Billy Napier gets into heated exchange with Mike Norvell after Florida Gators flag plant
12/01/2024 12:04 PM
The final weekend of the college football regular season is known as rivalry week, and in 2024, it certainly lived up to that billing. Not only were there numerous instant classics played over the holiday weekend — like Georgia Tech and Georgia’s 8-overtime thriller, a nail-biter at Clemson between the Tigers and Gamecocks, and yes, the stunner in The Game — but the hatred between schools seemed to be at an all-time high, as seen in the aftermath of Michigan’s upset of Ohio State and down in Florida.
Things got very ugly in Columbus after Michigan upset Ohio State, but at Florida State, for a moment at least, it looked like things could’ve gotten just as bad after the Florida Gators planted their flag at the 50-yard line at Doak Campbell Stadium following their 31-11 victory over the Seminoles. Unlike at the Horseshoe, down in the Sunshine State, the two head coaches were at the center of the dust-up.
Mike Norvell giving Billy Napier the business for the flag planting after the FSU UF game pic.twitter.com/iEriZRktXD
— Garrett Savage (@GarrettWSavage) December 1, 2024
After the game, both Florida’s Billy Napier and Florida State’s Mike Norvell addressed the post-game incident, which came just hours after Michigan and Ohio State had to be separated by police.
“Obviously, what happened there at the end of the game is not who we want to be as a program,” Napier said, per ESPN News Services. “It’s embarrassing to me, and it’s a distraction from a really well-played football game. I want to apologize on behalf of the entire organization just in terms of how we represented the university there. We shouldn’t have done that. We won’t do that moving forward. And there will be consequences for all involved.”
Norvell, whose Noles dropped to 2-10 with the loss to Florida, didn’t get into what exactly he had to say to Napier.
“I told him what I thought,” Norvell said. “They won the game. They have the right to celebrate, just like we have in the previous years. It was just the way that we operate. And that’s fine; you want to come and do that, that is absolutely a decision you can have within a team.”
The Gators finish the season on a high-note, finishing 7-5 after a 3-3 start. Napier has safely coached his way off of the hot seat, and it’s possible that with a postseason win, Florida could enter the 2025 season with as much momentum as any team in the country.
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