What grade does USA TODAY give UF’s Billy Napier after Year 1?
When Gators Wire graded Florida’s 2022 regular season, the lowest mark UF received was a C. The folks at USA TODAY weren’t as kind when reviewing Billy Napier‘s first season at the helm of the Florida Gators football program giving him a D+ at the conclusion of Year 1.
“Napier’s first team got to bowl play with six wins but lost every game that mattered, including rivalry matchups to Tennessee, LSU and Florida State. The Gators also managed to lose to Vanderbilt, which would be enough alone to drop Napier a full letter grade.”
Harsh. But fair.
Napier and the Gators did drop three major rivalry games and the Vanderbilt loss is inexcusable. Losing to a Kentucky team that appeared very beatable by the end of the season is also a fairly large blemish for UF. No one is blaming Napier for the Georgia loss, but the rest of Florida’s Ls are fair game.
Now, it should be noted that there are greater expectations for a coach taking over an SEC program than there are in most other conferences. Still, Brian Kelly led LSU to an SEC Championship game in Year 1, so 6-6 isn’t really excusable. There is something to be said about the state of each program when their prior coaches left town.
Florida had been subpar in the recruiting game for years under Dan Mullen, and LSU had a recruiting monster in Ed Orgeron at the helm. That’s not to say that Kelly had a more talented group to turn things around with, but it might be the determining factor between a Year 1 turnaround (LSU) and a Year 2 turnaround (Florida).
Napier is a good coach. His successor at Louisiana-Lafayette was unable to lead the Ragin’ Cajuns to another conference championship game and they went 6-6 as well. It may take a while for the new skipper to get a group of his guys on the field, but once that happens, things should get a lot better for Florida.
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