UF’s Billy Napier and Gators ignore the noise at SEC Media Days

DALLAS — Besides taking on college football’s toughest schedule, Florida faces one of the sport’s tallest orders: secure coach Billy Napier’s future with the Gators.

SEC Media Days in the Lone Star State spotlighted the looming challenge and the third-year coach’s job security — a common theme back home.

“When you’re on social media 24/7 … you see it,” quarterback Graham Mertz said. “You can’t help but not see it.”

But Napier and the Gators are not listening to the nay-sayers following a 5-7 season that ended on a five-game skid leading to sweeping offseason changes to UF’s staff and roster.

“Change doesn’t happen overnight,” Napier said. “When we took the job, what we inherited, the work that needed to be done … we’re on schedule.”

Napier is far down the pecking order among SEC coaches, a star-studded lineup including Georgia’s Kirby Smart, Ole Miss’ Lane Kiffin, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian and LSU’s Brian Kelly.

But other than Nick Saban successor Kalen DeBoer at Alabama, no coach arrived in Dallas under a more intense microscope. Other than Arkansas’ Sam Pittman no coach’s seat is considered to be hotter in the SEC.

No team in the nation faces a more difficult slate of games, beginning with an Aug. 31 season-opening visit from Miami and ending with a November against five teams ranked in the top 12 of the AP’s season-ending Top 25.

“We see it as 12 opportunities to prove ourselves,” linebacker Shemar James said.

Napier’s message to his players is simple: “Ignore the noise and don’t believe the hype.”

Senior tailback Montrell Johnson Jr. said his teammates and coach are ready to silence their critics.

No Gator might be a bigger believer in Napier, who brought Johnson with him from Louisiana after a 12-1 season in 2021 that served as a springboard to the Florida job.

“What gives me the confidence is me seeing him do it at UL,” he said. “Just seeing how everyone was bought into that program.”

While it has taken time and roster turnover, Johnson sees buy-in everywhere.

“We’re working together as one,” he said, “In the past it was this guy over or this guy over here.”

A lack of cohesiveness and leadership spilled over to the field, especially in close games — Napier’s Gators are 4-5 in one-possession contests.

“When you get into those critical possessions in a game, that connection matters,” Napier said. “I was talking to our players a little bit about that on the way here. Every detail matters. The margin of error is small.

“We have to leverage the experience that we have, and their expectations rub off on the rest of the team.”

Leading the way will be Johnson, the team’s top rusher the past two seasons, Mertz, a 23-year-old, sixth-year player coming off his best season, and James, the team’s leading tackler in 2023 prior to a season-ending knee surgery.

The veteran trio brings stability to a team with four new assistant coaches and 35 new players.

“We certainly are not the same team that we had last year,” Napier said.

All the changes, the schedule and Napier’s 11-14 record at UF lead many outside the program to wonder whether the 2025 Gators will have the same coach.

“In reality, we have no choice but to see it,” James said. “You go on Instagram or go on Twitter and you see Florida Gators, Florida Gators, Florida Gators. It’s a blessing and a curse. We have that privilege to get talked about, but talked about it in the wrong way.

“That lights a fire in us all.”

Mertz said the key will be not to look at the flame outside.

“It’s, what do you pay all your attention to?” he said. “Are you focused on everything coming in? Or are you focused on what you’re doing to help the team win?

“That’s where I have confidence in our team and the fact that that’s what they’re focused on.”

Edgar Thompson can be reached at moc.lenitnesodnalro@nospmohtge