Gene Frenette: Fascinating to watch how Billy Napier, Brian Kelly hires impact Florida-LSU rivalry
Until the Southeastern Conference entry of Texas and Oklahoma in 2025 (possibly 2024) brings expected alterations to the schedule, Florida’s annual matchup with LSU will remain one of the league’s most intense cross-divisional rivalries.
And now the series pressure valve has added an intriguing story line that bears watching for the foreseeable future: which coach, the Gators’ Billy Napier or the Tigers’ Brian Kelly, does a better job of restoring his program to national prominence?
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Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin was dialed in on the 43-year-old Napier from the beginning. He hired the up-and-coming coach who went 33-5 in his last three seasons at Louisiana, and the next day LSU made a splash hire with Kelly, the first Notre Dame head coach ever to leave for an SEC school.
But since Napier made a name for himself at a school just 55 miles from Baton Rouge, it was only natural for LSU supporters to wonder if Scott Woodward might pursue him. But the Tigers’ AD — he threw big money at Jimbo Fisher to lure him away from Florida State to Texas A&M in December, 2017 — went big-game hunting again and reeled in Kelly.
Napier wanted no part of rehashing the hiring process when asked about the topic on Monday, confining his remarks to the “chaotic times in college football” when you get to the firing/hiring months of November, December and January.
“I’ll tell you one thing: I’m grateful for the opportunity I was given here,” said Napier. “For the administration here, for Scott and all the people that contributed to that decision to have faith and confidence, do their homework on me, give me an opportunity to lead here. I can’t imagine being at a much better place.
“This path was right. That’s what I would say. 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. And the more I’m here, every day that I’m here, the more I’m confident about what we can accomplish.”
The 4-2 Gators have a run-challenged defense and an inconsistent quarterback in Anthony Richardson, so it may be a couple years before the detail-obsessed Napier and his recruiting prowess can elevate Florida close to the level of a Georgia or Alabama.
But given what UF has invested in landing Napier, from his seven-year, $51.8 million contract to facility upgrades, the expectation is clearly raising SEC and national championship trophies.
Kelly, 60, has won big at three of his four coaching stops. With his 10-year, $95 million contract, there’s no misunderstanding about LSU’s desire to do the same. It’s obvious after the Tigers’ blowout loss to Tennessee last week, they have a similar uphill climb as Florida.
Still, the tenures of Napier and Kelly will ultimately decide which program made the best hire for its future. The only previous time Florida and LSU had first-year coaches going against one another was 2005 — Urban Meyer in Gainesville and Les Miles in Baton Rouge.
Ironically, Meyer and Miles combined to lead their programs to three consecutive national titles (2006-08), justifying the investments Florida and LSU made in both coaches, who ended up splitting their six meetings.
Now this tightly-contested rivalry (Florida leads the series 33-32-3) is undergoing another makeover. It’ll be fascinating to see which new coach does the better job of trying to break the Georgia-Alabama stranglehold on the SEC.
Similar QB numbers
Nobody would dispute that Trevor Lawrence is a much better NFL prospect than past Jaguars quarterbacks Blake Bortles, Blaine Gabbert and Byron Leftwich, but their numbers don’t look much different through their first 22 career starts.
Lawrence has a 5-17 record as a starting QB, a completion percentage of 60.3 percent and an overall career rating of 75.6. Bortles, who absorbed an NFL-high 106 sacks in his first two seasons, stood at 6-16 through his first 22 starts with a 57.4 percent completion percentage and QB rating of 74.43.
On the same timeline, Gabbert’s record was 5-17 with a 51.9 percent completion percentage and a rating of 68.72. Leftwich posted a record of 10-12 through his first 22 starts with a 60.8 percent completion rate and a QB rating of 82.3.
While many believe No. 16 will become the long-term solution at quarterback the Jaguars expect, it’s interesting that none of those previous top-10 overall draft picks with fairly similar numbers at the same point as Lawrence never came close to living up to their draft slot.
Cooke-ing up something special
Not only is Logan Cooke one of the Jaguars’ most consistently dependable players, he goes the extra mile to bond with his special-teams teammates that help him maintain the NFL’s fifth-best average in both gross punting (50.2 yards) and net punting (44.7 yards).
It’s not uncommon for Cooke to either pick up a dinner tab on Friday nights before road trips with long snapper Ross Matiscik and kicker Riley Patterson, arrange golf outings with members of his unit in the offseason or take them out fishing on his 26-foot boat, appropriately named “Hang Time.”
“He got a Traeger [grill] for Father’s Day and invited us over and cooked steaks for us,” said Matiscik. “He makes sure we’re appreciated.”
A 'stupid call'
Take your pick on the most questionable roughing-the-passer penalties assessed last week: the Atlanta Falcons’ Grady Jarrett putting Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady on the ground or the Kansas City Chiefs’ Chris Jones being flagged for falling on Las Vegas Raiders QB Derek Carr after the ball came loose.
Jaguars pass-rusher Josh Allen didn’t like either one, especially the flag that negated a clear fumble by Carr, saying: “First of all, Chris Jones, it was a strip sack, the ball was out so it was a loose ball before he even took [Carr] to the ground. I think that was a stupid call. I don’t know what they protected on that one. He landed on top of him. It was a loose ball. I can’t even explain that one.”
Warriors dropped the ball
The Golden State Warriors tandem of coach Steve Kerr and GM Bob Myers were flat out weak for not suspending Draymond Green after he punched teammate Jordan Poole in practice, especially once a leaked video surfaced of the altercation. Green separated himself from the team for a week to allow things to cool down, but he’s back just in time to start the regular season.
It’s obvious the Warriors feared what a suspension might do to the psyche of Green, and possibly diminishing their chances of winning a fifth NBA championship together. But right is right, and wrong is wrong, and the Warriors sent a message to the basketball world that a player can screw up royally with no real consequences as long as he’s important enough to the team winning.
Poole is also a critical component for the Warriors. He’s expected to sign a contract extension soon that will reflect that. But Poole’s willingness to forgive Green doesn’t excuse the team’s timid response to an abominable act.
Quick-hitting nuggets
When asked to pinpoint a reason why his team is lagging behind their three NFC East rivals, Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera issued a two-word response: “The quarterback.” Not necessarily an untruth, but publicly throwing Carson Wentz under the bus like that — even after he threw a goal line interception that sealed a 21-17 victory for the Tennessee Titans — only makes the Commanders’ job of recovering from a 1-4 start that much harder. Thursday night's boring 12-7 win over the Chicago Bears, where the Commanders' only TD was set up by Chicago fumbling a fourth quarter punt at its own 6, was maybe a temporary cause for optimism. …
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips says he’s in favor of expanding the 68-team NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, which could increase the field to 96 teams for easier scheduling. Just stop acting that this is about giving more schools a championship opportunity. It’s always about generating more revenue.
Pigskin forecast
Jaguars over Colts by 10 (Matt Ryan ghosts); Buffalo Bills over Kansas City Chiefs by 1 (Travis Kelce red-zone clamp); Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Pittsburgh Steelers by 7 (Tom Brady ownership papers); Florida over LSU by 3 (shoe-toss restraints); Clemson over Florida State by 4 (ACC officiating reviews); Miami over Virginia Tech by 1 (overwhelming sense of desperation); Tennessee over Alabama by 1 (exorcism). Last week: 5 right, 3 Warriors' video leakers.
Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540
Gene Frenette Sports columnist at Florida Times-Union, follow him on Twitter @genefrenette
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida-LSU rivalry helps decide which football program made better hire
