You all know how I feel about Billy Napier by now.

Before he became the head football coach for the James Madison Dukes, Napier donned the Orange and Blue (or, in his case, all black) for the Florida Gators.

His tenure in Gainesville, by any objective football measure, would be considered a collosal failure, yet some in the media, like senior college football writer Matt Hayes, still feel the need to carry the water for Napier.

READ: 5 Red Flags From The Billy Napier Era Proving He Was DOA From The Start

Never before has that been more evident than in his latest piece for USA Today, in which he practically grants the current JMU head coach immunity for his shortcomings at Florida.

So, let’s break down what exactly made this piece such a swing and a miss from Hayes, shall we?

Billy Napier to LSU?

“That’s where this thing was pointed four years ago, when Napier was one of the hottest college football coaching candidates and chose Florida over LSU.”

Hayes practically opens his article with a flat out lie, saying that Napier was being courted by LSU before ultimately choosing the Gators over the Tigers.

That is false, and I distinctly remember raising an eyebrow during the 2021 coaching cycle when I learned that LSU never even interviewed the in-state Napier while he was a rising star at Louisiana-Laffeyette.

Don’t believe me? Check out this Sports Illustrated article from November of that year, after the Tigers snatched Brian Kelly from Notre Dame.

While it’s true Napier received interest in the past from SEC programs like Auburn and South Carolina before he accepted the job at Florida, the Tigers were never interested.

Hayes trying to frame Napier as this hot commodity that all the tier one SEC schools wanted even prior to his flameout at Florida is disingenuous and sets the rest of the article up as this “it’s not Napier, it’s Florida” style hit piece.

Speaking of which.

Grading Billy On A Curve

“You know the CFP, right? The holy land Florida hasn’t sniffed since its inception in 2014… Eight SEC teams have done enough within their programs to put players and coaches in position to win and advance in the toughest conference in college football. Florida, meanwhile, has run through four coaches since 2011 — and all four have been fired.”

Hayes seems to think Billy Napier’s inability to reach the College Football Playoff is a Florida problem.

Can you believe this guy is a UF grad and former Gators beat writer? No one hates their own fanbase quite like the Florida media, but I digress.

Let’s talk about those three coaches that Florida fired before bringing Napier into the fold.

Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, and Dan Mullen, were all fired for failing to meet the championship expectations foisted upon them when they arrived in north-central Florida.

Those championship expectations have existed since Steve Spurrier walked out the door in January 2002, and only intensified when Urban Meyer resigned in December 2010.

The difference between the previous three coaches and Napier is that Mullen, McElwain, and Muschamp all had pulses at some point.

Muschamp was a Jordan Reed fumble away from having Florida in the SEC Championship Game and potentially a BCS National Championship Game appearance in year two, ultimately finishing 11-2 and earning a Sugar Bowl berth.

McElwain made it to the SEC Championship game in back-to-back seasons to start his tenure as the Gators head coach, and would have had back-to-back double-digit winning seasons if not for a cupcake game being rescheduled thanks to a hurricane in 2016.

Mullen was perhaps the closest of the three to restoring the Gators to their former glory, guiding Florida to three straight New Years Six bowl games and an SEC Championship Game appearance in 2020, where a historically dominant offense nearly led the Gators to a win over eventual national champion Bama.

Here’s the real kicker, though: all three would have either made the CFP or been right on the doorstep under the current playoff format that has been afforded to Napier.

Muschamp’s 2012 squad finished the regular season 11-1 and ranked 3rd in the BCS standings, but because the Playoff was still two seasons away, the Gators were left on the outside looking in.

Mullen would have made a 12-team Playoff every season other than his final, doomed campaign in 2021.

McElwain’s teams never finished in the top-12, but his 2015 and 2016 teams entered the final games of their season ranked 12th and 13th, respectively.

All three also finished with winning records as head coaches at Florida, a rather pedestrian baseline that Napier couldn’t even achieve.

Muschamp, Mullen, and McElwain were fired because they couldn’t get the Gators any closer to winning a national championship.

Napier was fired because he was incompetent.

Yeah, It’s A Napier Problem

Let’s be honest, Napier probably would have eventually been fired if he never made an appearance in the College Football Playoff, but he didn’t come close.

And the worst part of all of it: Napier was given a longer leash than he deserved.

He should have been ousted after the embarrassments at home against Miami and Texas A&M in early 2024, but an improved defense and a healthy Lagway kept his job on life support.

For some reason, Hayes seems to imply that Napier wasn’t given every opportunity and resource to succeed, which is patently false.

He claims that the “culture” at James Madison is what will help Napier succeed this time around, but isn’t a coach responsible for the culture at a program? If not wholly, then certainly partially.

I guess Curt Cignetti inherited such a culture and tradition of winning at Indiana, right? That’s why they were CFP contenders right off the bat when he got there.

I don’t mean to pick on Hayes, because a lot of Florida beat writers seemed to have been in protect mode towards Napier since he took the job.

He’s a nice guy, by all accounts, so maybe they just felt bad about disparaging him, but it’s borderline unprofessional how much these people stumped for a guy who had one winning season in four years.

Then again, Hayes is the same guy who couldn’t believe Florida fans had a problem with Mike White dragging the basketball program into the depths of mediocrity, only to be resurrected by Todd Golden.

Yikes.

Tough look when the guy who followed him won a national championship in just three years on the job.

Perhaps this article will age as poorly as Hayes’ tweets have, but either way, Napier is no longer in Gainesville, so it’s time to move on.

No amount of fluffy words or “what-ifs” are going to change what was, by modern standards, the worst coaching job in Florida football history.

Good luck at James Madison, Billy. You’re going to need it.