Billy Napier has been atop my wish list for a couple months now. He may not be the sexiest hire in the world, but at MSU we don't hire sexy. He makes the most sense and imo it would be a home run hire, and I'll tell you why.

Work Experience:

Let's take a look at the life of Billy Napier, and how his life and his experiences have molded him into the perfect fit for a MSU head coach.


  • 15-18 years old: standout QB in high school, where he played QB under his father who was a head coach. In 1997 he was named to the 1st team all state team and signed a scholarship with Furman
  • 18-23 years old: 4 year letterman, taking over the starting QB job in his Junior and Senior seasons, winning conference championships in both and making it all the way to the National Championship game his Junior year.
  • 24-25 years old: Hired on at Clemson as a GA under Tommy Bowden, stayed 2 years
  • 26 years old: Hired on at South Carolina State as QB coach.
  • 26-29 years old: Tommy Bowden wanted him back on staff and hired him back as the TE coach and Recruiting Coordinator, where he remained for 3 years until midway through the 2008 season, Tommy Bowden was fired as Head Coach and Dabo Swinney took over as Interim Head Coach, who promoted Napier to QB coach with playcalling duties for the remainder of the season.
  • 30-31 years old: Swinney was hired as HC after finishing out the 2008 season as interim. He liked what he saw from Napier and hired him on as OC and QB coach in 2009, where Clemson went on to break a school record for most points in a season in his first year as a OC at the age of 30 years. The next year(2010), didn't go as well and Napier was fired as OC.
  • 32 years old: after losing his OC job at Clemson, he didn't have to wait long for another opportunity. He had caught the eye of Nick Saban, who hired him on in 2011 to one of the infamous "Offensive Analyst" positions. He stayed there for a year helping with then Alabama OC Jim McElwain.
  • 33 years old: Following the 2011 season and an Alabama National Championship, McElwain was hired at Colorado State as Head Coach. McElwain was impressed by Napier in their time together at Alabama, and chose to hire him on to his staff at Colorado State as the Assistant Head Coach and QB coach for the 2012 season.
  • 33-37 years old: After the 2012 season away from Alabama, Saban wanted Napier back on staff, and hired him on as the WR coach at Alabama, where he stayed for 4 years working under the guide of legendary Head Coach Nick Saban, for the 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons.
  • 38 years old: After a successful 4 year stint at Alabama, Napier was ready for a step up and took a job under Todd Graham at Arizona State as OC and QB coach. Napier's offense, almost alone, led Arizona State to a bowl game. Following the bowl game, Todd Graham was fired and ex NFL Head Coach Herm Edwards was hired at Arizona State as the New Head Coach. Upon arrival, one of Edwards first moves as HC was to attempt to keep Napier hired on as OC/QB Coach
  • 38-40 years old: Upon arrival at Arizona State, one of Herm Edwards first moves as HC was to attempt to keep Napier on as OC/QB coach, however, Napier was being pursued as a HC and accepted the HC job at Louisiana Lafayette in late 2018 as a 38 year old first time HC. Napier took over a ULL team that missed out on a bowl game in 2017 with a 5-7 record. In a short amount of time before Signing Day 2018, Napier put together a class that finished 5th in the Sun Bel Conference, an improvement from the year before which was a class that finished 9th in the Sun Belt Conference. In 2018, he lead ULL back to a bowl game as well as a Sun Belt West division title and an appearance in the 2018 Sun Belt Conference Championship game. Following the conclusion of his first season at ULL, Napier went on to sign the #1 recruiting class in the Sun Belt, and was considered by most to be the favorite to win the 2019 Sun Belt Conference Championship. So far in 2019, Napier has ULL at an 8-2 record and atop their division, with only a season opener loss to MSU and a close loss to CFP poll ranked Appalachian State.


A couple of things stand out to me:

  • He was born to be a head coach. His dad was his high school head coach, this really matters. He has learned from a very young age what it takes to lead a team.
  • He is clearly a good playcaller, and knows his offense well. First, Dabo saw this and gave him a shot to call plays at just the age of 28, he impressed him so much that Dabo hired him as Offensive Coordinator and QB coach the next year, one where he set a Clemson record for yardage and points scored in a single season. Then he goes to Bama and works under Saban for a year as an offensive analyst, where he sharpened his skills. Then he worked under Saban for 5 years(1 year in there where McElwain took him with him to Colorado State to be the Assistant Head Coach and QB coach, aka offensive coordinator without the title) before being hired by Todd Graham at Arizona State to be his Offensive Coordinator. In his 1 year there, he vastly improved the ASU offense. In 2017( the year before he was there), ASU was #81 in total offense, #112 in rushing, and #85 in 3rd down conversion %, he took that team and turned them into the #32 offense, #51 rushing offense, and #23 in 3rd down conversion % in his 1 year there. Graham was fired after that season, but not because of the offense. Actually, Herm Edwards thought so much of him as a playcaller and offensive mind that he offered him the opportunity to retain his OC job at Arizona State, however, he accepted the HC job at ULL.
  • He has worked under some of the greatest Head Coaches in College Football History. He started off working for Tommy Bowden, not on of the best coaches of all time, but a coach that, like him, grew up as the son of a head coach. He was with Bowden for 5 years total and surely learned a lot about how to be a leader, and just a big time college football head coach in general. Then Bowden was fired and Dabo took over, one of the best ever. Then he went from Dabo's staff, straight to Saban's staff, where he worked for a total of 5 years. All in all, he worked 5 years under Nick Saban, 2.5 years under Dabo Swinney, and 4.5 years under Tommy Bowden, while also working with Dabo during this time. He has all that working experience and lessons learned from some of the best ever, and he has just turned 40.
  • Most of the head coaches he has worked under have tried to come back and get him back on their staff after leaving for a promotion at a different school. This says a lot to me. First, he started at Clemson as a GA under Tommy Bowden, then he accepted the QB coach job at South Carolina State where he stayed for only 1 year before Tommy Bowden came knocking again with a better job as the QB coach and Recruiting Coordinator for Clemson. Then later on he was an offensive analyst at Bama under Saban, before McElwain left for CSU and took Napier with him as the assistant head coach and QB coach, obviously McElwain thought a lot of him to bring him along as his #2. However, Saban thought a lot of him too and, again, after only 1 year away from Bama, Saban came back and offered him a better job than before, the WR coach job at Bama. When some of the best ever clearly badly want you on their staff, you know you are a good coach.
  • When head coaches are fired, the new coaches want to retain him. This says a lot as well. It says he is mature, a leader, someone that the new coach could not only use to ease the transition, but also just that good of a playcaller and coach. When Dabo took over, he kept Napier on and even promoted him to OC. When Todd Graham was fired at Arizona State, Herm Edwards wanted him to stay on and be retained as OC. You just don't see this a lot, especially with OC's.
  • He is a QB coach and OC first and foremost. This is what we need, right idea with Moorehead but the fit was not there, in many ways. Napier was a QB in his playing days, led Furman to the national championship game. Then after only 2 years as a GA, he took the QB coach job at South Carolina State at just the age of 25. Over the next 15 years he worked under many great coaches, and has worked with the QB's every step of the way, and in most cases, exclusively. Our next head coach needs to once again be a OC/QB coach, and he fits the mold perfectly.


