Franz does a good job of comparing their circumstances when they took over as HBC.
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
Ward Pell spent her Mondays during the 1979 college football season at Bill Pinner’s shoe store down at the corner of University Avenue and Southwest 34th Street. This was her weekly therapy, the hour or so of her week in which she didn’t have to hear everybody in Gainesville with an opinion asking just what the hell was the University of Florida thinking when they hired Charley Pell as the head football coach?
The 1979 Gators were among the worst teams in the country. Their 0-10-1 record under first year coach Charley Pell was UF’s second straight losing season. It wouldn’t be until 2013 that the Gators had another loser. In Douglas Adair Dickey’s final season as the UF head coach in 1978 the Gators went 4-7. Dickey was fired and after a nationwide search that seemed to zero in on Lou Holtz, Florida pulled off a surprise hire by luring Charley Pell away from Clemson, where his two teams went 18-4-1. Clemson’s 10-1 season in 1978 had folks thinking the Tigers and a national championship (it happened in 1981) were on a collision course.
Ward didn’t want to leave Clemson – “I asked him if he was crazy because this could be a regular disaster,” she admits – but off to Florida they went only to discover that when it came to facilities, recruiting, discipline and organization Ward proved to be psychic. Things were so bad that days before the Gators began two-a-days for the 1979 season, there was a midnight raid on Yon Hall in which the entire team was rousted out onto the football field while police with dogs did a room-to-room search for drugs, guns and all things illegal.
Twenty-six players got their walking papers that night, setting the stage for a season to forget in 1979 and perhaps a business year of unparalleled profits at Pinner’s Fine Footwear.
“I told Charley if you don’t start winning I’m going to buy out Bill Pinner’s store,” Ward said Thursday evening. “[At Pinner’s] we’d sit and talk football. It wasn’t nasty talk like there was going around in Gainesville because we were losing. We had a good time, I felt better when I left and I had a bag full of shoes.”
A year later, Ward still went to Bill Pinner’s, still talked football and still left with a bag full of shoes, only this time the Gators were winning football games. From 0-10-1 in 1979 the Gators improved to 8-4 in Charley Pell’s second year in 1980. It still ranks as one of the single most impressive turnarounds in college football history.
What made the 1980 season so remarkable was the number of freshmen, redshirt freshmen and sophomores that Charley Pell had recruited who were plugged in to fill holes in the roster. Quarterback Wayne Peace was a freshman that year. James Jones was the sophomore tailback. Dwayne Dixon was a redshirt freshman wide receiver. Wilber Marshall was a freshman tight end who would become the two-time national defensive player of the year at linebacker when he switched positions a year later. Dan Fike, Tony Lilly, Vito McKeever, Roger Sibbald, Mike Mularkey, Fernando Jackson and Robin Fisher were among the kids who played almost by necessity.
“Lord we were so young, but they wanted to win,” Ward Pell says. “Charley always said that the desire to win is worthless without the will to prepare.”
Still a Florida fan – “Gator ‘til I die,” she will tell you – Ward sees an almost eerie number of similarities between the 2023 Gators and the 1980 team starting with the coaches. Charley Pell cut his coaching teeth at Alabama under Bear Bryant, was a 28-year-old head coach in Division II at Jacksonville State, and later the head coach at Clemson before taking the Florida job.
Billy Napier was an assistant coach at Clemson and really became a hot coaching property while working as an assistant at Alabama under Nick Saban before taking the Louisiana job where his four seasons produced a 40-12 record.
“Charley grew up coaching for Bear Bryant; Billy Napier for Nick Saban,” Ward says. “Probably the two greatest college football coaches of all time.”
Prior to the 1980 season, the Gators had posted consecutive losing seasons, first under Dickey then under Pell. Prior to the 2023 season, the Gators posted consecutive 6-7 seasons, first in 2021 under Dan Mullen, the second under Napier in his first season on the Florida job. Pell dismissed 26 players weeks before his first game as the Florida coach and more were gone prior to 1980. Since Napier took over as the Florida coach in December of 2021, 37 players have transferred out.
Pell went young by necessity in 1980. Napier will be young by necessity in 2023 although he does have the advantage of a few plug-and-play older guys he picked up in the transfer portal such as middle linebacker Teradja Mitchell, safety R.J. Moten, right guard Micah Mazzccua, wide receiver Ricky Pearsall and quarterback Graham Mertz.
Coming off an 0-10-1 season, most of the experts thought if Charley Pell could get the Gators anywhere close to break even it would be coach of the year worthy. Coming off a 6-7 season in which the Gators seemed to find creative ways to lose games and the defense had a penchant for turning third-and-12 into first-and-10, most of the experts are lowballing their predicted win totals for Billy Napier. Some of the experts are even saying this season will be so mediocre that Napier will be on one of the hotter seats in the country in 2024.
But does it have to be? Go back a little further with Charley Pell to Jacksonville State when the 28-year-old head coach went 3-6 in year one. Year two saw the Gamecocks post a 10-0 record. Then came the Florida turnaround, another remarkable coaching job that no one expected. Year two doesn’t have to be a bad season.
