Florida HOF Athlete’s Son Publicly Accuses Billy Napier Of Mistreatment Hours After USF Upset

Florida’s 18-16 home loss to USF put Billy Napier in the crosshairs again, capped by Nico Gramatica’s 20-yard walk-off field goal against a No. 13 team that entered as an 18.5-point favorite. Napier’s postgame line, “Not good enough, and it’s my responsibility”, landed amid a night of 100-plus penalty yards and mounting frustration, with his four-year mark now 20-20 and a brutal run coming at LSU, at Miami, vs. Texas, and at Texas A&M. For a fan base already tense, the sting of USF’s first-ever win over Florida only deepened the noise around the program.

Within hours, that noise turned into pointed accusations from a former player after a fan blast lit the match online. Former UF receiver Jacob Copeland, who did not play for Napier, posted, “Napier is some 💩,” a sentiment that drew an immediate reply from former tight-end Jonathan Odom: “Treated a lot of his players like it too🤣.” The back-and-forth set the stage for a series of detailed claims from Odom, shifting the conversation from play-calling and penalties to player care and trust inside the building.

Odom then alleged a serious breach of faith: “Basically in 2023 while playing on half a leg, I got a concussion one this play… after I didn’t clear protocol after 2 weeks they called me in and accused me of faking it. That’s just the start of it🤣.” Concussions end careers and demand airtight protocols. Odom’s 2023 season, for instance, indeed ended after a concussion against Kentucky, which was publicly reported at the time before he later transferred out, which shows that his availability truly changed after that hit. 

He appeared in 25 games at UF with 16 catches for 144 yards and two touchdowns, both in 2022, before injuries and a transfer to Eastern Michigan, where he ultimately did not play and sat out, a timeline that supports his larger point about health setbacks rather than stat-padding motives. He added that when he told his parents, his father, Jason Odom, a University of Florida Athletics Hall of Famer, called Napier, and “he[Napier] said it was ‘just a motivation tactic,’” a phrasing that raises hard questions about Billy Napier and his motivational tactics, which compromise athletes’ health and ultimately their future.

Odom also said he considered legal action but chose not to, adding, “Haven’t said anything bc I was thinking abt taking legal action, decided it’s not worth it bc I still do love the university. But def not gonna let it go untold 🤣,” signaling allegiance to UF while insisting his story be heard. Even so, he praised “3 goats on the staff (William Peagler, Frank Ogas, Paul Silvestri),” all of whom hold roles on Florida’s 2025 staff in coaching, player development, and sports health, lending specificity to whom he trusts internally.

People can shrug it off as a post-loss vent, but it’s a former player putting his name to claims about care and accountability. With Florida reeling from an upset and bracing for LSU, Miami, Texas, and Texas A&M, the program’s handling of both the scoreboard and the locker room will face sharper scrutiny than at any time in Napier’s tenure. And as Odom put it, even as he “still do love the university,” he wasn’t going to leave this story “untold,” ensuring these questions won’t fade with the next kickoff.

Is Napier the right man for the job?

After the loss to USF, the question on the table for Napier was simple and loaded: “Do you think you’re the right man for this program?” And Napier answered by steering away from labels toward responsibility and repair after an 18-16 loss that he had already framed as “not good enough” on his watch. He made clear that this isn’t about defending a résumé so much as fixing what broke in real time.

Red-zone chances that turned into field goals, a bad snap that became two points the other way, and a turnover/explosive-play deficit that tilted a one-score game in the wrong direction. The defeat was a stack of controllables, and the head coach positioned himself as the one who owns both the diagnosis and the next steps.

“Yeah, I think I’m more concerned with doing my job to help lead these young men. That’s a big picture question, and I think right now it’s more about today. It’s more about what we do tomorrow, and I think that’s what we’ve got to get consumed with.” he said, which doubles as a blueprint for Monday, not a slogan for the season’s obituary. By centering the answer on aligning staff and players to “get the football fixed,” he ties the identity question back to the same concrete issues that defined the loss and the theme of accountability over alibis.

He didn’t duck the temperature around the program either. “We created it. We deserve it… only thing you can do is go get it fixed,” and that dovetails with his zero‑excuse nod to a sold‑out Swamp and his firm stance that the spitting penalty was “unacceptable” because it compromises the team. That’s the connective thread to the larger narrative of holding the standard, protecting the locker room from fracture, and letting the answer to the right‑man question emerge from visible corrections on tape. In other words, the path back from USF is the day‑to‑day work he insists will start “tomorrow.”