GAINESVILLE — Florida Gators coach Billy Napier was always choosy about which bigger jobs he would consider as he built Louisiana Lafayette into one of the best programs in the Group of Five.

With one of those potential options, LSU, visiting this weekend, Napier has no doubts about how things worked out.

“This path was right,” Napier said Monday.

We won’t know for sure whether the path works out for LSU, Florida, Napier and Tigers coach Brian Kelly until years from now. But Saturday’s matchup gives us an excuse to look at what could have been.

Napier would have been a natural, logical hire for LSU as the Tigers searched for Ed Orgeron’s replacement last fall. Napier was 60 miles southwest at Louisiana Lafayette, where his Ragin’ Cajuns were on their way to winning the Sun Belt. He had experience in the division as an assistant at Alabama. He even had experience recruiting the state and landing some of its elite talents; Napier was the primary Crimson Tide recruiter who grabbed top-five overall prospect Cam Robinson from West Monroe.

Likewise, Kelly would have been a splash hire for the Gators. He is the winningest coach in Notre Dame history, took the Fighting Irish to one national title game and two other College Football Playoff appearances. Though Kelly never won it all, that was largely a product of his struggles in recruiting high-end talent — something that’s easier to do at Florida than it is under the academic restrictions of Notre Dame.

Their paths, obviously, never materialized.

LSU athletic director Scott Woodward has a reputation as a big-game hunter; he snagged Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher when he was at Texas A&M. Napier would not have qualified as a big name, and some LSU fans would have bristled at the idea of hiring a coach from one of their state’s lesser programs.

UF athletic director Scott Stricklin, meanwhile, quickly zeroed in on Napier. He was on the phone with Napier’s agent the night he fired Dan Mullen and sitting in Napier’s living room two days later.

Through the first half of one season, the results are comparable. Both are 4-2 with a win over a team currently ranked in the top 20 (Utah for UF, Mississippi State for LSU). Both were nationally ranked at one point before falling out of the polls.

Both notched recruiting wins in their first class. Napier beat LSU for four-star Louisiana running back Trevor Etienne and three-star receiver Caleb Douglas. Kelly beat the Gators for five-star linebacker Harold Perkins.

LSU’s 2023 class is seventh (four spots higher than UF), but both have non-binding oral commitments from 18 four-star prospects.

On Monday, Napier (understandably) declined to share anything about what interactions, if any, he had with LSU during the coaching carousel. He did, however, share his continued gratitude for the chance Stricklin and the Gators took on him.

“I can’t imagine being at a much better place…” Napier said. “There’s not a day that I woke up and said, ‘Am I at the right place or not?’ I’ve got conviction about that.”

Do the Gators and Tigers? Check back Saturday night — and again in four years.

Injury updates

Napier said defensive back Devin Moore was unavailable with an injury Saturday against Missouri and will be a “work in progress” this week.

Florida State coach Mike Norvell didn’t have much of an update, either, on running back Treshaun Ward. The Tampa Bay Tech product is FSU’s leading rusher (488 yards) and leads the ACC with 6.78 yards per carry. He was in a sling after suffering an injury at North Carolina State, and Norvell was non-committal about whether Ward will play Saturday against No. 4 Clemson.

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