Napier Confident in Play-Calling Abilities in Midst of Gators' Early-Season Struggles: 'It Got Us Here'

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier has had his fair share of criticism throughout his time with the program. Arguably, the most consistent criticism has been his role as the team's play caller.

A head coach retaining play calling is nothing new, with the most notable example being Texas's Steve Sarkisian holding those duties, but with a changing world in college football, many have either given up those duties or slowed down their input, including Florida State's Mike Norvell, Ohio State's Ryan Day and Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham.

Despite the noise surrounding the program and the criticism regarding Napier remaining as the play caller, which he confirmed multiple times this season, the fourth-year head coach remains confident that the decision is the right one for his program.

"Well, it's Year 8 for me, and I think it's the way we've done it. I think it helped us get here. It helped us," Napier said on Monday. "But look, I think there's a lot of guys that are still doing it, too. You could argue both ways here. I watched several of them this weekend."

Napier's history as a play caller has been very hit-or-miss. In his first opportunity as a play caller, Napier was fired at Clemson but found success in the same position at Arizona State, which led to his first head coaching job at Louisiana.

Retaining play-calling duties as the head coach, Louisiana reached new highs as the Ragin' Cajuns went 40-12 with a pair of Sun Belt titles.

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier previously called plays while being the head coach at Louisiana. | SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK

His Florida tenure has failed to replicate anything close to that success.

Through four games of his fourth year, Florida is averaging 22 points and 328.2 yards per game. Taking away the 55-0 win over Long Island in Week 1, the Gators are averaging 11 points and 287.3 yards per game, which includes a seven-point, 161-yard offensive outing against Miami two weeks ago.

The results come after a four-game winning streak to end the 2024 season, which tipped the job security scales back in Napier's favor and ultimately led to the program not hiring a full-time play caller in Napier's place.

Napier also wanted continuity in sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway's development after his breakout freshman campaign.

"So I think each year you're evaluating what is best for the team, for the staff," Napier explained. "Certainly, I think with who we had coming back, the quarterback in particular, I think is a huge piece of that puzzle - in terms of the verbiage, the system, the dialogue, how you teach the quarterback. I think that's a big piece of the puzzle."

However, that plan has backfired.

Lagway, in particular, has had his own struggles after missing most of the offseason due to various injuries. After going 6-1 as the starter last season, when he appeared in 12 games, with 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions, Lagway has just five touchdown passes against six interceptions in four games.

Three of those touchdowns came in the Week 1 win over Long Island, while five of those interceptions came in the loss to LSU. He has accounted for only two total touchdowns across the last two weeks, and his 61 passing yards against Miami was a career-low in games he started and finished.

That passing total is the lowest by the program in a single game since 2014.

"Yeah, you know, I'd say just whenever you miss reps, you know, you don't have that correlation with the play caller and quarterback. That definitely hurts," Lagway said Monday. "So I say we're just getting in the rhythm, you know, together. He's seeing what I like, and I'm seeing what I like as well. So, you know, it's just continuous development."

Florida Gators quarterback DJ Lagway (2) has struggled in his sophomore season. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

While the play-calling has been criticized, Napier also pointed to execution, emphasizing that the program can play better at "complementary football."

Florida's defense, arguably the lone bright spot of this season, saw a complete turnaround last season and has held its opponents to under 30 points all season, a rarity in Napier's first two seasons. The season-high, 26 points given up at Miami, came as a result of a pair of turnovers on downs deep in Florida's territory, leading to a pair of late touchdowns for the Hurricanes.

Napier also pointed to the improvement made in special teams execution this season.

"I get it. There's a lot of teams out there this weekend that struggled, and there's going to be criticism when you're not as productive and that contributes to the team not winning, no different than when you give up a lot of points, there's criticism on the other side," he said. "I think we've got to play complementary football. This is a defense that we've worked four years on building and preparing, and they're playing at a high level. We have to continue that, and now we have to get back to playing better on offense."

Lagway and the players agree, emphasizing that it comes more down to execution than actual play calls.

"Yeah, I love this system, man. I just feel like we gotta execute. I feel like as an offensive, like, players, player-wise, we just gotta execute what Coach calls," Lagway said. "I feel like that starts with me. That starts with, you know, the whole offensive unit."

Florida's attempt to turn its season around post-bye week begins on Saturday at home against No. 9 Texas. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. with television coverage on ESPN.

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