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Greg McElroy: Florida at LSU is 'biggest game of Billy Napier's tenure'

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz13 hours agoNickSchultz_7
billy napier (1)
Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Following a home loss to USF last week, the pressure continues to ramp up around Billy Napier. The Florida coach is dealing with hot-seat chatter once again as the Gators face the tall task of taking on LSU in Baton Rouge on Saturday.

ESPN’s Greg McElroy will be on the call for the primetime affair. As he previewed the game, he called it the “biggest” of Napier’s tenure at UF.

If LSU wins, Napier will drop to 20-21 during his time at Florida as he goes through his fourth season with the program. McElroy said that’s not necessarily up to the standard fans in Gainesville expect, which is why the stakes are so high.

“It’s massive,” McElroy said of Saturday’s game. “Probably the biggest game of Billy Napier’s tenure. And not trying to embellish the circumstances. He’s 20-20. This game, if he loses, drops him below .500 as the Gator head coach and that’s just not the standard that’s expected.”

Greg McElroy saw ‘a lot of good’ in Florida’s USF film

But as he broke down the film of last week’s loss to USF, Greg McElroy said it might not have been as bad as fans thought. He saw plenty of good despite the late self-inflicted wounds down the stretch, and based on his conversations with the LSU staff in production meetings, the Tigers see Florida’s potential.

“The good news for Florida is if you look at last week’s game, the reaction after the fact was as if they were just a disaster. And then, I went back and watched the tape on Sunday and was like, hang on a second,” McElroy said. “There’s actually a lot of good here. So I think the perception of Florida is that they’re broken. This Florida team is far more dangerous right now than public perception, and I think LSU acknowledges that, too.

“In visiting with they’re coaches, they’re like, we’re going to get their best shot, so we’d better be ready to play because if we don’t play our A-game, we can easily get got in our home field where not many people have success against Brian Kelly in his tenure.”