The Florida Gators had their press conference for National Signing Day yesterday. Head Coach Billy Napier addressed questions regarding the NIL investigation by the NCAA, the shake-up of his coaching and support staff, the transfer portal class, the potential surge of tight ends coach Russ Callaway's role, and why he felt continuity on the offensive staff was the best move for the team.
The biggest debate following his press conference was his decision to not only maintain his dual offensive line coaches, Darnell Stapleton and Rob Sale (also listed as offensive coordinator) but to sign them to an extension. Florida Gator beat writers and fans (myself included) have expressed disapproval of the duo based on underperformance last season and struggles in recruiting at that position. While Sale is the offensive coordinator in the job title, Coach Napier is the primary play-caller of the offense. Napier's playcalling has also been scrutinized and it's what cost Napier his job as OC in Clemson in the early 2010s.
It is possible that in a critical year if Napier believes that he is coaching for his job in 2024, he will do it his way instead of hiring a new coordinator and putting his fate into someone's hands. Now granted, I don't believe Florida's offense was the largest issue for the 5-7 football team last year. If you saw Florida through the whole season, you would see issues with penalties, misalignment before the snap on both sides of the ball, consistent mental errors on special teams, and a defense that completely deteriorated the final six games of the year. The offense averaged 28.4 points a game, which is not good enough to be an elite team in college football, it certainly kept Florida in games that UF had a chance to win such as Arkansas, LSU, and Missouri.
Billy Napier recognized this and made hires to address those other issues. He hired Joe Houston as senior analyst on special teams out of the New England Patriots. Then he changed position coaches at defensive line, linebacker, and secondary. So we can't say Napier is being overly stubborn with making staff changes, but keeping two O-line coaches who oversaw a line that gave up 39 sacks (averaged 3.25 a game - 3rd worst in the SEC) is head-scratching to a lot of supporters of the program. Not even Vanderbilt was that bad.
To put a bow on this discussion, I can understand and appreciate why Napier is keeping the wheel offensively. It's his job and his offensive insight that got him this job. What hires a coach is what could get him fired. Ultimately, he needs to achieve his first winning record at Florida and multiple signature wins instead of one per year as he did vs Utah in his debut in Gainesville and against Tennessee last season. If not, Florida most likely will be looking for a coach in 2025, and this decision to keep the offensive staff the complete same will play a crucial role in what happens in the fall.
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