Kirby Smart defends allowing Billy Napier to attend Georgia practice

Nearly a month after being fired in the midst of his fourth season in Gainesville, former Florida head coach Billy Napier was spotted in enemy territory Tuesday while attending Georgia’s football practice in Athens, according to a report from UGASports’ Anthony Dasher.

Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart confirmed Napier’s presence at Tuesday’s practice during Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Teleconference, and explained it was merely a friendly visit from an old friend. Napier was fired Oct. 19 following a 3-4 start to the season and two weeks ahead of the Gators’ annual rivalry game vs. Georgia, which the fifth-ranked Bulldogs won 24-20 in Jacksonville on Nov. 1.

“Billy’s a good friend of mine, we coached together (at Alabama) for years, I’ve known him (a long time),” Smart said Wednesday. “People don’t understand relationships between coaches. Coaches have a brotherhood and fraternity together, and his dad was good friends with my dad, his dad was really good friends with (UGA offensive coordinator Mike) Bobo, and we all grew up in the state of Georgia with our fathers coaching high school football, were real respected people, and he’s been a friend for a long time. So he dropped by (Tuesday’s practice), yeah, but that was really it.”

As Smart pointed out, Napier grew up in Chatsworth, Ga., where he played quarterback for his late father, Bill Napier, who was a beloved longtime head coach at Murray County High (1991-2006) before passing away from ALS in 2017. Smart also lost his father, Sonny Smart, following complications from hip surgery in early January after a fall in New Orleans ahead of the Bulldogs’ Sugar Bowl quarterfinal appearance in the last season’s College Football Playoffs.

Smart and Napier also crossed paths as college assistants while working under former Alabama head coach Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa. Prior to returning to his alma mater as head coach in 2016, Smart spent nine years serving as Saban’s defensive coordinator (2007-15). During that time, Napier was hired as an offensive analyst in 2011 and later served as the Crimson Tide’s receivers coach between 2013-16.

Napier’s appearance Tuesday comes at an interesting time as No. 5 Georgia (8-1, 6-1 SEC) prepares to host No. 10 Texas (7-2, 4-1 SEC) in Athens on Saturday (7:30 pm ET, ABC). Napier’s final win as Florida’s head coach came in a 29-21 upset of the then-No. 9 ranked Longhorns in Gainesville on Oct. 4. Of course, whether