Billy Napier's own words prove that the Florida Gators don't have their guy and need to move on

The Florida Gators suffered arguably the biggest loss in the Billy Napier era on Saturday afternoon when they lost to the South Florida Bulls 18-16.

Make no mistake about it, the loss is inexcusable on many levels. This is a team with National Championship aspirations and a roster loaded with talent in key positions, including at quarterback with DJ Lagway. Pair that with being a 17.5 point favorite over the Bulls and having the hardest schedule in the country and you cannot lose this game, let alone allowing the Bulls to hang around until your defensive lineman Brendan Bett gets ejected for spitting on an opposing player.

The litany of issues for this team are inexcusable, and Napier's own words say as much from his postgame press conference on Saturday.

Billy Napier isn't the right head coach for the Florida Gators

The line you see above saying that Napier isn't the right head coach for the Gators is a complicated one. He's done a really good job of building up the infrastructure and recruiting. The main reason why many were so bullish on the Gators this year was because of the talent on this roster.

Despite all of the positive infrastructure they have, the Gators have to be successful, the issues all stem from the top: Napier. When we take a look at what he said during his postgame press conference, it all leads to him not being the guy. The first question was about the lack of discipline.

"Yeah, I think the procedure penalties — obviously we can live with the technical penalties," said Napier. "There’s always going to be a handful of those. The ones that keep you up at night are the ones that are player decision-making, so there’s got to be some ownership there on both ends.

"They’re under my leadership. It’s ultimately my responsibility. So we need to eliminate the false starts. We need to eliminate the personal fouls. We did have a substitution penalty as well. So those are the ones as coaches that we have to take responsibility for."

This is the kind of answer you expect to get from a first or second year coach, someone who is still trying to estabish a culture. However, Napier has been a head coach for near a decade and is now in his fourth season at the help. How are these things still an issue? Why are you having to deal with a second player get ejected for spitting on an opponent, and both of them are on the defensive line?

It boils down to one thing: a lack of leadership. That was also evident in the underdiscussed offseason storyline of Napier refusing to bring in a legitimate offensive coordinator who can take play-calling duties from him. That would allow Napier to focus on game management, which was a very big issue. The offense continued to stutter across the board, with Napier focusing on calling plays east/west instead of attacking north/south.

The most egregious comments were when Napier was asked about if he's the right man for the job.

"Look, I’m more concerned with the football," said Napier. "Ultimately, I think there’s a lot of positive. In terms of the other stuff, the football’s got to get better. We’ve got to take ownership of the football.

"We created it. We deserve it [the criticism]. If you play football like that, you’re going to be criticized. It comes with the territory, right? Only thing you can do is go get it fixed, and that’s what we’ll start working on tomorrow."

This certainly sounds like someone who knows what's up, and is trying hard to deflect. The one thing Napier has going for him is that athletic director Scott Stricklin loves him, and the administration is not in a good place.

It feels similar to when the Gators moved on from the likes of Dan Mullen and Jim McElwein, both of whom were significantly above 0.500 when they were relieved of their duties.

Napier feels like a dead man walking and it needs to end sooner rather than later.