Georgia will show if Florida's Billy Napier is more Steve Spurrier or Will Muschamp | Opinion
Billy Napier doesn’t need a history lesson on “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.”
He grew up watching it.
Napier was born in Tennessee, but his family moved to Chatsworth, Georgia, when he was a tyke, and he was raised there.
"We all understand the history and tradition behind this game," Napier said ahead of Florida (4-3, 1-3 SEC) playing No. 1 Georgia (7-0, 4-0) on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET CBS) in Jacksonville, Florida.
And Napier should know this Florida-Georgia rivalry defines the direction of coaching tenures at these schools.
If he needs clarity, he can ask a certain Gainesville restaurant proprietor who just happens to be a former Gators coach.
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A visor-wearing, quick-witted, quarterback-friendly coach put Florida on the map.
Steve Spurrier took the hard-nosed SEC by storm with his Fun ‘N’ Gun offense that put defenses on their heels.
Spurrier also owned Georgia.
Georgia dominated the series before Spurrier’s arrival, but the Head Ball Coach put the Bulldogs in a kennel, bopped them on the nose and locked the door.
Spurrier went 11-1 at Florida against Georgia, the foe he considered the Gators’ chief SEC rival.
"Georgia, then Auburn," Spurrier told me before the season, as he assessed Florida’s top SEC rivals during his tenure.
Missing from that list is a Florida-Tennessee rivalry that emerged in the 1990s. They clashed for SEC East supremacy in a series that featured coaches with contrasting personalities. Florida’s quipster lorded over Vols statesman Phillip Fulmer.
The Gators also dominated LSU throughout Spurrier’s tenure. That rivalry didn’t heat up until after Spurrier’s exit coincided with the Tigers’ ascent as a bigger player in the SEC.
Of course, Florida and Florida State tussled as college football’s preeminent rivalry of the ‘90s.
But, at least in the SEC, Spurrier knew, the list began with Georgia.
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That Spurrier owned Ray Goff and Jim Donnan helped him become Florida’s greatest coach ever. Urban Meyer, too, quieted barking Dawgs fans.
Georgia regained control of the series after Meyer’s departure. The Bulldogs have won seven of the past 11, including four of the past five.
This series, more than the any other rivalry these programs have, defines the state of being for each program.
When Florida is rolling, it is beating Georgia. When Georgia is rolling, it is beating Florida.
Annual rivals will be reconfigured after Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC, but this rivalry isn’t going anywhere.
More than any other SEC game, this is the one Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin aims to preserve, while series against Tennessee and LSU may drop out of the annual spotlight.
"Georgia, obviously, would be one that’s important to us," Stricklin said before the season, "given the game being in Jacksonville and the history there. Other than that, I really don’t have a preference (on UF’s assigned rivals)."
Napier faces a list of chores he must check off to get Florida back on track. At the top of that list, though, should be one overarching goal: Catch Georgia.
Easier said than done.
Kirby Smart’s program is loaded with a depth of talent that can only be assembled by stacking quality recruiting class on top of quality recruiting class. Napier inherited a few talented pieces from his predecessor, Dan Mullen, but the Gators lacked quality depth, and that’s being exposed.
Interestingly, Napier profiles more as a Smart than a Spurrier. He’s a program builder. Or, at least he was at Louisiana. And he’s trying to implement a similar formula, with higher stakes and stiffer competition, at Florida.
If a new Spurrier exists in this conference, it’s either Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, with his wit and his bright offensive mind, or Tennessee’s Josh Heupel, with his quarterback-friendly system that took the league by storm and put the Vols back on stable footing at warp speed.
Napier’s method will be to recruit, develop and build. That’s how Smart achieved success at Georgia.
Will Muschamp and Mullen were felled, in part, by their performance in this rivalry. Spurrier’s dominance of Georgia helped exalt him.
The talent and depth disparity between these programs likely will become clear Saturday, and Florida will do well to cover the 21½-point spread.
Napier is tasked with closing the gap and ultimately surpassing Georgia, because although Florida’s rivalries with Tennessee and LSU may lose some luster in a bigger, reconfigured SEC, the “Cocktail Party” will remain an important proving ground.
Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Florida football vs Georgia rivalry will define Billy Napier, not Vols
