On any given Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in 1990s Chatsworth, Georgia, Kurt Napier and his family would gather around the TV to watch Southeastern Conference teams duke it out on CBS.
To them, football was tradition. The SEC in some parts of their northern Georgia town was religious.
No one would’ve imagined that on that same television, 30 years from those moments, someone in the family would have an impact on what they saw on Saturdays.
However, Kurt’s older brother Billy Napier, who grew up with him and their brother Matt and sister Whitney, not only progressed as a coach to have his hands in the SEC but is now in his second year as the head coach for the Florida Gators football team.
“It’s incredible,” Kurt said. “It’s definitely one of those things that’s surreal. It’s really cool, you can’t put it into words.”
Napier never attended the Florida, Georgia rivalry game prior to joining UF as head coach, but his connections to the Peach State are strong. Not only from his family in UGA territory, but also professionally with current Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.
The Napier siblings were raised by Bill and Pam Napier. Bill, a high school football coach, immersed himself and his family in the sport by having it year-round.
Billy was a quarterback for Murray County High School. In 1998, he graduated from Murray County and went on to play college football at Furman.
The Paladins quarterback won two Southern Conference titles and was named a four-year letter winner.
While in college, Billy aided his younger brother Kurt as he took the reins at Murray State. The older brother of six years tested Kurt in everything football to keep him sharp on the field, Kurt said. Even when Kurt went on to college.
“He would always challenge me to be to know every possible defensive front, know what kind of coverages you’re looking at as I was going into my early college days at quarterback,” Kurt said.
Kurt still sees these traits today when watching his brother on Saturdays work with Florida redshirt junior quarterback Graham Mertz.
“Mertz’s development, first year as a quarterback transferring to a new offense, I know Billy’s probably been pushing him hard to get there to get on top of his game,” he said.
Nowadays, the two retired from their playing careers and moved on to coaching. Napier with the Gators, and now Kurt coaching Murray County High School’s football program.
A head coaching job in football makes things difficult when it comes to planning family get-togethers. The Napier boys are all head football coaches but still try to visit one another if possible.
Usually, during summer family vacations along 30A near the Gulf Coast of Florida or during the dead weeks of the football season with no action on the field, they’ll come together to mingle and talk ball like their father before them.
Being coaches and former quarterbacks, the brothers talk a lot on the offensive side of the game. Some plays they draw up together even make their way into their games, Kurt said.
“I saw a few concepts that we run at my high school that they ran against South Carolina this past week,” Kurt said. “Like the spacing concept in the passing game. It’s neat, and he’ll call me on his way home from work occasionally, usually in the late evenings.”
The Napier family’s SEC roots run deep through the southeastern United States. Billy’s father’s family comes from Tennessee, and his mother is from Huntsville, Alabama.
Growing up, the Napier family would always be told by their mother to root for the Alabama Crimson Tide, Kurt said.
“There’s probably pictures, hate to say it, but with Billy in Alabama gear,” Kurt said.
Napier’s mother wouldn’t be the only reason he would wear Crimson Tide later in his life.
After stints as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at Clemson and a quarterback coach at Colorado State, Billy transitioned for the first time in his career to the SEC as an analyst and assistant coach with Alabama in 2011 and from 2013 to 2017.
During his tenure, he worked as the wide receivers coach, aiding future NFL first-round draft picks like Amari Cooper, Jerry Juedy, Calvin Ridley and others toward national championships.
Working alongside him on the same practice field was then-Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart.
Smart, who has now been Georgia’s head coach since 2015, worked with Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban toward four national championships before he left for UGA.
Napier credits Smart for getting him his first job in the conference.
“Heck, [I] wouldn’t be standing here today without Kirby,” Billy said last season. “We didn’t know each other extensively, but because of our dads being coaches, seeing each other on the road, I mean, heck, I was 29 or something like that.”
For the second time in both of their SEC head coaching careers, Napier and Smart will match up against one another for the annual Florida-Georgia game at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville Oct. 28.
Last year the No. 1 Bulldogs took the Gators down in lopsided fashion with a 42-20 performance.
This time around, the Gators hope for a different outcome in the 101st edition of this rivalry. Napier and UF prepare for this game with time as they progress in practice through the bye week.
Despite being surrounded by UGA and Georgia Tech fans out in Northern Georgia, the Napier family will be in attendance, including Whitney and her husband, who are both Georgia graduates.
No matter whichever SEC connection they have; Alabama, Tennessee, or Georgia, one thing is for certain. The Napier family will come together at the greatest cocktail party south of the Florida-Georgia line.
“There’s a lot of connection to [UGA] as well, but I know how Billy is,” Kurt said. “My mom is sitting in our section — the Florida section — for that game decked out in orange and blue and cheering for the Gators.”
Contact Brandon Hernandez at bhernandez@alligator.org. Follow him on X @BranH2001.
Brandon Hernandez is currently the enterprise sports writer and sports podcast host for The Independent Alligator. He likes long walks on the sidewalk and watching basketball tape in his off time. You can find most of his work @BranH2001 on X and on The Courtside Podcast on Spotify.