Napier took over a Louisiana team in 2018 that had posted three consecutive losing seasons. His first team went 7-7. Florida assistant head coach/strength coach Mark Hocke, who has been with Napier every step of the way since 2018, says that first Louisiana team “won some games we shouldn’t have and we lost some we should have won.”
That sounds a lot like the 2022 Gators who were a handful of plays away from 9-3 or 10-2 and an equal number of plays away from 3-9.
Napier went 11-3 in year two at Louisiana. Now, no one expects the 2023 Gators to win 11 games, but just like Charley Pell had a history of season two magic, Napier’s first go-round as a head coach produced an unexpected turnaround in his second season. Many of the skeptics who only a month or two ago were saying Florida would be lucky to duplicate last year’s 6-7 record are beginning to lean toward something better. Seven wins? Seems quite do-able. Eight? Not out of the question. Nine? Some might call that a reach, but stranger things have happened in the past.
There is another similarity between Charley Pell and Billy Napier that Ward Pell sees. It’s on the recruiting trail. Charley Pell was a relentless recruiter who in a rather short period of time put together what amounted to an NFL roster. Florida-Auburn 1983 is often mentioned as perhaps the game in which more future NFL players (57, almost equally divided between UF and AU) saw the field than any other in college football history.
In recruiting circles, it was said that if Charley Pell got across the kitchen table from a recruit’s mama, you could etch it in stone that the kid was going to be a Gator. Shortly after taking the Florida job, Charley Pell zeroed in on James Jones from Pompano Beach Blanche Ely. James wanted to be a Gator, but wherever his mother told him to go was where he was going to sign.
“Mama Grace, loved that woman,” Ward says. “She played Charley along like you wouldn’t believe. She wanted James to be Charley’s birthday present. Well, Charley’s down in Pompano and back here in Gainesville, Ben Campen and his wife have planned this big surprise birthday party for Charley. They thought he’d be back in Gainesville about 5:30. So 5:30 comes and we get a phone call that Charley’s not coming.
“Mama Grace told Charley, ‘I’m giving you James for your birthday present’ so what’s he supposed to do? He called and a whole room full of people understood. They knew all about James Jones.”
Ward sees that kind of determination and charm in Billy Napier. That’s another reason she thinks Florida football is in good hands for the future.
“Kids and their mamas loved Charley Pell because they believed he really cared about them and it wasn’t just about the football,” Ward said. “That’s what Billy Napier’s doing. That’s why he’s going to succeed.”
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
Ward Pell spent her Mondays during the 1979 college football season at Bill Pinner’s shoe store down at the corner of University Avenue and Southwest 34th Street. This was her weekly therapy, the hour or so of her week in which she didn’t have to hear everybody in Gainesville with an opinion asking just what the hell was the University of Florida thinking when they hired Charley Pell as the head football coach?
The 1979 Gators were among the worst teams in the country. Their 0-10-1 record under first year coach Charley Pell was UF’s second straight losing season. It wouldn’t be until 2013 that the Gators had another loser. In Douglas Adair Dickey’s final season as the UF head coach in 1978 the Gators went 4-7. Dickey was fired and after a nationwide search that seemed to zero in on Lou Holtz, Florida pulled off a surprise hire by luring Charley Pell away from Clemson, where his two teams went 18-4-1. Clemson’s 10-1 season in 1978 had folks thinking the Tigers and a national championship (it happened in 1981) were on a collision course.
Ward didn’t want to leave Clemson – “I asked him if he was crazy because this could be a regular disaster,” she admits – but off to Florida they went only to discover that when it came to facilities, recruiting, discipline and organization Ward proved to be psychic. Things were so bad that days before the Gators began two-a-days for the 1979 season, there was a midnight raid on Yon Hall in which the entire team was rousted out onto the football field while police with dogs did a room-to-room search for drugs, guns and all things illegal.
Twenty-six players got their walking papers that night, setting the stage for a season to forget in 1979 and perhaps a business year of unparalleled profits at Pinner’s Fine Footwear.
“I told Charley if you don’t start winning I’m going to buy out Bill Pinner’s store,” Ward said Thursday evening. “[At Pinner’s] we’d sit and talk football. It wasn’t nasty talk like there was going around in Gainesville because we were losing. We had a good time, I felt better when I left and I had a bag full of shoes.”
A year later, Ward still went to Bill Pinner’s, still talked football and still left with a bag full of shoes, only this time the Gators were winning football games. From 0-10-1 in 1979 the Gators improved to 8-4 in Charley Pell’s second year in 1980. It still ranks as one of the single most impressive turnarounds in college football history.
What made the 1980 season so remarkable was the number of freshmen, redshirt freshmen and sophomores that Charley Pell had recruited who were plugged in to fill holes in the roster. Quarterback Wayne Peace was a freshman that year. James Jones was the sophomore tailback. Dwayne Dixon was a redshirt freshman wide receiver. Wilber Marshall was a freshman tight end who would become the two-time national defensive player of the year at linebacker when he switched positions a year later. Dan Fike, Tony Lilly, Vito McKeever, Roger Sibbald, Mike Mularkey, Fernando Jackson and Robin Fisher were among the kids who played almost by necessity.
