South Carolina football: hypothetical replacements for Will Muschamp
By Jacob Elsey
BILLY NAPIER
Napier is in his third season with the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns after taking over in 2018. It’s his first head coaching role after being an offensive coordinator and position coach for programs like Arizona State, Alabama, and Clemson.
In his first two seasons, Napier’s teams won a combined 18 games and made two appearances in the Sunbelt Conference championship game. Last year, the Ragin’ Cajuns went 11-3, taking down Miami (OH) in the LendingTree Bowl. This season, Louisiana is 6-1 with a win over a 23rd ranked Iowa State team in the opener.
His success with Louisiana, combined with his experience calling high powered offenses, has led to interest from larger programs. And South Carolina could be a great landing spot as he’s got tons of ties to the Palmetto State.
Napier played quarterback for Furman University from 1999-2002, where he led the Paladins to the NCAA Division I-AA championship game in 2001. He then took over as a graduate assistant at Clemson before landing his first official coaching job at South Carolina State under legendary coach Buddy Pough.
He spent a season in Orangeburg before returning to the upstate, where he’d eventually become the youngest offensive coordinator in college football with Clemson. The Tigers scored a school record 436 points in his first season calling plays, but after a decline in 2010, he was let go by Dabo Swinney.
He’d land jobs with Alabama and Colorado State before earning another chance at play calling with Arizona State in 2017.
Though he doesn’t have experience leading a program at the Power Five level, the pros far outweigh the cons with Napier. He’s confident running offenses, which has been South Carolina’s Achilles’ heel ever since Steve Spurrier’s departure. He’s been a successful head coach. He’s a relentless recruiter, landing players like Tajh Boyd, Jerry Jeudy, Henry Ruggs, and Devontae Smith. He has ties to the state of South Carolina. He’s young, at just 41 years of age, and would seemingly be willing to stay with the program for a lengthy tenure.
He should be one of the first calls should Muschamp be let go.