The No. 1 thing that everyone thought former Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier was that he should have rescinded play calling. He’s finally willing to admit that.

“I think that I probably was a little stubborn,” Napier told Rivals’ Wilson Alexander. I think that took away from the level of detail that I had provided in a lot of those areas in the past.”

If Napier had hired a real offensive coordinator, like Buster Faulkner last season, things might have turned out differently. The Gators likely finish stronger than 3-4 to start the 2025 season, and, much to the chagrin of the fanbase, Napier could still be in Gainesville.

Billy Napier was in over his head

It wasn’t just the issues with his play calling, Napier struggled in other areas. He had just one top-10 recruiting class in Gainesville, whereas Sumrall already has one trending that way at No. 8 overall. One of the biggest aspects was NIL.

“I think that we really struggled to manage the workload that came with NIL, that came with the portal,” Napier told On3. “
I think in general there, the work continued to be loaded up in terms of my responsibility to our team and to our entire organization. So, for me, in general, if I can sum it up, I would say the ability to delegate and hire exceptional people in certain areas and hand over more responsibility to those guys and empower them to do their job at a high level. We didn’t do that as well as I would like us to do it. 
And ultimately, that was my responsibility.”

It’s fascinating how they struggled to manage the workload, especially considering the expansive staff that Napier hired. His massive staff included multiple “game changer” coordinators, which was meant to help gameday operations, but it didn’t do the exact thing that was intended. Instead, they were more disorganized.

It’s good that Napier has figured it out and has rescinded play calling, but everyone will always wonder how things could have been different if he had learned his lesson earlier.