Billy Napier looks into the eager faces and asks a simple question with a well-rehearsed response.
“Today’s gonna be …?”
Annie, Sammy and Charlie Napier reply, “A great day!” earning an encouraging clap of the hands from their father before he heads to work.
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Whether in the family room or on the football field, Florida’s first-year coach tries to set the tone for the day ahead.
The Napier children know the routine. The Gators are still learning, but catching on quickly while eyeing a better future.
“That’s kind of how he is with everyone all the time,” Ali Napier, his wife, told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s all about your attitude. The kind of day you’re going to have is the choice you’re going to make.
“He’s an optimist. He’s super positive. That rubs off on players just like it rubs off on us.”
The Gators have undergone an attitude adjustment since Napier arrived in December, inheriting a 6-7 team and program in need of a reboot.
Napier, 43, walks softly yet commands his players’ attention — and admiration.
“He’s going to work you, but he’s going to love you, too,” offensive guard O’Cyrus Torrence said. “You love playing for coaches like that. It’s just a good feeling.”
Torrence didn’t want to lose that loving feeling. The ballyhooed transfer — and first-team preseason All-SEC pick — left Louisiana after starting 35 games for Napier’s Ragin’ Cajuns.
The Gators see why Torrence followed Napier to Gainesville.
“A players coach,” senior tailback Nay’Quan Wright said.
Napier is building the Gators in his own image. The coach’s son demands detail-oriented, disciplined players dedicated to their craft.
As the 2021 season unraveled under Dan Mullen, the Gators’ lack of direction and effort became evident. Immediate changes under Napier include a mandatory team breakfast and individualized schedules focused on time management.
“The structure is amazing, honestly,” third-year safety Rashad Torrence II said. “He breaks it down to where there isn’t any gray area, there isn’t any questions about what you should be doing at certain times. There’s nothing that you have to really guess … Go at your own will.”
Unlike Mullen’s teams, Napier’s every player will wear similar socks, pregame ensembles and uniforms.
“It’ll be a different team going out there from warmups to the end of the game,” Gators legendary coach Steve Spurrier told the Sentinel. “We will be a different team than the last year or so.”
Napier likes order.
Consider his shoes, a large collection featuring primarily Jordans and flats — “What the cool kids are wearing,” Ali Napier said.
No pair is out of place.
“They’re all lined up in rows on the closet floor to see what he’s got,” Napier’s wife said. “He’s particular.”
Billy Napier does not expect perfection, either.
Returning the Gators to glory will be a learning process and involve growing pains. Unranked Florida is the only SEC team opening with two teams in the coaches preseason Top 25. In the fall awaits a three-game, four-week gauntlet against LSU, Georgia and Texas A&M.
Florida is set up to follow a similar path as Napier’s first team as a head coach, 7-7 Louisiana in 2018.
Amanda Sale recalled the lean times in Lafayette when her husband, Rob, coached the offensive line, the role he now holds with the Gators.
“It wasn’t tearing those players down; it was building them up and letting them know the things that they did right but also wrong,” Sale told the Sentinel. “He’s always believed in his players. We lost the game, but you’re not defeated.
“You learn from those mistakes, carry on and overcome the adversity for the following week.”
Louisiana learned — and won. Napier’s teams were 33-5 from 2019-21.
Along the way, Napier focused on solutions.
“One thing he says a lot is: Don’t focus on the problem, think about the potential of it,” said Florida offensive tackle Michael Tarquin, now in his fourth season. “Doing that has helped us as a team to want to get better and want to see the potential of us being a really good team and working toward that goal.”
While building a winning program Napier strives to create a family environment and future leaders.
Inside linebacker Ventrell Miller is in his sixth season under his third head coach. The 23-year-old, who in 2021 suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 1, embraces the culture Napier is creating.
“He’s been emphasizing relationships. He’s very passionate about building those,” Miller said. “That correlates to guys buying in. It’s been a great year so far, just having that bond with all my teammates.”
Within the team structure, Napier values each of the 120-plus players on the roster.
“Coach Billy Napier has rubbed off on the team in mainly just his leadership role and teaching each individual how to be a leader in their own way,” third-year defensive tackle Gervon Dexter said. “It doesn’t matter the guy who it is. Everybody can be a leader.
“That helped a lot of discipline on our team. All guys are leaning the right way and doing the right thing the same way.”
Under his leadership, Napier’s Louisiana program blossomed in the bayou.
In Gainesville, the 2022 Gators face plenty of headwinds and the inevitable expectations in the nation’s top football conference.
Rob Sale said his boss is built for the challenge.
“He’s obviously the boss and a friend, but I don’t know if there’s a weak spot in the armor,” Sale said. “I really don’t. Understands the big picture. He quality controls everything we do so that we don’t make the same mistake the next time.
“The players see that. Everything you’re doing, eyes are watching you. If we’re prepared, they’re going to be prepared.
“It starts at the top.”
Each day, Napier aims to chart a course for those relying on him, whether at the office or home. No detail is too small and no problem too big.
Success begins with the right attitude.
“He doesn’t let the noise get to him,” Ali Napier said. “He’s a strong, silent type; he’s a stoic kind of guy. All the time, not just in coaching. Everything has a solution. He doesn’t get frantic or panicked about anything.
“There’s real value in that perspective. It’s certainly influenced me. That translates onto the field and in life.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Edgar Thompson at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osgators.
