Napier/Scott connection
USF head coach Jeff Scott and UF head coach Billy Napier both share ties to Clemson.
Embed from Getty ImagesScott, the son of former South Carolina head coach and longtime Bobby Bowden assistant Brad Scott, played wide receiver at Clemson from 2000-2002 while Napier quarterbacked neighboring Furman just a mere 30 miles away.
Napier got a head start on his collegiate coaching career and was entering into his third season as tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator when Scott was hired as a graduate assistant in 2008 and would eventually coach the wide receivers at his alma mater. That same year, Dabo Swinney, ascended to the role of interim head coach and would promote both young coaches once the school removed the interim tag prior to the 2009 season.
Napier and Scott featured in the 2009 Clemson Football Media Guide, Page 11.
Napier took over as offensive coordinator while handling the quarterbacks and Scott replaced Swinney as the team’s wide receivers coach and Napier as the staff’s recruiting coordinator.
At this week’s press conference, Scott was effusive in his praise for Billy Napier, “Billy’s just a hard worker. Very detail oriented, very process oriented. I remember one time, my first year coaching wideouts and he was the [offensive] coordinator, I was out there yelling at a wideout cause he dropped the ball. I was yelling cause I was mad.
“Billy called me over and said, ‘Hey, don’t just yell cause you’re mad. Tell him what he needs to do. Does he need to put his thumbs together and eyes and eyes to the ball? Give him specific instruction on what he needs to improve.’
“For me as a young coach, that made sense,” Scott recalled. “Don’t just get out here and yell to yell. That’s something I’ve carried ever since then…detailed instruction. Obviously there’s a time and an intensity of your voice that comes with it. Just being very detailed in your teaching.”
Scott said he’s carried lessons from Napier into recruiting as well, “You’d be in your areas recruiting all day. He would call me later that day and say, ‘How’d it go that day?’ and I would say, ‘Oh good, I went to 12 schools.’ He would say, ‘That’s good, but how many recruits did you see? How many real guys did you see? This isn’t just about tagging the schools. We gotta make sure that we’re seeing real guys everyday.’
Scott admired Napier as a young coach.
“He was a young guy that had a three to four year head start on me getting into college and I saw how well-respected he was – obviously, he was so well-respected that when Coach Swinney became head coach interim he moved [Napier] up and Billy was in his mid-20s at that point, so he was very well-respected at that point as a position coach and a recruiter. As a young coach he was a guy I really looked up to and listened to and even after he left Clemson, we’ve stayed in touch for many years.
“I’ve talked to him my first two years here when he was at Louisiana and even this summer – dealing with some of the things in recruiting and NIL and all these things going on. I called him several times this summer to just get his opinion on things. He’s definitely a resource – a friend off of the field – but definitely a resource in the profession.”
Scott also spoke of times they’ve competed on the recruiting trail, sharing this story:
— Nick Knudsen (@NickKnudsenFB) September 15, 2022
Kind words for Etienne
Optimistic about what you’ve seen early on from freshman running back Travis Etienne? Well, it’s not just your orange and blue tinted glasses trying to sell you on the promise of a brighter tomorrow.
USF head coach Jeff Scott knows a thing or two about watching an Etienne at running back.
Scott served as the co-offensive coordinator at Clemson over the span of RB Travis Etienne’s freshman-junior seasons in which Scott’s offense handed Etienne the ball 518 times for 4,038 rushing yards and 56 rushing touchdowns.
“I saw Etienne,” Scott said in reference to this week’s upcoming matchup with the Gators, “Trevor Etienne, Travis’ brother, and he looks just like Travis did at Clemson. Except I don’t know if Travis looked like that as a true freshman after watching him play this past week. He’s already a big-time playmaker for them.”
It’s happened to the best
The Kentucky loss has been laid squarely at the feet of Anthony Richardson this past week.
While many still view Richardson as a wildly talented quarterback who has great potential, the doubters came out in full force after an error-filled performance led to a loss just a week after a massive win over Utah.
Will Miles likes to criticize my upbringing as a Buckeye, so this story will likely only serve to give him more ammo, but one story I reflected on this past week was that of 1995 Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George.
As a nine year-old growing up just outside of Columbus, Ohio, I was a first-hand witness to the greatness of Eddie George. The running back who looked like a linebacker failed to reach the 100-yard rushing mark just once (99 yards in the opener) during a magical 1995 season as he led the Buckeyes to an 11-0 start before a heartbreaking loss to Michigan.
From this nine year-old’s perspective, Eddie could do no wrong, but while marching to the Heisman, I first heard of the fumbles that forced him onto the bench in his freshman year.
Eddie George came to Ohio State for one simple reason. They were planning on giving him the ball early.
In just the third game, George found the end zone three times to help spur an upset over #8 Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. Ohio State, quarterbacked by Kirk Herbstreit, was not the powerhouse it is today and was still finding its footing early in the John Cooper era. Talented young players like George gave the fanbase a reason to be optimistic about the future.
Two weeks later, Ohio State hosted unranked Illinois in The Horseshoe. George’s would-be meteoric rise to star status was quickly halted that day after the freshman fumbled the ball twice near the goal line, one of which was returned 96-yards for a Illinois touchdown.
Clip pulled from A Football Life: Eddie George [click "Watch on YouTube" if necessary]
”You cannot turn the ball over twice on your own goal line and expect to beat a good team,” OSU head coach John Cooper told the media after the game.
From the, The Life And Career Of Eddie George (Complete Story) by
College football is great at crafting a legend. Once those legends are history, we sometimes forget the adversity faced along the way.
Anthony Richardson, only in game three as a starter at Florida, didn’t play his best against Kentucky. How he responds to that adversity remains to be seen, but he has a chance to still craft an amazing story which fools like me can turn into legend.
Great expectations and patience can go hand-in-hand.
Richardson deserves our patience as he continues to develop into a quarterback who can live up to his great potential on a week-to-week basis.
I look forward to watching that development continue to unfold as we continue down the path of the 2022 season.
