Napier Year 2: It's All About the Buy-In

Billy Napier at 2023 SEC Football Media Days

UF coach Billy Napier at the big-room podium Wednesday during the Gators' session of SEC Football Media Days.

Napier Year 2: It's All About the Buy-In

Wednesday, July 19, 2023 | Football, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – If preseason football projections were based on fashion statements, Ricky Pearsall's red carpet-like ensemble Wednesday may have shot the Florida Gators up to the top of the Southeastern Conference. His black jacket was accessorized with a silk Christian Dior shirt, black Boss slacks, black Christian Lomboutin shoes (with red bottoms), all under a pair of stylish Versace shades.

"I really like the spiky shoes," remarked center and fifth-year teammate Kingsley Eguakun. "Ricky can dress, now."

He can catch footballs very well, also. Just like Eguakun can block and junior cornerback Jason Marshall Jr., can cover. Together, they represent some of UF's best players heading into the 2023 season, which is why they were invited to join Coach Billy Napier for the Gators' twirl through SEC Football Media Days at the Nashville Grand Hyatt. Napier had high praise for Pearsall, Eguakun and Marshall, remarking not just on their skills as players, but their academic and leadership quality.

Three good ones, for sure, but the number Napier and his players cited Wednesday (and clearly will be the team's overriding theme in 2023) was two.

That would be, as in Year 2. As in the progress the Gators have made in establishing the Napier system since Year 1 was put in the books with a 30-3 loss to Oregon State at Las Vegas Bowl last Dec. 17.

Four hours after Alabama coach Nick Saban answered questions about how he planned to get the Crimson Tide – with their 12 consecutive seasons of at least 11 wins, plus those six national championships) – back on the College Football Playoff track, there was Napier at the big-room podium talking about the continuing process (and progress) of the Florida program, as the Gators look to rebound from a 6-7 record that marked a second straight losing season (and just the fourth since 1980).

"In January, we went through an extensive, detailed review of Year 1 at Florida, as an entire organization. Each individual, each department. What worked, what didn't work. How do we adjust? How do we adapt? How do we evolve?" Napier said. "We started the process of getting our 2023 team ready to go."

Then came the offseason, followed by spring practice and now well into summer workouts, with training camp scheduled to begin July 30. When the Gators open the 2023 campaign Aug. 31 at reigning two-time Pac-12 champion Utah, they'll do so having undergone massive roster transition, with the overwhelming bulk of the new players having been with the team since January.

Some numbers:

93 percent of the roster, including 27 mid-year enrollees (17 incoming freshmen, 10 transfers), has been together and working out since the start of the spring semester seven months ago.
The transfers, who helped address key areas of need (quarterback, offensive line, edge and inside linebacker) arrived with more than a combined 10,000 snaps and 123 starts already on their resumes.
Staff turnover was minimal, as the Gators kept seven of their assistant coaches, though one of the newcomers, energetic and animated 29-year-old Austin Armstrong, by way of Southern Mississippi, will be the youngest defensive coordinator in the SEC.

"I'm excited about the compound effect of Year 2, the consistency of the process, the consistency in our systems," Napier said. "I think we have defined the expectations and renewed the accountability and there is a different level of discipline and a different level of detail as we work today."

A wrap on #SECMD23 ! 🐊 pic.twitter.com/s3ZOhmZoIc
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) July 20, 2023

If nothing else, the aura of this team – relative to the league, that is – feels different than a year ago. At Media Days in Atlanta last year, the story of the Gators was basically quarterback Anthony Richardson and how the success of the team almost certainly was on his shoulders. This despite Napier was in his first season after guiding University of Louisiana to a Sun Belt Conference championship.

The Gators' season, indeed, had a great deal to do with Richardson, whose uneven overall play (53.8 percent completions, 17 touchdowns, 9 interceptions) was mixed with spectacular individual moments that ultimately got him selected fourth overall in the NFL Draft. The team also was marred by historically bad play on the other side of the ball, as UF finished 97^th in total defense (411.0 yards per game), 100^th in rushing defense (175.2 ypg), 116^th in first downs allowed (22.7 pg) and 129^th in third-down defense percentage (49.7), which was third from last nationally.

