Billy Napier has never publicly indicated he'd like to give up play-calling but, following a second consecutive losing season at Florida, many people assumed he would heading into a critical Year 3.
In a podcast with Florida's play-by-play voice Sean Kelley, Napier confirmed he'd like to continue calling plays.
“Yeah, I do,” Napier said, via GatorsOnline. “I think that, big picture wise, we’re taking the group of people that we have there and we’re trying to develop some people, groom some people. We’ve done a ton of work in the offseason to kind of evaluate that in terms of what that looks like.
“I think down the stretch we played pretty good offense. We created a bunch of explosive plays. We scored points. I think we’ve got a quarterback that’s returning in the same system. I think ultimately for me, it’s about all of these other areas being taken care of so that I can focus and do my best for the team in that regard.”
Florida finished the season ninth in the SEC at 28.4 points per game, although that number comes with an asterisk. The Gators averaged just 19 points per game over their first four games against FBS competition (they scored 49 in a win over McNeese), but were putting things together before an injury to starting quarterback Graham Mertz.
The Gators averaged 33.5 points over a 6-game stretch that ended with Mertz's injury.
That injury kept Mertz out of their season finale against Florida State, a 24-15 loss that kept UF out of a bowl game.
However, as indicated above, Napier identified 35-year-old tight ends coach Russ Callaway as someone he's grooming to take over the play-calling sheet.
The son of former UAB head coach Neil Callaway, Russ Callaway previously spent two seasons as the offensive coordinator at Samford and joined Florida's staff in 2022 as a defensive intern before moving to tight ends last season.
“I’ve worked closely with him for a year,” Napier said. “I think ultimately, he’s a guy that obviously is going to acquire more responsibility. How we define that, you know, I think we’ll work our way through that. Ultimately, Russ is a heck of a young coach.
“And much like me, he’s worked on defense in the past as a young coach, he’s called plays at different levels, played quarterback, has the leadership components, has the respect of the players. So, Russ is a guy that we certainly are excited about. And you know, he definitely in the future will require more responsibility.”
Realistically, the only way Callaway would take over play-calling is if things are going good enough that Napier feels comfortable enough to hand the sheet over, or if things are going so poorly that Napier feels like he has no other choice. For everyone in Gainesville's sake, here's hoping it's the former.
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