Did The Gators Just Re-Hire Billy Napier?
Back like he never left!
After moving on from their once-promising head coach, the Florida Gators decided to bring in a young, up-and-coming and highly sought-after coach from one of Louisiana's Group of Five schools to help fix the rotting culture in Gainesville.
You would be forgiven if you thought that first sentence was about Florida's newest head coach, Jon Sumrall, but it's actually describing the hiring of Billy Napier from four years earlier.
In case you missed it, the Gators whiffed on their first choice, Lane Kiffin, and, for reasons that may never be truly understood, decided to pivot to someone who may very well be the antithesis of everything Florida fans wanted in a head coach this cycle.
A defensive-minded coach from the G5 who played for a rival SEC school? Where do I sign up?
But it's not just about the fact that Sumrall isn't a coach with a penchant for high-octane offensive performances.
It's entirely possible that the Gators just hired a re-packaged Billy Napier.
Their numbers are eerily similar, down to their age.
Sumrall is just a year older than Napier was when he took the job (43 vs. 42), and they have nearly identical records (41-11 for Sumrall, 40-12 for Napier), conference records (27-4, 27-5), records in one-score games (15-3, 16-3), and average total offense ranking (53rd, 50th).
On the bright side, many national and local media members alike seem to love the hire for the Gators, so they have that going for them.
But, to be fair, plenty of the same people were hyping up the Napier hire four years ago as well.
To his credit, Sumrall mentioned hiring elite coordinators and installing a "fast-paced offense," something Napier was more than reticent to do while at Florida.
Time will tell whether the Gators made the right hire. There will be plenty of opportunities for Sumrall to prove he isn't anything like his predecessor, even before the games get played.
But for now, as a Gator fan myself, the Lane Kiffin Saga has me about as low as I can get, and Jon Sumrall isn't going to move the needle much for me in the interim.