Speaker 1: It's the return of Sun Belt Billy and he's reflecting
on his time when he was in Cajun Country. We'll
talk about it here on Raging Rundown. What's good, ladies
and gentlemen, and welcome into another episode of Raging Rundown.
All Cajuns all the time. I'm your guy, Ja Marcus Fitzpatrick,
but you know you can always call me fits. And
in today's episode, we are in New Orleans for Sun
Belt Football Media Days, the first of a two day
event here on Wednesday, July the fifteenth. Tomorrow, on the sixteenth,
the Raging Cajuns will take center stage. They'll actually take
the main stage first, but we as the working media,
have different one on one slots. We'll get a chance
to talk with head coach Michael Desimo, Launch Winfield, and
also George Jackson, so that'll be fun. But in today's episode,
we will be discussing a little bit about some a
blast from the past former Raging Cagun's head football coach,
Billy Napier. For those of you that for some reason
as a Cajuns fan, don't know who's the coach before
Michael Desimo, or maybe you're a new fan, under the
Desimo era. Before Mike Desimo was promoted in twenty twenty
one at the end of the twenty twenty one season.
The coach before him was Billy Napier. He spent time
at UL from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one. In
those four seasons at Louisiana, he compiled a forty and
twelve record. He went seven to seven his first year,
eleven and three, ten and one, twelve and one, and
then won the Sunbelt Championship in that twenty twenty one season,
the first in program history, and then the New Orleans
Bowl at the end of the season was actually the
first game that head coach Mike Desimo led the Raging
Cajuns in as the official head coach of the program.
Leading into his time there at UEL, he had been
in oc at Arizona State in Clemson and also had
worked as a receivers coach at Alabama, so he was
under the Saban tree. So at the time, that was
a slammed up higher for them to add to their program. So,
because you know it's a two day event, I decided,
how can we localize this, How can we make this
something that has a connection and you know. Ultimately it
pointed back to him because after he left UIL, we
all know how it went. He went to Florida. He
spent three and a half seasons there. He was fired
in the fourth season after seven games, and after being fired,
he became the primary target for James Madison. Once Bob
Chesney made it clear that he was going to UCLA
after they won the Sun Belt made it to the
College Football Playoff, he went to UCLA. Billy Napier becomes
the coach, so he re enters the Sunboat Conference and
I had a conversation.
Speaker 2: With him one on one.
Speaker 1: It was about a ten eleven minute conversation and I'll
link that down in the in the description of this episode.
But I have four cutups that I want to discuss.
The first one is kind of an obvious one, which is,
you know what went wrong at Florida. You know, you
get there and you have a lot more resources than
what you had in your previous stop.
Speaker 2: And that's not a knock to Uel, It's just it
is what it is.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to know, you know, we've heard a
lot of from other outlets what it could potentially be,
but I wanted to hear it from the man himself.
So I asked coach Napier, what was it outside of
just not winning games? What was it was it that
kept him from staying at Florida and ultimately them not
being able to achieve their.
Speaker 3: I have to do better, you know. I think ultimately
it's a head coach's responsibility every part of the organization.
Speaker 2: So as a leader, there were parts.
Speaker 3: Of our systems and process that we didn't We weren't
good enough, you know. So I think you regroup, you
learn quite a bit. The key is to take that
failure and try to use that. I think it's helped
me kind of reframe my priorities a little bit. But
we're better because we had that experience, and I do
think we left it in a better place. I think
most of our you know, my fellow coaches out there
would say that. So we were close, but that doesn't count.
So I think we'll get a chance to reboot the
computer here, go back and attack this thing at JMU,
and I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 1: Closing doesn't count. Is that's tough, you know. But ultimately
things did not work for him at Florida, And like
I said, after being fired, after what was his final
record leaving there, He finished twenty two and twenty three
in Florida six and seven, season five and seven, and
then eight and five and three and four in his
final campaign twelve and sixteen.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 1: The sec after that, he was given a second opportunity
to become a head coach, So he goes from UL
to Florida to now James Madison becoming a primary target
after Bob Chesney did well for the Dukes. You know,
we've seen what James Madison has done. And I know,
obviously this is a raging Cajun show and we're gonna
get into that in a second what coach Napier had
to say about UL. But ultimately we've seen James Madison
be at the pinnacle of this conference. They've won the
Sun Belt. Since they've come in, they've won the Sun Belt.
Kirk Signetti came in and did a phenomenal job. He
got the job at Indiana, wins a national championship. Bob
Chesney comes in and wins the Sun Belt. They go
on to reach the College Football Playoff, ultimately losing, but
then he gets the UCLA job. So it's been a
hot bed for coaches and so I asked coach Napier,
what was it that truly drew him to James Madison
and ultimately came to fruition for him wanting to take
this job.
Speaker 3: I think the big thing is the alignment that we
have with our administration. We have great leadership President Jim Smith,
and then obviously our ad Matt Rohan, is a rising
superstar in the profession. So my conversations with them, I
talked to a lot of the coaches that had worked
at James Madison in the past and some of the
coaches that competed against JAMU. So my kids are fourteen,
gonna be twelve ten this fall, and then I couldn't
imagine being away from the game, right, So I love
building teams and it just was it fit. A lot
of discernment went into that, a lot of prayer, but
it has blown me away. Six months into it, I've
just been really impressed with the place.
