Breaking: Napier to remain play caller, believes in process

[tapsgator]

www.gatorcountry.com/feature/napier-remains-play-caller-believes-in-current-process/


I'm out of words at this point. He's making it hard to even root for him. Not that he's a bad guy, he just seems completely full of shit even though he doesn't mean to be.

[g8rfan]

The thing is, he’s convinced he’s right. I think he lacks self awareness. Being stubborn is not a good leadership quality. The my way or the highway approach sucks in almost every application I can think of. The more he doubles down the less patient people are going to be with this whole thing. I think I’ve accepted that he’s not the guy.

[wahhappen]

I’ve also read a couple of interviews where he says things like “I get more questions when we lose than when we win.” The implication is that when we win the offense and special teams are running on all cylinders… this is troublesome and very reminiscent of the attitude the Yellow Toothed Shark Fucker had when he boasted about his “SEC East Titles.” As if these results with still shit performance are things worth bragging about.

[SoTxCaiman]

Let's not forget what it is we have here. This is a guy that got fired by Dabo, only to hook up with Saban, but then leave Saban to hook his wagon to the McElwain train.

From Wikipedia...........

Tommy Bowden resigned midseason after early season struggles that failed to meet high expectations, and Napier gave up his roles as RC and TE coach when he was named QB coach by newly appointed interim head coach Dabo Swinney. His new role also included assisting Swinney with the play calling duties for the remainder of the year. When Swinney was promoted from interim head coach to full-time head coach after the 2008 season, Napier was promoted to offensive coordinator while retaining his duties as QB coach. After a steep reduction in Clemson's offensive output led to Napier's termination at the end of the 2010 season. Within only a few weeks of being dismissed as OC at Clemson, Napier was contacted by Nick Saban from Alabama and offered a job as an offensive analyst. After spending the 2011 season as an analyst on Saban's staff, Napier earned a championship ring following Alabama's win over LSU in the BCS National Championship Game. As a result of his experience under Saban during the 2011 season as well as the time spent working closely with fellow Alabama assistant Jim McElwain, Napier was able to get back into hands-on coaching by following McElwain to Colorado State to become the QB coach and assistant head coach.

[SoTxCaiman]

This from the UF Athletics website..... this is not a good look. I can't help but look at this and see a man thinking, "which part of I said it will work did they not hear". I am afraid this man has picked his hilltop and the only thing left for him is to live or die. I wish him well, I truly do. Go Gators 🐊

[tapsgator]

Soooo, if you look at his resume things get a little clearer and more puzzling at the same time:

I'll leave out the playing career at Furman, he did some decent things and the early coaching GA type stuff

2005- Tommy Bowden hires him as TE Coach and Recruiting Coordinator, somewhat confusingly Dabo is listed as WR Coach and Recruiting Coordinator so I don't know why the disconnect but it doesn't really matter
2008- Dabo takes over promotes him to QB Coach, he shares play calling duties with Dabo (ie. Dabo is calling the plays with input)
2009- Dabo gets the full time gig, promotes Napier by adding OC to his name, maybe he called plays here? I don't know
2010- Dabo fires him after 6-6 with a big drop offensive drop off and hires Chad Morris, the two wind up turning things around quickly and winning championships
2011- He becomes one of Saban's faceless offensive analysts, he brought the real coaches infinitely more coffee than he did play calling, must make a good cup of Joe
2012- He follows McGoober (an OC/QB coach) to CSU and is named QB coach but not OC, no way in Hell he's calling plays
2013- Goes back to Bama to be WR Coach, again not close to the game planning, at least 3 people ahead of him, but at least someone brings him coffee
2016- OC at Arizona State under Graham who is a defensive guy by background. Graham gets fired after 2017 and Herm Edwards says Napier can stay on but he goes to Louisiana. ASU record for his 2 seasons is 12-13

So basically RDB has been a play-caller outside the Sunbelt for 4 seasons. The first time through he got fired by his mentor, the 2nd time the head coach got fired because he wasn't winning. I can see where his love of support staff comes from because that's how he broke through, but there's absolutely no rational reason for him to be clinging to the OC thing.

With the Armstrong hire and refusal to hire an OC or even promote within I think it's pretty obvious that he is scared of hiring his replacement. I think Armstrong is a good coach, but he was not remotely qualified to take the Florida DC job when you probably could have gotten Strong or TRob, and definitely could have gotten a name. Hell, Cory Raymond promotion would have made more sense unless he didn't want it. I think he's "playing scared" just like he coaches his QBs to do. Anthony Richardson probably has more designed runs in his first 3 NFL games than he had last year. Mertz is "taking care of the ball" and completing damn near 80% of his passes as we score 20 a game. Johnson has that Sunbelt pedigree and I guess maybe better ball security than Etienne? If he does it's because he gets tackled so much earlier. That one may be impossible to figure out.

[Rock Gator]

"We didn’t play well Saturday, but that doesn’t change my belief in what we do and how we do it,” Napier said. This is so Zookian, I almost had a stroke.
RG

[Mojave Gator]

I have said multiple times that Napier's statements give me Zook flashbacks. I didn't believe that anyone could match the excitable meathead when it came to ignorant statements, but Napier is certainly giving it a go. His similarities to the two worst Florida coaches in my lifetime (Zook and Muschamp) are staggering.