Billy Napier gives Florida fans a red flag while sounding just like Butch Jones
The Florida Gators escaped The Swamp on Saturday night with a 31-28 win against South Florida. But it wasn't pretty. Several miscues from South Florida — including a botched snap and a bad hold on a field goal attempt on the Bulls' final drive — clinched the win for the Gators. Anyone who watched the […]
The Florida Gators escaped The Swamp on Saturday night with a 31-28 win against South Florida.
But it wasn't pretty.
Several miscues from South Florida — including a botched snap and a bad hold on a field goal attempt on the Bulls' final drive — clinched the win for the Gators.
Anyone who watched the game likely came away with one general takeaway — Florida isn't a very good team.
Now, that could change. But for now, the Gators don't look well-coached.
If there's one thing we've learned over the last few years, it's that narrow wins against not-good teams — and South Florida, a team coming off a 2-10 season that lost by nearly 29 points at home to BYU in week one, isn't a good team — are usually a red flag.
When former Tennessee Vols head coach Butch Jones started barely winning games against clearly overmatched teams — like Ohio and South Carolina in 2015 and Appalachian State in 2016 — it was a sign that he wasn't cut out for the SEC.
After those wins, Jones was a bit prickly, telling reporters on multiple occasions that he would never apologize for winning.
Napier had that same energy after Florida's narrow win against South Florida, telling reporters that people don't understand what goes into winning and that he planned on celebrating the near loss.
Florida had the talent to blow out South Florida. Instead, they nearly lost to a clearly outmatched team.
Even Dan Mullen beat lesser opponents with ease in his first season in Gainesville (the Gators beat Colorado State 48-10 in 2018 for example). The fact that Napier is struggling early while talking about celebrating near-losses instead of being mad (like Nick Saban or Kirby Smart would be) should tell Florida fans all they need to know.
Napier might win some big games (just like Butch did at Tennessee), but ultimately this is going to end just like the Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, and Dan Mullen eras — with Florida looking for a new head coach.
Featured image via Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
