Season One under Billy Napier had its ups and downs. While we didn’t know quite what to expect from our new football coach and this year’s Gators team, here are five things we got right and five we fumbled.

by Pat Dooley (BSJ ’76)

Just a while back I was celebrating my birthday. Once the fire department showed up to put out the blaze my candles caused, we went out for dinner. I ran into UF Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, who was having dinner with his lovely wife.

He was curious about something since I have a twice-a-week podcast, speak to the Gainesville Quarterback Club every week during football season and co-host a daily radio show with Gators sports announcer Jeff Cardozo on WRUF. (Nice retirement.)

“What have the callers been like?” he asked.

I thought about the Gator Nation for a moment before answering. These words came out of my mouth: “Interestingly patient.”

There were better words to use. “Eerily” or “surprisingly” or “strangely” or “comfortably” or, well, you get the point. Stricklin did too. (Since “Comfortably Numb” is my favorite Pink Floyd song I should have led with that.)

It’s been a long, strange trip for Gator football fans since Billy Napier was hired. High expectations went to another altitude after the Gators beat Utah in the opener. Then came crashing down a week later with a loss to Kentucky … then down some more after a narrow win against South Florida … then up after a close loss to Tennessee … then down, then up. It’s been a scary ride. Keep your arms inside the vehicle.

As Year One nears its end, we have a better feel for what the Gators have in their leader. There have been growing pains — as there always are with first-year coaches — but fans are liking where we’re headed.

Of course, this is college football. Nobody knows for sure where anything is headed. Imagine time-traveling from five years ago and needing someone to explain NIL (Name, Image and Likeness), the transfer portal and conference realignment?

Head … spinning … temperature … rising …

Sorry, I lost it there for a minute.

Anyway, here are five things we got right about Napier and five things we got wrong:

What we got right:

1. He’s got some Spurrier in him. Steve Spurrier was the perfect remedy to years of frustration: willing to take chances, honest to a fault, do whatever it takes to change the culture, no excuses. Napier has that same Southern charm that works on parents and media alike. No wonder he and the HBC are close.

2. He’ll fix the penalty issue. UF’s biggest problem last season was a penalty differential of more than 300 yards to the negative. Fixing it required discipline and execution. Both happened. Oh, there were the early penalties on kickoff returns, the weird 10 penalties for 39 yards at Texas A&M and the disaster in Nashville. But the team has consistently been in the Top 20 in the nation for fewest penalties and the differential has been on the plus-side all season.

3. He knows how to bring a team together. Sometimes, you can’t be sure what the difference is between coach speak and what a coach says in the locker room. This season could have turned upside down, but instead of enabling players Napier purged the roster of the ones who weren’t on the same page. The guys remaining get it. His message to them has resonated: “Play for the guy beside to you.”

4. Recruiting matters. Napier and his staff have been relentless. That’s showing up in the commitments and recruitment rankings. UF is getting in the door to places where the Gators weren’t a factor in the last few years, such as IMG Academy. You can’t measure recruiting by an individual athlete signed; it’s about the number of SEC-quality football players you bring in.

5. The devil is in the details. Binders that assistant AD for recruiting Katie Turner and other members of UF Athletics staff have are so detailed it wouldn’t be a surprise if the time allotted for trips to the water fountain were included in them. This is what Stricklin saw in Napier when he visited him in Lafayette, La. Every staff member has a purpose — days, hours and minutes accounted for. Recruiting trips are planned down to the families’ favorite beverages and routes to Spurrier’s restaurant.

What we got wrong:

1. We thought special teams would be way better. I get the reasons that hasn’t been the case. The fewer elite athletes you have, the harder to put together excellent special teams. We thought it would be an Urban Meyer-like bump in terms of blocking kicks and all that. It hasn’t happened. Not yet.

2. We expected a more balanced offense. That was the goal, but Napier had to learn about his team first. It became an old-school, run-the-football offense. Some of that was based on the quarterback. Once Napier felt comfortable with him, he cut starter Anthony Richardson loose.

3. We believed AR could win the Heisman. That didn’t work out. One game into the season, we thought the pairing of this freakish athlete and this analytically driven coach would be a perfect match. But Richardson scuffled to the point that early in the season fans were calling for his backup (always the most popular guy on the team). Richardson improved but is nowhere near anyone‘s Heisman ballot. Maybe next year.

4. We assumed Napier would be the calmest guy on the sideline. We wondered about his pulse because he was so cool and calm and collected. Then came Tennessee. Napier needed his “get-back guy” to pull him off the field and still got a penalty. The fire is there. He just saves it for when he needs it most.

5. We considered Napier’s game management skills to be impeccable. Gator fans — check that — ALL fans think they have a better call when the coach’s doesn’t work. We’ve seen the craziness of going for two in Knoxville and the shaky clock management. Remember, we’re still dealing with a coach who is relatively young (43) and in only his fifth year as a head coach. This part of his game is going to get better.

Sportswriter Pat Dooley (BSJ ’76) covered the Gators for The Gainesville Sun for 33 years until his retirement in 2020. He still shares his love for Gator sports through his podcast, “Another Dooley Noted,” and WRUF radio program, “Dooley’s Back 9.” His Gator Nation News column does not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Florida.