ESPN has released their new college football coaches rankings for the 2022 season, organizing them in multiple tiers. First-year Florida head coach Billy Napier came in at No. 2 in the “Fast Start” tier, the fourth tier on ESPN’s list.
Adam Rittenberg was tasked with organizing the top coaches in the sport and his tier system is a great way of achieving this goal. There are 10 coaches per tier, with four tiers: National Contenders, Next Up, Overachievers, and Fast Start.
Napier’s tier, Fast Start, is described as “coaches [who] have been leading FBS programs for four years or fewer, but have displayed great promise early in their tenures”.
The description seems custom written for Napier, as Florida is only Napier’s second head coaching job after his successful four-year stint as Louisiana head coach. Here is what Rittenberg had to say about Napier:
Like Kirby Smart, Napier came from a coaching family in Georgia, and apprenticed under Saban at Alabama during a solid run as an assistant. He capitalized on his first head-coaching opportunity at Louisiana, guiding the Ragin’ Cajuns to two league titles, four division titles and two AP top-16 finishes in an increasingly competitive Sun Belt. He set Louisiana’s single-season wins record in each of his final two years there. Napier now gets the SEC opportunity he has been waiting for at title-starved Florida.
Napier makes his Florida head coach debut at home against No. 7 Utah on Saturday, September 3, at 7 p.m. EDT on ESPN.
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