Offensive Numbers:
Let's just look at the last 3 years for time's sake. First, and we have already talked about it, he took the over the offense at Arizona State in 2017 and saw a major improvement in his 1 year. Arizona State went from the #81 offense, #112 rushing offense and #85 3rd conversion % to the #37 offense, #51 rushing offense and #23 3rd down conversion %.

Now let's look at what he has done at ULL. We are gonna look at the 2017 stats, 2018 stats, and 2019 stats, so the year before he got there and his 2 years there to date. It will be in this format:
Statistic: 2017 --> 2018 --> 2019

Total Offense: #67 --> #44 --> #11
Scoring Offense: #68 --> #40 --> #12
Rushing Offense: #43 --> #22 --> #6
3rd down conv %: #93 --> #15 --> #9

To me it is clear, and exactly what we need, he makes no bones about it, he likes to RTGDF, and a lot. His teams are annually either one of the best rushing attacks or one of the most improved. This year he is on pace to have 3 running backs have over 800 yards and quite possibly 1000.

Scheme fit:

His scheme perfectly fits the personnel that will be available to him here at Mississippi State. Unlike Moorehead's O, he doesn't need the second coming of Albert Einstein to run his offense as a QB, just a decisive, athletic QB that can make good decisions. This perfectly fits what we can get. Also, he doesn't need an ole miss like WR corp(circa 2018) to run his offense effectively, he just needs WR that are big, touch, can block, and do their job and catch the ball when their number is called on play actions. This perfectly fits what is available to us. His offensive line just needs to be big uglies that live and breath run blocking, and will be given a couple years to learn those assignments like the back of their hand before being thrown in to the fire. Very similar to Mullen's offense here.

Recruiting:

He may not be known as an A+ recruiter, but I think he could be, atleast here at MSU, comparatively. He learned how to recruit at Clemson as a GA, did it so well that Tommy Bowden asked him to be the Recruiting Coordinator at the age of 26. He continued to learn and sharpen his skills for 3 years there, also learning the ropes under Dabo for those 3 years, and the 2 years after that. Then he went on to spend 5 years recruiting under Saban, who just might be the best recruiter the game has ever seen. By the time it was his turn to be HC and put entire classes together, he was ready and it showed.

The year before Napier stepped in at ULL, they finished with the #9 2017 recruiting class in the Sun Belt, a month before 2018 signing day, Napier was hired and had to scramble to throw together a class that wouldn't set him back a couple years, he went on to improve from last years class by 4 spots in the Sun Belt, finishing with the #5 recruiting class in the SBC. Then when he had an entire year to put a class together(2019 class), he went on to finish with the #1 recruiting class in the Sun Belt, from essentially last to first in less than 500 days. So far for the this years class(2020 class), he once again has the #1 recruiting class in the Sun Belt and is on pace to better his national ranking from last year by a good margin, and probably crack the top 50. Now couple all this with the fact that he has been recruiting in Alabama and Louisiana for the better part of the last decade, which happen to be our 2 biggest out of state recruiting grounds, and naturally, we are smack dab between the 2 states, naturally. So he most definitely knows the state of MS recruiting, and knows the surrounding states even better. Perfect fit imo.

His personality as a coach fits what we need here at MSU:

I have watched many interviews and read about him, I think he is a perfect fit at MSU, personality wise. He comes off as a good ole blue collar hard working southern man. He is well spoken but also has that vibe about him that says he doesn't think he is better than you, which is good for recruiting. As long as this box isn't checked with a negative, it's a positive, and in this case it's a positive.


All things considered, for a multitude of reasons, Napier is the perfect fit and should be #1 on our list. There is no need to go out and try to find some trendy diamond in the rough, or mess around and try to pull someone that we have no realistic shot at. Get your guy, he is in our backyard, learned from the best, can recruit, offensive genius, practices and preaches RTGDF, fits personality wise, and has D1 experience as a head coach running a program.

Cohen, let's not make this a page long equation to solve for x if we don't have to. Sometimes it's as simple as 2x=4, and in this case it is. Don't screw this up, get the right guy in there and let him start digging us our of the hole Moorehead has done, ASAP.