JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — How do you not feel bad for embattled Florida coach Billy Napier?
For some reason, a song from “Hee Haw”— the old cornpone country variety show — popped into my head as I looked down on the field Saturday and saw the grim-faced Napier as injured quarterback DJ Lagway was carted away with an inspired Gators team leading mighty Georgia.
“Gloom, despair, and agony on me, Deep, dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all, Gloom, despair, and agony on me.”
That song pretty much sums up what could be Napier’s fateful final season at Florida.
If it weren’t for bad luck, he’d have no luck at all.
The man simply cannot catch a break.
First he lost starting quarterback Graham Mertz for the season when the Gators were on the verge of upsetting No. 7 Tennessee three weeks ago in Knoxville, Tenn. Mertz, the nation’s leader in completion percentage, blew out his ACL midway through the third quarter after just throwing a touchdown pass to put the Gators up by 10. Florida ended up losing in overtime.
Then came Saturday as the Gators were giving the No. 2-ranked Bulldogs all they wanted late in the second quarter when Lagway, the freshman phenom, tried to cut upfield on a running play and fell to the ground while grabbing his left hamstring. He rolled onto his back as medical personnel and Napier ran onto the field. Lagway was carted away, perhaps taking Napier’s chance of saving his job with him.
“Gloom, despair, and agony on me.”
I’m not saying the Gators could have beaten Georgia if Lagway had stayed healthy, but they might have. The defense was motivated and forced Georgia quarterback Carson Beck into three interceptions; Florida’s offensive line was pushing Georgia’s vaunted defense off the ball and Lagway already had thrown a perfect 43-yard TD pass to Aidan Mizell.
Even as it was, the Gators tied the score 20-20 in the fourth quarter with shaky third-string quarterback Aidan Warner, a Yale transfer from Winter Park High School, running the show. Then Georgia turned back into Georgia and coach Kirby Smart’s Dawgs closed out the game with two touchdowns in a matter of 58 seconds for the 34-20 win. The Dawgs have now beaten the Gators four straight times — Georgia’s longest winning streak in the rivalry in 40 years.
Warner did his best, but, without Lagway, Florida’s passing game was essentially non-existent. Warner completed just 7-of-22 passes for 66 yards with an interception.
Sadly, it appears Lagway’s injury is significant, which means he could be out for the next stretch of games against No. 6 Texas, No. 16 LSU and No. 19 Ole Miss. Without Lagway, you wonder if the Gators can win another game — with the possible exception of the season finale against moribund FSU (1-8).
It would be nice if UF fans and administration would give Napier some grace and understand that this has been an injury-ravaged star-struck season, but that’s about as likely as a presidential candidate admitting, “Yeah, my opponent’s plan is actually better than mine.”
It’s too bad because, before Lagway’s injury, it looked like the Gators were finally beginning to turn the corner under Napier. They’d won three of four heading into Saturday’s game and — in the one loss during that stretch — they outplayed and outgained Tennessee before losing in overtime. Even the staunchest Napier critic couldn’t argue that his up-and-coming young team was getting better each week and improving in all facets of the game.
“This group is very unified,” Napier said, ”and I think unity is powerful. I do think in the last couple of weeks this group has started to believe that they can play with anybody and beat anybody. I think we have some unbelievable human beings on our team. We don’t have a distraction. We don’t have one guy that’s not compliant. We have no discipline issues.
“Ultimately, when you start to play toe to toe with some of the better teams, you start to believe,” Napier added. “For the first time since I’ve been the head coach here, we showed up and we believed we could beat that team.”
The fact that the Gators held their ground against Georgia for much of Saturday’s game is a minor miracle in itself. And they did it with not even close to their full allotment of players. They did it without their top two quarterbacks — Mertz and Lagway. They did it without their most talented receiver (Tre Wilson), their most talented cornerback (Jason Marshall Jr.) and their starting running back Montrell Johnson Jr. — all of whom missed the game because of injury. In addition, two other starting cornerbacks — Devin Moore and Dijon Johnson — were injured early in the game.
However, Gator Nation is in no mood for moral victories. In the end, this was just another loss in a big game, giving Napier a 1-10 record in rivalry games and a 2-13 mark against ranked teams.
A win against Georgia might have saved Napier, but now the clock is ticking on his job security once again … and with each second, it’s echoing gloom, despair, and agony on me.
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