Billy Napier calls roster management a 'big Jigsaw Puzzle'

Florida head coach Billy Napier is no stranger to massive roster turnover. In fact, he dealt with it this past summer when he signed on with the Gators. Every year, programs are going to have a number of guys transferring in and out, especially after firing the coach. Just part of the game now, which Napier understands. He was able to find players from all sorts of avenues at Louisiana, and it’s a big reason why he had such success at a smaller school.

Now at Florida, Napier is gearing up to do the same this offseason. He says he wants to squeeze everything he can out of the roster space.

“Yeah, I think it’s something I think about every day, you know. Because I think you’re always trying to take that wet towel and get every single drop you can get out of it, right,” Napier said when asked about roster management. “So we get 85 scholarship players. We’re trending towards having 50 walk-ons, you know. We’re not quite there yet. But in that perfect world we’ve got 135 players. And we want each one of those to be the best they can be, right. So it’s a big jigsaw puzzle.”

Of course, when he arrived in Gainesville, a lot of roster reconstruction was required. But he’s used to building on the fly.

“Certainly when you takeover a program there’s a lot more that comes with that. So it’s a big problem that is very fluid, and certainly at this time of the year in today’s era even more than ever, right. So, a lot a lot of variables that contribute to that. And I would tell you that I think it was one of the reasons we had success at the previous stop. We worked really hard at that component. There’s a lot of rules, a lot of things that contribute to that.”

“We’ve got lots of ways that we keep up with it. We’ve got a very systematic approach. But it’s something that we’ve refined. I mean, that’s one of the great things about those jobs, those G5 jobs. I mean, you got to become a expert in that area. It’ll be beneficial for us.”

Billy Napier isn’t a first-time head coach. He had to grind his way through small conference coaching jobs before getting his big break at Florida. He’s familiar with exactly how to build a roster and maximize the talent. This offseason, he’ll try to do the same with the Gators.