Speaker 1: So you could really see that the coach Napier is
excited to be able to take over the Duke's program
and it'll be interesting to see what comes out of it.
The Sunbeilt Coaches poll also came out and we're going
to talk about that a little bit later. Before we
talk about that coaching, Apier and I discussed his old
stumping ground, his first love, his first opportunity to be
a head football coach at the collegiate level, and it
was a very telling conversation because he had nothing but
positive things to say. It was a very good bit
of answers that he gave to the questions that I
gave him. And I have two cutups that I want
to play for you. I'm gonna do that when we
come back here on Raging Rundown. Hey, guys, thank you
so much for tuning in to another episode of Raging Rundown.
We're going to get back into the action in just
a second, but before we do. If you are watching
this on YouTube, please do me a favorite. Please like
this video, share it, and leave a comment down below,
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If you're listening on podcasts, please follow the podcast feed,
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going to help us get in front of more Raging
Cajun fans just like yourself. So the moment a lot
of you've probably been waiting for. You may have even
skipped a lot of the first half of the episode
to get to this point, what was Coach n Apier
saying about the rageing cagents, Like I said, he spent
four seasons there and he had high praise for not
just the way things were running the organization, but the
community and how he felt about the people and how
they helped him to gain, you know, a little bit
of moxie and a good feeling about himself as a
head coach to give him confidence before he headed to Florida,
And so I asked him how he felt about UL
since he had left, and how he had felt they
had been doing from the outside looking.
Speaker 3: At well, I think I just gained a lot of
confidence in our system, in our process. Has met a
lot of great people. I think you learn you're only
as good as the people you have around you. We
had it all. We had President a d we had
people behind the scenes supporting the program, We had phenomenal
assistant coaches. The entire organization from top to bottom was rolling,
and we had a lot of good young people that
you look around at where those guys are at these days,
there's a lot of talented people in that building. So
our players were phenomenal so for me, you know, that
culture that we built there were searching to do that again.
I thought we were close at Florida, came up a
little short, and now we get to start over and
try to do it again. So I'm looking forward to
that challenge for sure.
Speaker 1: A lot of good feelings there talking about how he
felt about the program once he left it. I only
got an opportunity to cover coach in Apier for one season,
and it was kind of a weird time because we
were coming out of COVID, so all of the zoom
interviews or all the interviews we were doing post game
during the week and all that were over Zoom and
we didn't start doing in person interviews I think until
like week eight or so, so I didn't get an
opportunity to feel just as much of you know, what
he was like in person, but from a cultural standpoint,
we saw what that team looked like in twenty twenty one.
The Levi lewis Is, the Montreal Johnson's, the Amani Bailey's,
the Lorenzo mccaskals, the Zion Hills, Eric Garr, you know,
Trey ass who would eventually move on and is now
in the NFL. Like They had a ton of talent
around that program, and I think some of that residue
that he built here is still there on this team.
Speaker 2: We talked about it in nauseum.
Speaker 1: The roster that you have currently Lunch Winfield at quarterback,
Sheldon Sampson and wide receiver Brent Gordon Junior, who is
a superstar cornerback. You have a ton of that still
in this program. It's just in a different age. You
factor in in IL, you factor in the rev share,
your factor in the transfer portal. It's a little bit
different how things are are looking. But I think what
coach Napier did and he basically handed the keys to
coach Dez. But then after that they changed the rules
of the road, you know, the way that you have
to drive, and so coach Dez has been put in
a position where that first season obviously wasn't good six
and seven and they were trying to work through some things.
Twenty twenty three was once again a six and seven season,
but you had quarterbacks to go down. Zion Chris came
in was your starting quarterback at one point, and you
willed your way to do it. Twenty twenty four was
the Sunbelt championship season, they get there, they go ten
and two, They had a ton of experience, but again
the injury bug bites you once again. Last season, the
injury bug once again biting you, and you.
Speaker 2: Fall in six and seven.
Speaker 1: And I know that a lot of that doesn't matter.
That is a factor in there, and I know it
may sound a lot like excuses, but it just is
what it is. So now the expectation coming in is
to have some of this experience that you have coming
back offensive pieces and then on the defensive side of
the ball, and being able to try to build off
of that and ultimately do what you want to do,
which is to win a Sunbelt championship and try to
find a spot there in the college Football Playoff and
compete on one of the biggest stages in all of
the sport. The final thing that me and Coach Napier
talked about that I want to play for you was
how he felt about coach Dez. Before coaching Napier got there,
Coach Dez was on the previous staff under Mark Husbeth.
Before that, he was coaching at the high school level,
Essential Episcopal Catholic of New Iberia, and all of those
things like that. So when the transition happened, Coach Napier
kept him on the staff. He eventually became the tight
ends coach, co offensive coordinator, and all of those great
things like that, getting him an opportunity to be able
to game plan called plays, help to establish the play
calling and all of those things like that. And that's
ultimately why I think he was named the guy outside
of also him being a ul alum, him being from
New Iberia, being about as local and as as Cajun
as you can possibly be. And so I asked Coaching
Apier about coach Dez and what he thought he has
become as a head coach, and he's what he had said.
