Head coaches of major college football programs are highly-paid, powerful people. But when things start going wrong, they can become substitute teachers who have lost control of the class. The message falls on completely deaf ears, but the words are most definitely heard -- not to internalize, but to use as fodder for comedy. The class feels free to openly mock its teacher because they know consequences are fleeting: you're not going to be there tomorrow to hold them accountable.
That's the territory Florida's Billy Napier finds himself in after his team's 41-17 home loss to No. 19 Miami on Saturday. First, there was the whole whole water bottle thing after the game, and on Monday he went viral for this quote.
"If we can focus on those things and not necessarily what some guy in his basement is saying in rural Central Florida on social media, then we got a chance to get better."
The following quote makes it clear Napier isn't ducking criticism, even if it comes from a place that is at once oddly specific (not rural Eastern Florida? what about urban Central Florida?) and non-existent (Floridian houses don't have basements.)
“I think that’s the key, but sometimes you deserve criticism. And I think that’s one of those things I’d say I have no excuses. We gotta go get it fixed.”
Still, the quote took off. And speaking of Central Florida, UCF's collective The Kingdom started selling T-shirts repping Rural Central Florida. Their 4.5-ounce, 90 percent cotton/10 percent polyester shirts can be yours for the price of $24.99.
It's fitting that UCF is selling the shirts, because their Oct. 5 date in the Swamp now looms as a massive, and perhaps pivotal, date in Napier's fight to turn the ship around in Gainesville. He's now 11-15 overall at UF, but 1-3 against in-state schools: 0-2 against Florida State, 0-1 versus Miami, with the lone win coming 31-28 over South Florida back in 2022.
Florida gets Samford at home on Saturday before Texas A&M comes to town on Sept. 14. The Gators then visit Mississippi State on Sept. 21 before taking a week off to prepare for the Knights, who will arrive at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium with absolutely no fear of their state's flagship institution.
While the quote following the "rural Central Florida" line adds context that helps Napier, the passage preceding it should set off alarm bells for Florida fans. The 24-point home loss to Miami was bad enough on its own, but what made it worse was that Napier didn't see it coming. He insisted all offseason this team would be better, armed with anecdotes and statistics. Either Napier's not in a place to accurately judge Florida's competitiveness relative to the competition or, in the more charitable interpretation, Florida really is better, but just came out extremely flat and/or unprepared in the most important game yet of their head coach's tenure.
"A loss early can be a blessing if you don't waste it," Napier said. "One thing I can say is we have a group that's working hard. I do think that we have character. We've got to go to work on the football part. We have to become a more consistent team and execute better."
Yes, Mr. Napier, working on "the football part" is quite important.