Billy Napier is “detail oriented”. Details cost Florida Football a chance at winning.
When Billy Napier was first introduced as the head coach of Florida Football, we were sold a narrative of how detail-oriented the Gators were going to be compared to the previous regime. We wanted to believe that things would be different and the operation on the field would be sharp; all that was needed was the talent to catch up.
Make no mistake about it: Napier’s lack of attention to detail has once again cost the Florida Gators a win.
Tennessee begged and pleaded for Florida to win this game, and Napier looked Josh Heupel dead in the eye and said, “Look, you can have it.”
Three times in the first half, Florida made mind-numbing choices that led to the Gators walking away with zero points.
The first was on a 4th and 1 on a DJ Lagway led drive. Conventional wisdom would say to let Lagway sneak the ball forward since he is 238 pound
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Nope
Shotgun, jet sweep to Tre Wilson, tackle in the backfield, cue shot of Napier stunned that Tennessee watches film.
The second was when Florida got down to the one-yard line itself. This was a Graham Mertz-led drive, and once again, rather than let his 238-pound QB sneak the ball in, Napier opted for his QB, who is 30 pounds lighter, to try and sneak it in.
But the most egregious of sins was the sequence at the end of the half. With the ball on the 15 and no timeouts, Mertz got sacked. This was unfortunate but Florida still had over 20 seconds to trot out the field goal unit to at least get three points as time expired.
Trey Smack put the ball between the uprights, except there was one problem.
Florida trotted out 12 players on the field and left with zero points due to a ten-second runoff.
Flip any of these moments, and Billy Napier walks away from Knoxville with a victory on the road against a top-ten opponent.
But the man who claims to care so much about details and following a process once against allowed details to get in the way of a victory.
Billy Napier is now 14-17 as head coach of the Florida Gators.
