1 of 1- Ellisvillereb
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Napier Still Saying Nope
- catfishboy
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Re: Napier Still Saying Nope
Billy Napier sets record straight on Mississippi State candidacy
Billy Napier is not a candidate for the Mississippi State head coaching job.
The Louisiana head coach set the record straight Sunday ahead of the LendingTree Bowl against Miami (Ohio) Monday.
“It’s fair to say we’ve made a decision that I’m not a candidate for that job. I just want to get that out of the way,” Napier said, according to Creg Stephenson of AL.com. “… It’s very humbling when you do have opportunities and your name comes up in connection with jobs like that. I think it’s a product of our success. Football’s a game where when you do have success, it’s a team effort. We have a tremendous staff, and we’ve got great leadership, tremendous vision by our administration. … We’re humbled that some of those things get brought up, but we’re excited about the challenge that’s in front of us.”
Napier, 40, led the Ragin' Cajuns to go 10-3 overall and 7-1 against Sun Belt play in Year 2 as head coach. Louisiana went 7-7 (5-3 Sun Belt) at the end of Napier's 2018 debut season, falling 41-24 to Tulane in the Autonation Cure Bowl.
Most recently Arizona State's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2017, Napier's name reportedly came up last Friday when Mississippi State fired second-year head coach Joe Moorhead, who went 14-11 and 7-9 against SEC play with the Bulldogs. Mississippi State had interest in Napier, according to Brett McMurphy of Stadium, but the Ragin' Cajuns head coach turned the Bulldogs down.
Napier has SEC experience between two stints at Alabama, serving as an offensive analyst in 2011 and wide receivers coach from 2013-16 under longtime Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban (2007-present). He spent his 2012 season with Colorado State, under the direction of then-head coach Jim McElwain (2012-14), serving as the Rams' associate head coach and quarterbacks coach.
Five days before Monday's 7:30 p.m. ET game against the MAC-champion Redhawks (8-5) at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, Louisiana announced last Wednesday a two-year extension for Napier. He previously had his original deal extended by one season in October and is now under contract with the Ragin' Cajuns through the 2025 campaign.
"The vision and support from our University leadership has been tremendous," Napier said. "We are very thankful for the belief Dr. Savoie and Dr. Maggard have in what our staff is working hard to build. Our entire organization is very appreciative of the quality of life in Lafayette and Acadiana. This extension will help us continue working daily on our process and improving our team. The #cULture is real and grows stronger by the day. We look forward to the challenges ahead."
With Napier officially staying in Louisiana, Mississippi State's search was most recently — as of Friday — reportedly "gaining traction" for second-year Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. The 53-year-old Grantham followed former Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen (2009-17) to the Gators after serving as the defensive coordinator in Starkville, Mississippi, for the 2017 season.
SOURCE: Stephien, Garrett. "Billy Napier sets record straight on Mississippi State candidacy." Gene's Page - 247Sports.com, 5 January 2020,
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- Themob
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Re: Napier Still Saying Nope
state has made good hires in most every sport over the past 8-10 years. The moorehead hire was odd and after winning 8 games that first year, i was worried he was going to carry on the same winning ways that mullen was able to keep up.
I think firing moorehead now was a knee jerk reaction. You should have fired him after the egg bowl or you don't fire him. Purely because of the recruiting class. if you allow the signees the ability to look around and they still decide to stay on, then yes, that is fine. But looking at their list, they signed everyone on the commit list. not sure how much room they have left. They do have 1 DB from Grenada that I would have liked to pick up.
Anyway, we need to finish this class strong, but in order to start truly building the program again, we need state to start taking a step back. I know we both were national championship contenders at the same time, but it is not sustainable. I think we will be able to recruit nationally better than state which have to. mainly because we will never win the instate recruiting battles every year so we need to be able to find the same if not better talent outside the state. then win the battles every saturday.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if state has a real plan for hiring a new coach. they may have had people lined up back in november but many on the list I would assume already have their paths planned out. This tells me that state may hire another Coordinator looking for an opportunity. If this is the case, state is behind the curve as most every other team already has their ducks in a row for the most part ready to start hiring if not already hired.
- Ellisvillereb
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Re: Napier Still Saying Nope
It looks like state was putting all of their eggs in one basket with Napier , that they thought would just jump to go to starkville. Who knows it possibly could happen I guess. But it sure doesn't look like it.
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