What Florida football coach Billy Napier had to say during NSD press conference
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- Florida Gators head football coach Billy Napier will continue calling offensive plays in the 2025 season.
- Napier believes maintaining offensive continuity will be beneficial for quarterback DJ Lagway’s development.
- The Gators are finalizing the hiring process for a director of football strategy and additional staff.
Florida football coach Billy Napier could have followed a trend of recent college football coaches and take play calling off of his plate going into the 2025 season.
Instead, Napier is going full steam into his fourth season as his own offensive coordinator with the Florida Gators.
“It’s what got me here,” Napier said. “It’s the way I … it’s how I became the head coach. It’s what’s helped us make progress and win in the past. I’m confident it will help us do that in the future.”
With Napier calling the plays, UF’s offense ranked 12th in the SEC and 66th nationally at 386.9 yards per game. But Florida showed promise late in the season with freshman quarterback DJ Lagway under center, averaging 28.8 points in its four-game win streak to close the 2024 season 8-5.
Lagway, the 2023 Gatorade High School player of the year, went 6-1 in his first season as a starter for UF, passing for 1,915 yards with 12 TDs to nine interceptions. Napier mentioned maintaining the continuity with Lagway as a reason he’s retaining play calling.
“Continuity in system I think is important, not only ― I think it helps to develop other players, and then certainly the quarterback position,” Napier said. “I think it’s the most important for the quarterback spot.”
There have been recent examples, though, where a coach giving up play calling has turned out to be fruitful. Last offseason, Ohio State coach Ryan Day ceded play calling duties, hiring Chip Kelly from UCLA to take over as offensive coordinator for the Buckeyes. With Kelly calling the plays, Ohio State won the CFP national title, its seventh in school history and first since 2014.
Napier said systems are in place for him to delegate some of the responsibilities of the offense to co-offensive coordinator Russ Callaway and analysts John Donovan and Ryan O’Hara, which gives him enough time to focus on his other head coaching duties.
“Russ did an exceptional job last year in a leadership role,” Napier said. “You know, running the unit meetings, being a huge ― from an organizational standpoint, installation, scripting, input on the game plan. He was in every one of those meetings. I thought John Donovan brought a lot to the table from the situational football, we kind of gave him some ownership in that area, and he really did a nice job.”
Florida football director of strategy search nearing conclusion
Napier said Florida is close to hiring a director of football strategy for the 2025 season.
“Obviously a very important position,” Napier said. “It really will be a department more than a position. You’ll see we’re going to hire multiple people. I think that one of those hires is pretty close to being done and then I think the others are right around the corner as well. Very hopeful we’ll get that done here shortly.”
Jacob LaFrance has served as UF’s director of player personnel since Napier was hired and took on the title of general manager in 2024. Napier said the director of strategy position will focus more on the monetary side of contracts, caps, and analytics.
“We’re getting this front office built out to be more strategic about the salary cap, the contracts, rev share, marketing, endorsement, that pool of money that could come available,” Napier said. “And then, how you allocate the money becomes part of the evaluation process.”
Florida football DL coach interviewing with NFL
Napier confirmed that Florida football defensive line coach Gerald Chatman interviewed with the Chicago Bears for the same position this week. Under Chatman, Florida’s defensive line showed improvement, helping the Gators rank fourth in the SEC in sacks with 39.
“I always encourage our guys if they get a chance to interview to interview,” Napier said. “Some may think I’m crazy, but I just think it’s just good for him from an experience perspective.”
If Chatman leaves, he will become the second defensive coach to bolt from the staff since the end of the 2024. Florida lost co-defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong, who left to take over as Houston’s defensive coordinator. UF replaced Armstrong last week with Jacksonville State defensive coordinator Vinnie Sunseri.
“He’s in this same network, same tree of coaches that I’ve worked for and worked with,” Napier said. “His dad is somewhat of a legend, you know, as an NFL, college assistant. His brother’s the offensive coordinator at UCLA. So, there’s a coaching DNA there.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
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