Epps: Napier earns a big-time chance early

Sometimes a boy comes into your life and you can sense his purpose, almost see his future. Like the time Billy Napier, then the young son of longtime Murray County High School coach Bill Napier, met former Furman quarterback Tim Sorrells.

The two got to talking about their children, and Sorrells smiled and asked little Billy Napier what position he wanted to play.

“Quarterback,” Napier quickly replied and, wouldn’t you know, Sorrells coached that little kid when Napier was Furman’s quarterback many years later.

And then there are times you see a young man develop a perfect symmetry of traits: kind but demanding, a hard worker but a great communicator. Maybe that came from a nurturing mother and a demanding father who knew a lot about football. There was the time Bill Napier put his son on defense at Murray County, not due to his skills, but because he communicated to his teammates so well before the snap that they played better.

You see a kid like this, and you know he’s not just going to be somebody, he’s hurtling toward notoriety faster than the others. And, you know, everyone who thought that about Billy Napier was right: At the age of 29, the kid from Murray County is the offensive coordinator at Clemson and one of the best football recruiters in the country.

He’s not forgetting his Murray County roots. Watch Clemson closely next season, and you might see some of Bill Napier’s influence from his Indians days.

“The foundation of what we do is a product of what Dad taught me, from reading defenses to evaluating players to seeing certain defensive fronts to how you go about your business,” Napier said. “From a football standpoint, those things he taught me will be on display at Clemson.”

Napier didn’t like how his ascent to offensive coordinator started, but it’s too important to skip past. Napier was the tight ends coach at Clemson last season when the school fired coach Tommy Bowden, the man who took a chance on the kid from Murray County. Five minutes later, Billy Napier called his father.

“He was upset,” said Bill Napier, now an assistant coach at Southeast Whitfield. “He wasn’t expecting Tommy to get fired. Without Tommy getting fired, though, this doesn’t happen.”

The next day, interim coach Dabo Swinney fired offensive coordinator Rob Spence and promoted Napier. Prove yourself, Swinney told him. And here’s when Napier really needed those organization and communication skills he developed as a kid.

Days later, Clemson lost a close game to Georgia Tech. But the Tigers, their season five-and-a-half feet into the ground, won four of their next five games and played a bowl game on New Year’s Day. They scored 27 points at Boston College and 31 against South Carolina’s highly ranked defense in the rivalry win.

“It was really stressful at times because of the responsibility being put on you on short notice,” Napier said. “At the same time, it was good to be back with the quarterbacks, exciting to have a chance to be a play-caller and get back to being really involved in game day and strategy. I felt like I was playing again, to some degree.

“I tell people that it’s the coolest thing next to playing.”

Napier, of course, got the full-time job last month at an age when most young assistants are just hoping to coach a position.

“I just think Billy is one of the bright young coaches in this business,” Swinney said after hiring Napier. “My gut, my instincts, tell me he is one of the bright coaches and I think he has a great, great future as a quarterbacks coach, as an offensive coordinator, and I think one of these days he will be a head coach.”

If that happened tomorrow, Napier still wouldn’t be too young. He’s always been a little ahead of everyone else, partially the product of a dad who was, admittedly, “hard on Billy” but taught him to raise his expectations at a young age.

“Dad taught me the standards for yourself have to be higher than anybody else’s standards,” Billy Napier said. “Ultimately, that makes you a mentally tough person and allows you to stay focused. Any criticism is water off your back. I couldn’t imagine our relationship being much better.”

Every Saturday will be a tribute to his father, some principles of Clemson’s style reflecting those last seen in a northwest Georgia town.