Just when you think anything ever related to Billy will no longer affect us, he gives us a death sentence going to JMU. He just landed in the absolutely best place he could of in the entire country. He will has a Saban Alabama vs SEC type dynasty with JMU vs the rest of the SBC.
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If he’s still calling plays, I wouldn’t be so sure.
Can I bookmark this for future research?
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JMU has momentum right now, the question is can Billy not only maintain that momentum but build on it. Billy had a ton of resources at Florida, far more than he will have at JMU, but his stubbornness was his undoing at Florida. Did Billy learn from that Florida experience or will he continue to dig his heels in and continue to do things his way.
Just went rooting against him had started to lighten up. Flip that switch back on. He’s the enemy.
Billy will take JMU to the playoff. Couldn’t be a better fit for him. Happy for him. Sad for us.
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His offense didn’t stop him from dominating the belt while he was here. He will turn JMU into even more of a juggernaut than they are now. It also makes the Des hire even more questionable. We went from never losing a game to a west division foe to losing to ULM in the first conference game the next season. We went from 4 straight conference championship games to a middling west division team. Billy Napier will not be the death blow. It will be the decision to hire from within and “continue the cULture” instead of hiring a qualified coach who knows wtf they are doing.
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To be fair— I’d rather him be at JMU, even in the same conference, than at Tulane, recruiting against us in state.
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My BR-born and raised, LSU-fan cousin asked me if this was the UL equivalent of Saban going to Bama after coaching LSU.
Go right ahead
We will still call plays, which I 1000% agree is his downfall and was a major reason he didn’t achieve success at UF
Let me give you a list of reasons why this will be the case for those that aren’t quite sure.
Negatives:
- He can’t call offensive plays, I 100% agree with that statement. Big reason he didn’t achieve success at UF. However, the caliber of coaches he’ll now be facing week to week is not the same caliber in the SEC. He may still get out coached but the gap will be much smaller and will make up for it with his players.
Positives:
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He will build a culture capable of being elite, comes from a Saban coaching tree. Now he’s inheriting one that’s already started, he just needs to maintain it so his job is already easy.
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Resources- He will have far more resources available to use then any other team in the SBC and it’s not really close. That means he will have a support staff the size of 3 SBC teams combined at his disposal.
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Has excellent ties to quality coaches. Look at the guys he had under him here as well as at UF. He will have a quality coaches up and down his roster.
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Damn good recruiter/player developer. From Georgia, worked at stops all over the south, now inherits pipelines in the northeast and midwest. If he can marry size from up north with the athleticism in the south that’s a scary combo. Also look at how many guys made it to the league from UL under his tenure. I’d argue more in his time than any coach previously. He legit had 4 starting NFL lineman on an SBC O-Line and they weren’t all highly touted out of high school so speaks to his talent evaluation and development.
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Will leverage the portal, something we have not learned to use yet. With the money they will have available, their portal acquisitions will greatly outscore other teams in the league.
That all equates to him having a much better team then his opponents. I get his playcalling sucks, trust me, I said that since day one but Des could go call plays their and go undefeated with just how much better there team will be compared to everyone else.
They will get to the playoffs under Billy. I expect a 2000’s Boise State-esque run from them.
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100% agree
Yes it is
Nothing that he did at Florida matters period
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One thing is he didn’t recruit a lot of the talent. Hud did. Dotson, Hunt, Lewis, Mitchell, Calias, Ragas, Bradley, Jones, Vallot…
That is 3 pieces of the best OL we have ever had and a trio of RBs that no one in sunbelt could match. Plus the best game manager we have had at QB.
He did recruit well to fill in gaps and give us a direction in the program but a lot of the best pieces were already in house.
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Hud recruited a lot of high risk players which at this level you have to take flyers. I think Napiers biggest strength is attractiving good position coaches. None of those guys would be half as good without Sale. Hunt was a liability until 2018 and had a historic rise. Also the attention to detail his staff always had blew me away.
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Often forgotten fact.
I would say if him dominating the East for the foreseeable future happens (debatable) and it translates into us stepping up our game to keep up with our former coach, then I see it as a net positive. But I have zero faith in this current regime to do that.
Billy will haul ass 1st chance he gets. No way in hell will he let what is perceived as failure at Florida rest. In his mind he is a power conference coach