Speaker 2: He's incredible.
Speaker 3: You know, he's one of the young superstars in our profession.
It just happens to be occasion, you know, and be
from the hometown and be a former legend there as
a players. So you know, they've they've done a nice
job with a high school evaluations and recruitment, and I
think that, you know, he's got to continue to fight
to retain players. The community has got to step up
and support him in that regard. They know what to do.
He's a great coach. And they've got a good staff,
so they're gonna have a good team this year. You know,
they're they're one of the sleepers in this league in
my opinion, and you watched their take from last year.
Their their close. So this quarterback they have coming back
is a problem. And I think they played really good defense,
so they're gonna be tough to deal with. And I'm
excited to see how they compete this year.
Speaker 1: Excited to see how they compete this year. And you
heard him there and that bite giving kudos to lunch
Winfield that he's going to be a problem. We saw
what he did in the Marshall game, rallying the team
back to ultimately getting an overtime victory, and I think
the conference notices that. You know, I think that again,
if he is able to stay healthy, the sky is
the limit, not just for this team offensively, but for
this team as a whole towards the goals that they
want to reach. Coach Dais again has been put in
an interesting situation because he takes over and the landscape
that it was for coaching Apier is not the same
that it is for him. That is again not an excuse,
that is just is what it is. I think that
now as they enter this season, all of the expectations
are there for the taking, and it's going to be
about how well can the players execute, how well can
coaches scheme to put these players in the best position,
and ultimately, how do they win one score in close games? Because,
like coach Napier had kind of alluded to in that
sound by, they were close and the difference may have
been players not executing a play, a scheme, or a
situation where the team is simply out coached. We don't
know because we're on the other side of things always
what it is that could be the reason why things
don't pan out. But with the amount of talent that
you have bringing back and some of the experience that
you have across the board as a team, I think
that a lot of that not knowing and not having
it or not having execution, a lot of that has
to go away because you have guys that have been
on in the program.
Speaker 2: They've experienced what it's like to play in the Sunbelt.
Speaker 1: So the room for error is a lot smaller now
because it's not like, oh, you're a true freshman, Oh
you've never played before, You've been rotating, or you've been
a starter, or you've played multiple games multiple seasons. Now
it's about going out and proving that. The last thing
that I want to get into the Sunbelt Coaches Poll
I told you you know, we talked about in the
previous episode. Phil still put out his poll. But the
Sunbelt Coaches Poll came out a few days ago and
Louisiana was picked to finish second in the Sunbelt West.
So Phil still picks Occasions to win the West, and
the Sunbelt Coaches Poll has Louisiana picked to finish second
in the West. Again, here's how the polling is looking.
It is Troy first, Louisiana, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Southern
miss South Alabama, and ULM. Now, in terms of first
place votes, Troy got twelve and Louisiana got one. So
I'm about as sure as I can be that one
very well. Is Mike Decimal fully believing that his team
is gonna be able to get the job done, And
that's what the coach is supposed to do. He's supposed
to believe in his team, and he's supposed to invote
confidence in them, and then as he pumps them up
it's their job to then go out and back him
up with their game. On the sun Belt All Preseason
Honors Team, Sheldon Sampson again his first team All sun Belt.
Brent Gordon again his first team All sun Belt. No
surprises there. We've talked about it multiple times. There's no
need to go over that again. Second Team, Caden Morrow
on the offensive line. It's Gerald West on the defensive line.
So you have some guys there that are experienced and
that have a lot of star power to them as
they enter this season. Things are only going to continue
to heat up as we get closer to September when
Louisiana will open the twenty twenty six campaign against Lamar.
Speaker 2: So that's that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: Also, coach n Apier was jokingly saying, I asked him
my final question to him. I don't have that cut
up for you guys, but in my final question to him,
you know, I jokingly asked him, is he rooting for
Occagion's Duke's Sunbelt Championship game? And you know, he said
that there have been a lot of group text conversations
about that, and you know he's hoping that it will
happen because it'll make him extremely happy to see kind
of the fruits of his labor that he, you know,
planted a seat in one place and now what he
could be establishing here in another place.
Speaker 2: So we'll see how it pans out.
Speaker 1: James Madison was picked to win the East and Phil
Stills Poe and also in the Sunbelt coaches, so a
lot of expectations for coach Napier. Great guy, great conversation
with him. Like I said, you can check out that
full interview I have at linked down in the comments.
It's on KTC dot com at my day job, and
so you can go and check that out there. So
that's gonna wrap up this episode of Raging Rundown. If
you made it to this point in the video, thank
you so much. Please do me a favor. Please like it,
share it, and leave a comment down below. But most importantly,
make sure you subscribe to the channel. If you're listening,
please follow the podcast feed, rate the show, and leave
us a review because that's going to help us get
in front of more Raging Cajun fans. Just like yourself.
I'm your guy, jam Marcus Fitzpatrick. We'll see you guys
next time.