With the conversation of Florida football head coach Billy Napier being on the hot seat, it seems as if the program themselves are confident in the future with him at the forefront. Before fans are recording their predictions for the Florida football opener against the University of Miami, Gators Athletic Director Scott Stricklin was on the Paul Finebaum Show associated with ESPN and spoke about his confidence in Napier.

There is no doubt that the Gators the past few seasons has been underwhelming with Napier at the helm as he's 11-14 so far with the program. While the trend seems to be that the win total for the Florida football team could be around the same, Stricklin is confident that the team can turn it around.

“Billy [Napier] is a man of substance. He's a leader of substance, he is very methodical, which probably long term is going to be really good for Florida and for our football program,” Stricklin said. “Because he's not going to cut a corner, he's not going to take a shortcut, he's going to be a really, really solid, solid foundation. And he's going to get this thing going to be at the level that all Gators want to be at, which is competing for championships, playing in meaningful postseason games. And once he gets it to that point, it's going to stay at that point.”

Florida football AD envisions Billy Napier being coach for “long time”

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This year will no doubt he a tough one as even Napier mentioned as the start of the schedule features many teams that are expected to be ranked amongst the Top 25 in polls. However, Stricklin sees the vision and told Finebaum that he notices how he has improved the roster with the right people to take the Gators over the hump.

“So I see the steps he's taken, the kind of caliber of young people he's brought in, he's improved the roster, he's improved the overall structure of the team,” Stricklin said. “And I think…we have been patient as a university that patience is going to be rewarded, and I really believe Billy Napier is going to the head coach in Florida for a long, long time.”

Time will tell if Stricklin is right on his intuition as it all starts Saturday afternoon when the Florida football team opens their season against an in-state rivalry against the Miami Hurricanes.