Adapt Or Die: New Age Of College Football Leaves Stubborn Coaches Behind

We all know the old biblical phrase "pride goes before destruction."

While that is a nearly universal idiom and can be applied to all walks of life, nowhere is that more prevalent right now than in the world of modern college football.

It’s no secret that the sport is rapidly changing, and whether that is for the better or the worse remains to be seen.

Players are as transient as ever, with the ability to change schools with the same ease an octopus changes colors, and a lot of them are making more money than any 18-22 year old would know what to do with.

The best coaches are as good as they are because of several different, unique factors, but one quality a lot of the greats have in common is their ability to put their ego aside and adapt.

The difference between a guy like Nick Saban and a guy like Mack Brown, aside from the number of championships they won, is that while Brown was never able to adjust after winning his only national championship in 2005, Saban was able to lap him in terms of accomplishments because of his adaptations to the new game of college football.

When quarterbacks started becoming more mobile, Saban sought out smaller, faster linebackers.

When the game moved to a spread/no-huddle philosophy, Saban brought in brilliant offensive minds like Steve Sarkesian and Lane Kiffin, eschewing the "three yards and a cloud of dust" game plan that had won so many games for him early in his tenure at Alabama.

Two coaches that really seem to have struggled with the changing winds of college football are Dabo Swinney and Billy Napier.

Dabo & Billy Are Getting Left In The Dust

I’ve written extensively about both of these coaches, but suffice it to say, they are handling the NIL and transfer portal era of college football about as well as a lactose-intolerant toddler with whole milk.

Swinney, for all his faults, gets some much-earned benefit of the doubt, seeing as how he got Clemson to where they are now and won them two national championships in the process.

But this is a "what have you done for me lately" kind of league, and Dabo may have become a victim of his own success.

His inability or disinterest in utilizing the transfer portal is what will ultimately spell doom for his time as Tigers head coach.

Napier, on the other hand, has no equity in the realm of benefit of the doubt.

The Florida Gators head coach has the stubborn arrogance of a multi-time national championship winner like Swinney, but without the trophy case to back it up.

The arrogance is anything but earned.

Billy Napier’s inability to adapt to the modern game is more in the vein of not hiring a dedicated play caller, though he too has been reticent to relying on the transfer portal in the past.

Even the best play callers in the game as head coaches will delegate offensive coordinator duties to someone else. It’s just the way things are these days.

Napier wasn’t even an elite coordinator when it was his trade, and now that he’s a head coach his archaic passing game has sunk an otherwise talent-laden offense.

Clemson and Florida are both 1-3, and it’s no coincidence that they are both being steered by coaches who can’t get out of their own way.

You must adapt to the new age, or you are at risk of being left behind.

Two programs that were once considered college football royalty are in danger of being relegated to the scrap heap of irrelevance.

These next several weeks will be telling for both the Tigers and the Gators.

I don’t think Dabo is in danger of getting the axe unless things go very haywire both on and off the field in 2025.

Napier, however, is a different story.

I believe the Gators will be moving on from him sometime before the calendar hits November.

Regardless, there are some questions both of these programs need to answer, and time is ticking.

Will they adapt, or will they perish?