Billy Napier's Uncertain Future Motivated Florida Gators Players

At one point, the status of Billy Napier as head coach was week-to-week, but that didn't stop his players from trying to save him

The players have stuck by their head coach this season / Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

The Florida Gators players hold their head coach, Billy Napier, in high regard. While most coaches start to lose players as the losing continues, he hasn’t just been able to keep the locker room together, but the players are motivated. 

Turns out that Napier’s job security, or lack thereof for a time, was one of those motivators. Linebacker Shemar James joined the SiriusXM show “SEC This Morning.” During the chatter, he discussed how the players wanted to do what they could to help save Napier’s job. 

“We love Coach Napier,” James told SiriusXM. “We love the job that he’s doing here and we ultimately believe in him. I’d be lying if I said we [weren’t] seeing the tweets and the blogs and all the rumors. I’d say that just wanting Coach Napier to be here, just playing hard for a coach that you can stand behind, that’s kind of why we play so hard, just wanting to keep Coach Napier.”

Sure enough, this motivation has paid off for them. Napier is sticking around for 2025. 

James was a member of Napier’s first recruiting class back in 2022. As recruiting took a tumble that season as Dan Mullen was on the way out, Napier managed to 21-member recruiting class that was ranked No. 17 in the country. James is the highest-ranked recruit still at Florida from that class. Safety Kamari Wilson and defensive lineman Chris McClellan both transferred out after last season. 

Those who have stuck around might be starting to reap the benefits. After tough losses to Miami and Texa A&M followed by a less-than-stellar defensive outing against Mississippi State, the Gators have started to up their game. Since James is the subject of this story, let’s look at the defensive metrics. Note that the game against FCS Samford is being excluded from the upcoming stats. 

The Gators' defense went from giving up 499 yards per game on average against their first three FBS opponents to 383 yards per game in the following six. They’ve also reduced the number of points allowed per game from 34 in those first three to 22 in the following six.

With Ole Miss coming to town on Saturday, they’ll yet some more motivation. Lane Kiffin was named as one of Napier’s possible replacements. You better believe they’re going to want to go out and make the upset happen.