will be closer to 8.5 than 5.5.

That final number will matter. Florida hasn’t had three straight losing seasons since just after World War II. If Paul Finebaum had been around, he would have dubbed Raymond Wolf “Coach Hot Seat.”

As much as hot-seat fans hate to hear it, this year’s record won’t make or break Napier. He (and more importantly, Scott Stricklin) is gauging progress by less tangible things. Like culture change, recruiting inroads and other aspects that take time to manifest themselves.

“I’m excited about the compound effect of Year 2. The consistency in process, the consistency in our system,” Napier said. “I think we’ve defined expectations. We’ve renewed accountability and there’s a different level of discipline. There’s a different level of detail.”

If he’s still working on those things in Year 4, we’ve got problems. But for now, Napier can stand up at SEC Media Day talk more Big Picture than immediate returns.

“Gator legend Steve Spurrier said it best when he said this is talking season,” he said. “The games are coming up.”

He wants people to keep the Gator narrative going. The more they do, the better chance that Sankey will have more to talk about next year than Florida's fine academic achievements.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gloomy forecasts at Florida don't bother Napier during SEC Media Days