Nobody’s more excited to coach again than Billy Napier. Just days after getting hired as their 10th head coach, the former Florida Gators boss is finally ready to do everything right and make the best of this opportunity. And he’s starting with the one thing that sank him the hardest: play-calling.

“I got a lot to prove. This is probably the most motivated I’ve been since I’ve been a head coach,” Billy Napier said at his introductory press conference.

Word around Harrisonburg is he’s finally letting go of the offensive play-calling reins and handing them over to his offensive coordinator. Sun Belt Billy kept it 100%: “I’m excited about that.”

That’s a huge shift from his time with the Florida Gators, where he wouldn’t budge on calling the plays himself.

The main reason Billy Napier got kicked out of Florida was his play-calling. The losing record just added to it. Holding onto the play-calling job was his biggest downfall. Despite having an OC, Billy just had to do it himself, and that didn’t go well. His stubbornness didn’t let him step back, and as a result, he went 22–23 across three-plus seasons, which is the worst record for a Florida coach since the late 1940s.

His play-calling in Gainesville was pretty fallible as it gets. The Florida Gators were losing against teams like the South Florida Bulls at home. And DJ Lagway wasn’t helping the case. The former 5-star and preseason Heisman favorite had two three-pick games this season.

In the end, his refusal to adapt and change things up, despite all the clear problems, played a huge role in his getting the boot in October 2025. That doesn’t mean Napier doesn’t know how to coach. He’s called ‘Sun Belt Billy’ for a reason. Before that horrific run at Gainesville, Napier was putting up numbers in the Sun Belt Conference.

He ran the show at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Ragin’ Cajuns) from 2018 to 2021 and was amazing, pulling off a 40–12 record. At one point in his career, he was the Ryan Day of the G5. It was his conference to run, winning the championship twice and getting his teams ranked in the top 20 nationally.

Now, he’s back in his old stomping grounds at JMU, ready to earn back the reputation he built over his career. By focusing on being the head coach and letting someone else worry about the X’s and O’s on offense. He’s showing he’s learned his lesson already before the fresh start. To make sure defense balls as well as offense, he’s snatching Nick Saban’s protégé to call the plays on defense.

Billy Napier’s defensive play-caller hire

Billy Napier is bringing in a steal for the defensive coordinator job: Robert Bala. This is a smart hire because Napier and Bala have already worked together at Florida.

The cool thing is that Bala is also a “Nick Saban guy,” meaning he spent time learning from the legendary Alabama coach himself. Saban even gave him a shoutout, calling him a smart young coach who’s paid his dues. Approval from Nick Saban is enough to hand him the DC job.

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Bala has 16 years of experience across the NFL and college in various roles. He’s coached at the NFL level with the Oakland Raiders and at major college programs like Washington and Liberty. He’s also served as a defensive coordinator before, at Southern Utah.

He worked with Napier at Florida during the 2025 season as the co-DC and linebackers coach before Jon Sumrall decided to go the other way. So they already have a good working relationship. Now, Billy Napier has to wait for James Madison Dukes’ playoff season to end and then make it official.