Florida begins Billy Napier's third season with a revamped staff and hope for a winning season

Published Jul. 30, 2024 3:07 p.m. ET

Associated Press

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida coach Billy Napier took a significant swing at solving his program's problems this offseason. He revamped his defense, his special teams, his strength and conditioning program and even hired a new team nutritionist.

Although the results of Napier’s make-or-break moves won’t be evident for months, defensive end Justus Boone was ready to show the effects at Florida's annual media day Tuesday.

“If I take this shirt off, I’m ripped up,” Boone said.

Boone and the Gators will wait for their season opener against in-state rival Miami on Aug. 31 at the Swamp to unveil whatever progress they’ve made heading into Napier’s third season in Gainesville.

This is much is clear: Napier didn’t hesitate to retool every floundering aspect of his program following Florida’s third consecutive losing season, the last two under his watch. Napier is 11-14 in two years in Gainesville, a stint that includes consecutive losses to Kentucky and a 1-7 mark against rivals Georgia, Florida State, LSU and Tennessee.

Napier fired two defensive assistants two days after a season-ending loss to the Seminoles in November and then essentially benched 30-year-old defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong, special teams coordinator Chris Couch and strength coach Mark Hocke in the weeks that followed. All three remain on staff but no longer in charge of anything.

Veteran coach Ron Roberts is now running the defense. Former NFL assistant Joe Houston is directing special teams. And Tyler Miles is heading the strength program. Napier also retooled the nutrition side and promoted Russ Callaway to co-offensive coordinator.

The importance of those moves was evident when Napier brought Roberts, Houston, Miles and Callaway to media day.

“We’ve got to go execute our formula,” Napier said. “We haven’t quite done that in all parts of our team.”

Roberts is tasked with fixing a unit that allowed 38.2 points a game in five consecutive losses to end the season. The Gators managed just 22 sacks — their fewest since 2013 — and three interceptions en route to missing a bowl for just the third time since 1990.

Houston is assigned with eliminating a variety of special teams gaffes that have plagued the program, culminating with botching a late-game situation against Arkansas in which the field goal unit ran onto the field while the offense was lining up to spike the ball.

The illegal substitution penalty that followed resulted in a 5-yard loss and seemed to be the difference in Trey Smack missing a 44-yard field goal with seconds left. The game went into overtime, and Florida lost 39-36.

Houston installed a “launch pad” on the sideline to help moving forward. The mat has a circle for each special teamer to stand in. It should prevent the Gators from lining up with too many or too few players.

“It’s essentially a sideline huddle," Houston said.

Miles’ impact is already being felt. The Gators have 62 players topping 20 mph in sprints and 45 guys lifting more than 300 pounds in the weight room, dramatic improvements from the previous two years.

“Finish is a word that’d been used quite a bit this summer,” said Napier, whose team dropped close games to Arkansas, Missouri and FSU in November. “I think how we train just might be the difference.”

Although Napier will continue to call plays, he’s giving Callaway more input and responsibility. Callaway’s approach is straightforward and simple: get the ball in the hands of your best players, most notably sophomore receiver Eugene Wilson III.

Wilson will be as important to Florida's offense as anyone, including returning quarterback Graham Mertz, senior running back Montrell Johnson and highly touted dual-threat quarterback DJ Lagway.

All four opened training camp Tuesday by checking into an on-campus dorm, a drastic change from last year’s posh hotel.

“We’re trying to create an old-school feel to training camp where they appreciate when they move back into that nice apartment here in a couple of weeks,” Napier said.

Maybe, just maybe, old-school results might follow. The Gators were picked to finish 12th in the 16-team Southeastern Conference, a prediction that quickly found its way back to Florida's locker room.

“We're not worried about trying to prove anybody wrong,” Boone said. “We're just looking to prove ourselves right. We just want all our work to not go in vain."

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