The Florida Gators are just 12-16 under head coach Billy Napier, including 1-2 this season with blowout losses to the Miami Hurricanes and Texas A&M Aggies.
Napier has been the school’s scapegoat of sorts, and many Gators fans have been calling for his job ever since the team’s season-opening 41-17 loss to Miami. Multiple reports have indicated UF already has the wheels in motion to push Napier out the door, but ESPN’s Nick Saban believes all the blame shouldn’t fall on the Gators’ third-year head coach.
In fact, Saban called out the Florida fan base for the part it played in contributing to the team’s mediocre years.
“Well, I think maybe the problem isn’t the coaches,” Saban said on “College GameDay” on Saturday. “You know, they’ve been through four coaches since Spurrier and Urban Meyer, who both created a tremendous culture of winning there.
“And sometimes the fanbase can just think ‘Well we can show up and expect to win’ and not make the commitment to the program that you need to make to be able to continue to make the changes and investments you need to make to keep up with changing times.”
Saban clarified that Florida was far behind the rest of the SEC in terms of facilities and NIL initiatives.
He also pointed out that losing and falling behind the rest of the NCAA’s elite teams isn’t something that is specific to Napier’s tenure as the Gators also had down years under Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen before Napier was hired.
“They should’ve taken advantage of building better facilities when Urban Meyer was there. What’s there collective been like?” Saban questioned. “How have they adapted to this new model of college football? So it’s not just the coaches. When you’ve been through four coaches that haven’t had success, there’s something else that people should be looking at.”
