Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin welcomes head coach Billy Napier to the podium at Napier's introductory press conference on Dec. 5. (Photo: Isabella Marley/UAA Communications)
Gators AD Stricklin Took a Direct Route to Hire Napier
Monday, December 13, 2021 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — On the morning of Nov. 21, Dan Mullen was Florida's head coach, Billy Napier was Louisiana's head coach, and Scott Stricklin was 21 days into his sixth year as UF's athletic director.
The day turned into one of the most eventful of Stricklin's tenure.
Early in the day, Stricklin informed Mullen that he was making a change at the program's top. Once Mullen declined an offer to remain through the regular season, Stricklin named assistant Greg Knox as Florida's interim coach for the regular-season finale against Florida State and, by virtue of a win over the Seminoles six days later, the upcoming Gasparilla Bowl.
Meanwhile, following an afternoon press conference announcing Mullen's exit, Stricklin focused on the future. He had already started that process in his mind, whether it dealt with changes to Mullen's program or the potential of having to hire a new head coach.
By the time the sun dipped below the spidery live oaks that dot Florida's campus, Stricklin had a clear vision of the road ahead. The coaching carousel was about to start spinning, and Stricklin wanted to get a front-row ticket to college football's greatest offseason sideshow.
"That's when everything's going crazy," Stricklin said. "There was urgency, especially with Early Signing Day and everything else that we all have to deal with in the current environment. Really, the timing of it all was what kind of created the urgency, and then we just had done enough research to kind of know the direction."
The direction Stricklin headed is about 640 miles from Gainesville and home to the Ragin' Cajuns: Lafayette, La. That is where Napier turned heads the past four seasons, building Louisiana at Lafayette's football team into a nationally ranked program.
To gauge Napier's interest, Stricklin spoke with his agent, Jimmy Sexton, that night.
Napier was someone already on Stricklin and his administrative staff's radar. They had done their homework should a change be necessary.
"We had a list of probably 25 to 30 names and had whittled it down to probably nine that we wanted to make sure we had a lot of information on,'' Stricklin said. "And among those, there were probably four or five that were probably going to be the ones that we wanted to look at, and Billy was one of those. In assessing the landscape and where I thought things might be headed, and when – who checked the most boxes among those – Billy kind of rose to the top pretty quick."
The 42-year-old Napier had surfaced as a strong candidate for jobs at other Power 5 schools in recent years, including Southeastern Conference programs South Carolina, Auburn and Mississippi State, Stricklin's alma mater and where he served as AD before replacing Jeremy Foley in November 2016.
However, Napier remained at Louisiana and had won 38 of 50 games as a head coach the morning Stricklin woke up and decided to make a change at Florida. The on-field success captured Stricklin's attention, but his research on Napier went much deeper.
"What's that saying? You are not supposed to fall in love before you meet somebody," Stricklin said. "But I had done a ton of reference-checking before I ever met him. Not references that he gave me, but just people I knew who knew him or people who had come across him at some point.
"If he was what everyone was describing, I thought this was going to be the guy I would want to hire."
That is why Stricklin sought to set up a meeting as soon as possible.
He wanted to be able to look into Napier's eyes and read his body language as they spoke.
"First, it was suggested we do a Zoom," said Stricklin. "I said, 'I don't even want to interview him; I just want to come and talk to him. I just want to sit face to face. Give me an hour.' "
Napier, busy preparing his Louisiana team for its regular-season finale and the Sun Belt Conference Championship Game, agreed to a face-to-face meeting through his representatives.
On the evening of Nov. 23, Stricklin touched down in Lafayette and headed for the Napier home in a rental car. Stricklin arrived around 9 p.m. while Napier was still at the office, giving him time to chat with Napier's wife, Ali, as the couple's three children slept.
Napier got home around 9:30, and the men began a conversation that Stricklin knew he had to have if Napier was going to be Florida's next head coach.
"It ended up going longer than an hour,'' Stricklin said. "More like a couple. I just wanted to get in front of him and meet him and his wife. Normally, in the past, it would be three or four of us going to interview from the staff, but it was just me.
"I wanted everybody's input, and I was still leaning on our staff here, but I just wanted to make this as comfortable for Billy as possible and see if there was a connection there."
There was.
Gators head coach Billy Napier arrives to an enthusiastic welcome outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium the day he arrived in Gainesville. (Photo: Anissa Dimilta/UAA Communications)
Napier was attentive and genuinely interested in what Stricklin had to say. Stricklin took mental notes and gathered as much as he could to share with Florida's administrative staff. Both men understood why they were together in Napier's home without ever actually saying it.
"I've been fortunate to go through some of these processes in the past,'' Napier said. "Scott and his wife, Anne, they have been absolute professionals throughout this whole process."
Stricklin was optimistic when he got to his hotel room and into bed around midnight. They left the conversation open-ended with Thanksgiving in two days.
"It was almost like I wanted to go in and make sure, in the flesh, he matched what he was being described by all the other people and all the articles I had read,'' Stricklin said. "It didn't take long to realize, about this guy, I can see why everybody feels the way about him they do and why he has the reputation he has and why he's had the success he's had.
"Then, it was just a matter of letting him talk about his vision, his plan, how he goes about what he does. But I had talked to people who had coached with him. I had talked to people at other schools who had coached against him. I had talked to people who knew him when he was at Furman as a student-athlete. I talked to people who had officiated games he had been in, talked to people who were in games he coached in. At some point, I tried to start to find someone who could say something bad, and I never could find that person."
After spending the night in Lafayette, Stricklin woke up Wednesday and began a series of Zoom calls with his staff, and later Napier, that lasted over the next few days. Stricklin drove that day to Jackson, Miss., where he was born, to visit his parents, and then to Starkville, Miss., where he spent Thanksgiving with his wife Anne's parents.
One of those Zoom calls stands out for Stricklin. On the night of Nov. 24, Stricklin had to explain his excited reaction at one point. Gators guard Tyree Appleby had just hit a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to defeat Ohio State in the Fort Myers Tip-Off Classic championship game.
Sometimes an AD has to multi-task.
"We were in the middle of a conversation,'' Stricklin said.
Stricklin returned to Florida the day after Thanksgiving. Details remained to work out, but both Napier and Stricklin knew the significance of their chats.
As for the pivotal moment when Napier said "yes" to Florida, Stricklin said there wasn't one.
"He never really did. After that first face-to-face meeting, and we left, he said, 'let Ali and I talk, and you and I will keep talking. Thanks for coming. I'm really excited about this.' We did a Zoom the next night, and the Zoom was about his plan for Florida. He was asking questions, and we were asking questions. The conversations kept going where it was almost like, 'I think mentally, he's already taken the job.' It was just a matter of working out the contract piece. It was never, 'I accept.' It evolved to where every conversation he was putting Gator lenses on and looking at everything through Gator glasses."
Once the contract was finalized and signed on Sunday, Nov. 28, the Gators officially announced Napier as their new head coach later in the day.
During those extended conversations Stricklin had with others about Napier, he became more and more convinced Napier was the right person.
"Sometimes you go through a search, and you find somebody, and you go, 'man, I feel very fortunate this person is available right now and is interested in this job.' I feel like he checks so many boxes,'' Stricklin said. "The kind of person he brings into the program is really important to him. He measures twice and cuts once in that area. That's just the mark of someone who I think is wise. The fact that he has had other opportunities at big schools and showed patience tells me a lot.