“Lord we were so young, but they wanted to win,” Ward Pell says. “Charley always said that the desire to win is worthless without the will to prepare.”
Still a Florida fan – “Gator ‘til I die,” she will tell you – Ward sees an almost eerie number of similarities between the 2023 Gators and the 1980 team starting with the coaches. Charley Pell cut his coaching teeth at Alabama under Bear Bryant, was a 28-year-old head coach in Division II at Jacksonville State, and later the head coach at Clemson before taking the Florida job.
Billy Napier was an assistant coach at Clemson and really became a hot coaching property while working as an assistant at Alabama under Nick Saban before taking the Louisiana job where his four seasons produced a 40-12 record.
“Charley grew up coaching for Bear Bryant; Billy Napier for Nick Saban,” Ward says. “Probably the two greatest college football coaches of all time.”
Prior to the 1980 season, the Gators had posted consecutive losing seasons, first under Dickey then under Pell. Prior to the 2023 season, the Gators posted consecutive 6-7 seasons, first in 2021 under Dan Mullen, the second under Napier in his first season on the Florida job. Pell dismissed 26 players weeks before his first game as the Florida coach and more were gone prior to 1980. Since Napier took over as the Florida coach in December of 2021, 37 players have transferred out.
Pell went young by necessity in 1980. Napier will be young by necessity in 2023 although he does have the advantage of a few plug-and-play older guys he picked up in the transfer portal such as middle linebacker Teradja Mitchell, safety R.J. Moten, right guard Micah Mazzccua, wide receiver Ricky Pearsall and quarterback Graham Mertz.
Coming off an 0-10-1 season, most of the experts thought if Charley Pell could get the Gators anywhere close to break even it would be coach of the year worthy. Coming off a 6-7 season in which the Gators seemed to find creative ways to lose games and the defense had a penchant for turning third-and-12 into first-and-10, most of the experts are lowballing their predicted win totals for Billy Napier. Some of the experts are even saying this season will be so mediocre that Napier will be on one of the hotter seats in the country in 2024.
But does it have to be? Go back a little further with Charley Pell to Jacksonville State when the 28-year-old head coach went 3-6 in year one. Year two saw the Gamecocks post a 10-0 record. Then came the Florida turnaround, another remarkable coaching job that no one expected. Year two doesn’t have to be a bad season.
Napier took over a Louisiana team in 2018 that had posted three consecutive losing seasons. His first team went 7-7. Florida assistant head coach/strength coach Mark Hocke, who has been with Napier every step of the way since 2018, says that first Louisiana team “won some games we shouldn’t have and we lost some we should have won.”
That sounds a lot like the 2022 Gators who were a handful of plays away from 9-3 or 10-2 and an equal number of plays away from 3-9.
Napier went 11-3 in year two at Louisiana. Now, no one expects the 2023 Gators to win 11 games, but just like Charley Pell had a history of season two magic, Napier’s first go-round as a head coach produced an unexpected turnaround in his second season. Many of the skeptics who only a month or two ago were saying Florida would be lucky to duplicate last year’s 6-7 record are beginning to lean toward something better. Seven wins? Seems quite do-able. Eight? Not out of the question. Nine? Some might call that a reach, but stranger things have happened in the past.
There is another similarity between Charley Pell and Billy Napier that Ward Pell sees. It’s on the recruiting trail. Charley Pell was a relentless recruiter who in a rather short period of time put together what amounted to an NFL roster. Florida-Auburn 1983 is often mentioned as perhaps the game in which more future NFL players (57, almost equally divided between UF and AU) saw the field than any other in college football history.
In recruiting circles, it was said that if Charley Pell got across the kitchen table from a recruit’s mama, you could etch it in stone that the kid was going to be a Gator. Shortly after taking the Florida job, Charley Pell zeroed in on James Jones from Pompano Beach Blanche Ely. James wanted to be a Gator, but wherever his mother told him to go was where he was going to sign.
“Mama Grace, loved that woman,” Ward says. “She played Charley along like you wouldn’t believe. She wanted James to be Charley’s birthday present. Well, Charley’s down in Pompano and back here in Gainesville, Ben Campen and his wife have planned this big surprise birthday party for Charley. They thought he’d be back in Gainesville about 5:30. So 5:30 comes and we get a phone call that Charley’s not coming.
“Mama Grace told Charley, ‘I’m giving you James for your birthday present’ so what’s he supposed to do? He called and a whole room full of people understood. They knew all about James Jones.”
Ward sees that kind of determination and charm in Billy Napier. That’s another reason she thinks Florida football is in good hands for the future.
“Kids and their mamas loved Charley Pell because they believed he really cared about them and it wasn’t just about the football,” Ward said. “That’s what Billy Napier’s doing. That’s why he’s going to succeed.”
