Former Florida Gators Coach Throws Jab At Florida State While Praising Billy Napier

It appears former Ohio State and Florida head coach Urban Meyer still has a pit of disdain for his rivals in the Sunshine State. As a host of “The Triple Option” show with Heisman-winning running back Mark Ingram III and Rob Stone, Meyer saluted the resolve of the Billy Napier-led Gator football team despite the shaky start to their season. Meyer also took a shot at FSU while praising Napier and the Gators in the process.

“I’m going to tell you something, I’m a fan of coach Napier, and here’s why,” Meyer said on The Triple Option podcast. “I don’t know him, I met him once or twice. They’ve been obviously really struggling, but the one thing they have not done like the team in Tallahassee is quit. They have continued to fight.”

Urban Meyer is right about the Gators’ resiliency this season. With perhaps the toughest schedule in all of college football entering the season, the Gators have two chances to become bowl-eligible after defeating #22 LSU this past weekend. They have found themselves in close games against #11 Tennessee (overtime loss) on the road and #10 Georgia in a neutral-site matchup. They had a bad loss to open the season against Miami at home and another blowout loss to Texas in Austin (without freshman phenom DJ Lagway, by the way). Their next two games are against #9 Ole Miss in Gainesville and against 1-9 Florida State in Tallahassee.

After a poor start to the season, the Gators have displayed significant fight not only for their season but for their head coach, who was the favorite to be fired next in college football. This fight led Athletic Director Scott Stricklin to announce that they would be retaining Napier for the time being. Whether or not FSU has any fight left in them will be determined in their next two games respectively against Charleston Southern and the Florida Gators.