Billy Napier Gives Honest Feedback As He Reflects On His Clemson Firing

Billy Napier had to earn his stripes before he got his shot to lead a major college football program at Florida. A former star quarterback at Furman University, Napier took his first steps into coaching in 2003, when he was hired as a graduate assistant at Clemson — then under the leadership of head coach Tommy Bowden.

Following a stint as the quarterbacks coach at South Carolina State, Napier returned to Clemson in 2006. Two years later, new head coach Dabo Swinney named Napier the Tigers’ new QBs coach and their new offensive coordinator — which keyed a nine-win season in 2009.

But Swinney moved on from Napier following a disappointing 2010 season, and Napier took a job as an analyst on Nick Saban‘s staff at Alabama. Napier said Friday on “Josh Pate’s College Football Show” that this decision was a “pivotal moment” in his career.

“I got let go at Clemson, and I was regrouping,” Napier told Pate. “I think in that first year at Alabama as an analyst, I would say I learned more in that year than I learned the prior ten.”

Napier was 30 years old when he took the analyst job at Alabama, making him one of many coaches over the years who took a “backward step” to reset their careers under Saban’s elite tutelage.

The lateral move on paper worked a charm. Napier gained a new understanding of what it took to run a championship-caliber program as the Crimson Tide won the national title in 2010, while Saban’s extensive coaching tree offered Napier a chance to expand his network.

In 2016, Napier received another chance to run an offense when Todd Graham hired him as Arizona State’s offensive coordinator. Two years later, Napier was hired as the head coach at Louisiana Lafayette; after a 12-1 campaign in 2021, he was hired as Dan Mullen‘s replacement in Gainesville.

“Obviously you’re working with Coach Saban, but it’s the other people, the network of people that go out there and are in the NFL, and in Power 4 Football,” Napier said of how he responded to leaving Clemson. “People don’t understand, as an assistant coach, you go all over the country. You’ve been in every type of home, every type of school. I think it really shapes your perspective.”