Billy Napier gets emotional talking about the impact his dad had on his life, career

More often than not, parents have a significant impact on the lives of their children. That’s certainly the case with new Florida head coach Billy Napier and his father, Bill. With Bill being a longtime high school football coach in Georgia, Billy wanted to grow up and be just like his dad – and he’s done just that.

A Chatsworth, Georgia native, Napier played quarterback at Furman from 1999-2002 before getting into coaching in 2003 as a graduate assistant at Clemson. From there, Napier had coaching stops at South Carolina State (2005), Clemson again (2006-10), Alabama (2011), Colorado State (2012), Alabama again (2013-17) and Arizona State (2017) before becoming the head coach at Louisiana in 2018 and staying until 2021.

Now the head coach at Florida, Napier has worked his way up the coaching ladder and has earned himself a Power Five job in the prestigious Southeastern Conference. He’s learned quite a bit over the years from all of his coaching stops, but it’s his late father that taught him most of what he knows – not just about football, but life in general.

“My dad died from ALS, right? I think that his ability to handle and manage that with impeccable character. He didn’t flinch,” Napier said during his introductory press conference at Florida. “The impressive thing was that his foundation was his faith, so the example he set for not only me – heck, he inspired a lot of people – I think that changed my approach. I think it made me a better husband, it made me a better father … certainly made me a better coach. I think that kind of changed my perspective a little bit and really become player focused from that point on.

“He taught me life’s about people, and I think we play a great game – football’s a great game – and it’s a game of people and about people.”

Bill Napier was diagnosed with ALS – or Lou Gehrig’s disease – in 2013 and passed away in 2017. He was 60 years old.

After successful run at Louisiana, Napier takes over at Florida

Billy Napier had a highly successful run as Louisiana’s head coach from 2018-21, leading the Ragin’ Cajuns to 40 wins and just 12 losses. He led the program to a Sun Belt Conference championship this season and won two bowl games.

Now at Florida with a seven-year, $51.8 million contract, Napier is tasked with repairing a Gators’ program that went just 6-6 during the 2021 regular season and fired former head coach Dan Mullen as a result.