Gators head coach Billy Napier gets a hug from younger brother Kurt as their mom, Pam, looks on after Napier's winning debut as UF's head coach. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
Hometown Hero: Gators Coach Billy Napier's Debut — and His Late Father's Memory — Talk of Town
Friday, September 9, 2022 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
CHATSWORTH, Ga. — The drive is so short that there was no need to reach for the car keys. They usually just walked the easy path here from the downtown First Baptist Church to the Village Cafeteria on Sunday mornings.
The routine was more like a ritual for the Napier clan, the town's First Family of Football. Rain or shine, Sunday mornings meant a trip to church for Bill Napier, his wife, Pam, and their four kids: sons Billy, Matt and Kurt, and daughter Whitney. A welcome sign in Chatsworth, Ga., the hometown of Gators coach Billy Napier. (Chatsworth Photos: Isabella Marley/UAA Communications)
And as sure as the sun rising over nearby Fort Mountain, the Napiers walked out the front doors of the large church on West Market Street, turned left to walk across North Third Avenue – the main thoroughfare in town – and strolled another block before turning right and heading for the door of the Village Cafeteria.
"It's the spot-to-meet place,'' Kurt Napier said. "There's always a big line."
The Village Cafeteria is no longer open Sundays, not since the COVID-19 pandemic altered the business landscape. But Monday through Friday, the residents of this small town in northwest Georgia flock to the buffet line for Teresa Morrison's Southern-flavored homestyle meals.
Morrison has owned the Village Cafeteria for 36 years. She has known the Napiers and their kids since not long after she started frying up her famous chicken and dishing out the restaurant's hearty country-fried steak with gravy. One of the most popular restaurants in Chatsworth, Ga.
In those days, Gators head coach Billy Napier, who turned 43 in July, was already serious about football like his dad. Morrison recalls all of them being passionate about the game that defined the family in the eyes of locals.
"I've known them all since they were teeny-tiny,'' Morrison said this week while tending a busy lunch crowd. "His momma comes in every week, and his brother comes in two or three times a week. If [Billy's] in town, they all come here to eat."
Morrison first met Bill Napier, a local legend and former head coach at Murray County High, where all three boys played for their father. Soon, she got to know Pam and the kids as they made their regular visits.
Billy Napier leads the Gators onto the field in the season opener. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
The oldest Napier child, Billy, carried himself like his dad. He was respectful, polite and hard-working. Much of the conversation this week around the Village Cafeteria's tables has centered on what Napier and his Gators did in the season opener.
Florida's victory over then-No. 7 Utah earned Napier his first win at UF and vaulted the Gators into the AP Top 25 at No. 12 heading into Saturday night's game against No. 20 Kentucky.
Morrison couldn't be more delighted for the small-town boy on the big stage. You don't even have to ask her about Bill Napier. She fully grasps the Napier story that tugs at this town's heartstrings.
"Everybody is thrilled to death and knows that his daddy would be very happy,'' Morrison said.
*****
Settled slap-dab in the heart of the Southeastern Conference footprint, Chatsworth is a 415-mile drive from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. It's closer to SEC outposts Knoxville, Nashville, Lexington, Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Columbia, S.C., Oxford and Starkville.
But since last December, when Billy Napier took over the Gators, locals have noticed a severe uptick in interest in their orange-and-blue rivals. The reigning national champion Georgia Bulldogs are No. 1 and located 120 miles away, but the Gators have quickly ascended into second place.
"It was a front-page story for us,'' said Erik Green, sports editor of the Chatsworth Times. "They are about as well-known people in town as you can possibly imagine."
Most of those who either grew up with Billy or knew the family had kept tabs on his career. Napier left Chatsworth to play quarterback at Furman University. After playing, he embarked on a coaching career that stopped at FBS programs Clemson, Alabama and Arizona State before becoming a head coach for the first time at Louisiana in 2018.
When he was named head coach of the Gators, a buzz rippled through town for days. It was as if Chatsworth residents needed to recalibrate their equilibrium.
"I may not root for Florida, but I'll root for Billy,'' said Brandon Bond, who played for Bill Napier in high school and later served as one of his assistants.
Kurt Napier next to a plaque honoring his father at Murray County High.
Roger Rainey, another former assistant on Bill Napier's staff, is now principal at Northwest Elementary School in the area. He shared the same sentiment heard throughout Murray County these days.
"I'm not much of a Florida Gator follower until now,'' Rainey said. "I bleed red and black, but I'll be following Florida. I wish him the best of luck. We'll root for him every week but one."
Of course, the county's newfound backing of the Gators traces directly to Billy Napier and his father, the late Bill Napier, who died five years ago this month after a four-year battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).
The elder Napier spent more than 25 years coaching in the area, including 16 as head coach at Murray County High. When he passed away in September 2017, a standing-room-only crowd packed the pews at First Baptist Church for his memorial service.
"He's a legend," Rainey said. "He put us on the map and had us competing year-in and year-out for region championships."
Bill Napier is memorialized with a plaque adjacent to Murray Field, home of the Indians. He remains the school's all-time winningest coach and the architect of the most famous football family this town has ever known.
All three Napier boys are head coaches. Matt Napier is at LaGrange (Ga.) High, and Kurt Napier, the youngest son, is in his first season as head coach at Murray County High, named to the post 31 years after his father was hired to lead the program in 1991.
