Billy Napier named Sun Belt Coach of the Year
The Florida Gators’ new head coach will be arriving in Gainesville with some new hardware.
Billy Napier was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year on Thursday. This is the second time Napier has earned the award in his four seasons with Louisiana. He is the only coach in program history to pick up Coach of the Year honors twice in his career.
Napier guided the Ragin’ Cajuns to an 11-1 record and his team is currently undefeated in conference play. The Ragin’ Cajuns are 22-2 in the last three seasons.
Saturday’s conference championship game against Appalachian State represents the first opportunity for Napier to win an outright conference championship. The 2020 SBC Championship game was canceled due when Louisiana’s opponent, Coastal Carolina, was canceled due to COVID 19 cases in the Coastal program. The teams were named co-champions.
Napier is coaching the game in Louisiana on Saturday, December 4, before being formally introduced as the new Florida coach on Sunday, December 5. Napier penned a letter to Louisiana fans stating his desire to coach in the game and bring the school a championship. What does that mean for Florida’s future, as Napier builds a staff and begins to recruit for the Gators?
“I think the bowl game will be to-be-determined,” Napier said Monday. “There was no question regarding coaching in the conference championship. I mean, that was non-negotiable, and I think it’s also important for everyone to realize the commitment that we’ve made to the players here and the staff here to really kind of take a singular focus on trying to do the best job we can do for this team in our preparation this week.”
Napier has a busy week
Napier has been pulling double duty all week, preparing for the game by day and getting a staff together, as well as recruiting for Florida by night. Florida’s class is currently ranked 23rd by On3. Florida has 11 commitments but Napier has had contact with at least one Florida recruit, according to Corey Bender.
Napier will have his work cut out for him when he gets to Gainesville. With only 11 commitments in this recruiting cycle, the Gators need to hit the ground running on the recruiting trail.
Before they can do that, Napier needs to build a staff. Gators Online identified several candidates on the defensive side of the ball. Napier knows the importance of surrounding yourself with hard workers and good people.
“You’ve got to build strong communication within the building, coach to player, player to player, and player to coach. We’ve been fortunate here to hire some exceptional people, not only people that have great integrity and character but also who are very confident. Some of the best in the country at what they do,” Napier said in a press conference earlier this week. “So I think assembling a staff and certainly evaluating in recruiting and building a roster that not only has talent but also is made of the right intangibles. It’s one thing to collect talent. I think it’s another thing to build a team. I think that’s what we’ve focused on here, is building a team.”