Those factors were out there for all of Gator Nation to see.

Some other stuff wasn't.

"Last year there was a noise around the team. A lot of distractions," Marshall said. "Now that that's gone, everybody is bought in and together and the team is only improving."

Eguakun, who started all 13 games of Dan Mullen's final season and all 13 of Napier's first, expanded on that.

"Are you going to buy in? Are you going to do the right things? That's a personal choice and we did not always have that last year. I'm not going to mention names, obviously, but we had some guys who wanted to do their own thing – and that's not how football works," Eguakun said. "Now, everybody wants to be here. There are no wavering minds saying, 'What about this? What about that?' and wondering if the grass is greener on the other side. Sometimes it's not greener. The buy-in and belief in the program that Coach Napier is building is probably the biggest change from last year to this year."

Fifth-year senior center Kingsley Eguakun has started 26 consecutive games for the Gators.

Every bit as significant, though, has been the organization's adjustment to Name, Image and Likeness, which traces directly to the founding of Florida Victorious in the spring. That new partnership, combined with the opening last August of the $85 million Heavener Football Training Center has made for a powerful impact on the recruiting front and all kinds of momentum.

"I'm as OCD as they come," Napier said of his ability to self-evaluate. "We have a year of experience, then we adjust, adapt, evolve and make necessary changes."

Some of those changes happened organically, what with 22 players from the 2022 roster opting to transfer out – which speaks to buy-in at the time – leaving vacancies for UF's personnel folks to deal with. Last year, a trio of transfers (offensive guard O'Cyrus Torrence, tailback Montrell Johnson Jr. and Pearsall) were easily among the best players on the team and validated Napier's personnel acumen.

This season, at least half of the team's 10 transfers are expected to be in the mix for starting roles, including quarterback Graham Mertz (from Wisconsin) and defensive end Caleb Banks (Louisville). Some true freshman, like wideout Andy Jean, offensive lineman Knijeah Harris and defensive end T.J. Searcy, distinguished themselves enough in the spring to compete for starting jobs in their true freshman seasons.

All told, 70 percent of Florida's scholarship players are in their first or second season with the team, meaning seven of 10 are Napier guys. That means there's a healthy of mix of players who saw what went wrong last year, stuck it out and want to be part of fixing the culture.

Eventually, of course, success will be determined by wins and losses.

The Gators will have a new starting quarterback, with Napier saying a decision on either Mertz (with his 2,000 snaps and 32 starts as a Badger) or Jack Miller III (who started the Vegas Bowl) likely to come fairly early into camp. The running back room features Johnson and Trevor Etienne, a freshman standout last season, with Pearsall and a group of young wideouts on the outside, and a mostly rebuilt offensive line up front.

Defensively, Armstrong's first unit has nowhere to go but up, and with a bevy of young, promising underclassmen to build around.

"We're looking to turn heads," Marshall said.

Junior cornerback Jason Marshall Jr., a starter in every game during the 2022 season, during his player podium appearance Wednesday.

The SEC will announce its 2023 preseason predictions on Thursday. Don't expect the Gators to get too much love in an Eastern Division powered by defending SEC champ Georgia, which went 15-0 in capturing its second straight national title last season, followed by Tennessee, which finished 11-2 and beat UF for only the second time in 18 years. Not much is expected of Florida this season.

And Pearsall's fine outfits won't help. No matter.

"We understand the standard that Florida football has," Pearsall said.

More importantly, the Gators understand where they're headed and – even more importantly – how their second-year coach wants to get them there.

"We are not going to allow outside opinion create a narrative or define the reality for our 2023 team," Napier said, invoking a classic SEC Media Days moniker, courtesy of a UF classic. "The 'Head Ball Coach' and Gators legend Steve Spurrier said it best. 'This is talking season.' The games are coming and, in the meantime, this group will continue to work like it's been working."