"It's a coach's family," said Rainey, whose son Cody grew up idolizing Billy and wore his No. 19 when he later played quarterback in high school. "His wife was very supportive. His sons were ball boys on the sideline. I can remember when I was in high school, Billy and Matt running around in the weight room and the fieldhouse."
There was little doubt about Billy's path by the time he got to high school. A memorial plaque honoring Bill Napier, the late father of Gators head coach Billy Napier.
"My dad is my greatest influence,'' Billy said. "I was able to observe him make a tremendous impact on young people. That's why I chose the profession."
Bond and Rainey gathered in a gym at Northwest Elementary to share one of their favorite Billy stories. Rainey was the receivers coach, and Bond a defensive assistant under Bill Napier at Murray County High.
Billy was at Furman by this time and would come home when the Paladins had a bye week. Often, he would come up to the press box where Rainey and Bond were and put on a pair of headsets during the game.
Meanwhile, Bill Napier was known for his no-nonsense approach on game day and in addition, served as the team's offensive coordinator. That never stopped young Billy from chiming in over the headsets. Despite his assistants suggesting a change to a play-call from time to time, Bill rarely took their advice. But it was different when Billy pointed something out to his dad.
"His dad was very football-minded, a genius,'' Bond said. "He would listen to Billy. He wouldn't listen to the rest of us. Sure enough, Bill would run it, and it would work. It was awesome."
Kurt Napier, six years younger than Billy, said the years his brother played at Furman are some of his favorite childhood memories. As soon as Murray County's Friday night games ended, the Napiers and their four kids would load into the car and head wherever the Paladins were playing.
Pam and Whitney loved the game as much as the men of the house, making Billy's rise in the profession a family affair. The Napiers gather each summer in Rosemary Beach in the Florida Panhandle for a family vacation.
It's a tradition that started while Bill was alive and has continued, growing in the years since to include wives and grandchildren. A memorial stone marking a tree at the Napier home to honor his late father.
While there to relax before the season kicks off, the nights inevitably end the same way.
"We all just love to sit around and talk ball and talk scheme. That's what we do at the house," Kurt said. "Billy is so detailed. He brings these three-inch binders full of information on how to run a program. I learned so much by listening to him and looking at his notebooks.
"I'm excited to see where it goes. I think he's ready for it. Everything that he's done leading up to this point, it just makes sense."
*****
The folks around Murray County chat about the Napier boys as if they were family. In the small town of about 5,000 residents, they have talked a lot this week about Napier's debut with the Gators.
Napier's family made the trip to The Swamp for his first game. There was no way Kurt was going to miss it. The morning after his Murray County team's game on Friday night, Kurt and 4-year-old daughter Reghan, who now considers the Gators her team, hopped into the car for the 6 ½-hour drive.
The home where Gators head coach Billy Napier grew up in Chatsworth, Ga.
All he had to mention was "Uncle Billy's game," and Reghan, who attended the Orange & Blue Game in the spring, was ready for a return engagement. Following Florida's 29-26 comeback win, a photographer snapped a keepsake picture as Kurt, holding Reghan, embraced his older brother. Pam is seen watching from off to the side.
Afterward, Kurt and Matt got a Heavener Football Training Center tour from Nancy Scarborough, Napier's executive assistant. Billy was already home when Kurt arrived to spend the night capping a long day for both.
"He was there, and we sat on the couch and watched TV together, just kind of decompressed from the night," Kurt said. "That was a great experience, to be at his first game.
"It was somewhat of a family reunion. This was the first week of school [in Murray County], so it's the first time seeing teachers and others you don't see over the summer, so everybody is just talking about the game and asking about our trip down."
It's a trip many from Chatsworth plan to make this season.
A retired football coach and principal in Murray County, Dan Harkleroad has known the Napier family for decades. He watched Billy grow up and transform into essentially a player-coach when he starred at quarterback for the Indians in the late 1990s.
Harkleroad watched last week's game with a smile, imagining Bill Napier doing the same. He watched a video of Napier's postgame press conference and speech to the team in the locker room.
It was as if he was watching Bill Napier.
"Reminds me of his dad straight down the line,'' Harkleroad said. "This whole town was upside down when they won. It couldn't happen to a better guy."
Roger Rainey, left, and Brandon Bond swap Napier stories. Both played for his father and served as assistant coaches under Bill Napier.
Green, the sports editor at the town's newspaper, covers Kurt's Murray County team. The Indians lost their starting quarterback in a preseason scrimmage and their backup early to injury in their last game. Kurt has a lot of work to get the program back to where his father had it before the county split into two primary high schools instead of one.
But Green watched what Billy did at Louisiana and what Matt has done at LaGrange. He figures that if anyone can do it, having the last name Napier is an excellent place to start.
"I think most people consider the Napiers to be sort of program resurrectors," Green said.
That's part of why Billy was hired at Florida. He is already ahead of the curve in many ways, much like those back home who remember him. They say he was destined to follow in his father's footsteps and have success doing it. Downtown Chatsworth, Ga.
The crowd at the Village Cafeteria has no doubt Napier is the right man for the job. After all, they know he learned from the best ever in their neck of the woods.
"He was a great coach, and his son has become a great coach,'' Morrison said.
Rainey agreed. He spent seven seasons on Bill Napier's staff, and despite drinking from a Georgia Bulldogs-themed thermal cup as he discusses Bill's oldest boy, Rainey expects the Gators to get their chomp back under Napier — with his father guiding the way.
"I'm sure he's looking down and shaking his head, 'Yep, that's what I wanted for him.' " Rainey said. "He would be so proud."
