Sports Illustrated Article on Billy Napier & Cajun Football Program
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 7:26 pm
https://www.si.com/college-football/201 ... nick-saban
Some seven months into Napier’s tenure here, the football offices are abuzz, not only with renewed enthusiasm, but with more people. Napier took this job on the promise that he could expand the football staff, a vision stemming from his five seasons on Nick Saban’s staff that he discussed with athletic director Bryan Maggard during the hiring process.
Napier sold Maggard on the same Process that Saban implemented in Tuscaloosa, a system that Napier saw roar into action in 2011, the first season (and title) he experienced as an offensive analyst within the Alabama machine.
“There is a method to the madness,” says Louisiana offensive coordinator Rob Sale, who worked for six years as a support staff member for Saban. “Everything, when you walk into this building, has the Alabama backbone. How we do our film breakdown, summer scouting reports, academic point structure, offseason program … everything is the same. We’re going to win here.”
Maggard proudly details how Louisiana’s non-football coaching staff has grown by about 75%: two strength coaches, a handful of strength interns, three nutrionists and more than a dozen others who juggle duties in multiple departments, from recruiting to quality control. The athletic department’s snack budget went from zero to $1.5 million. The football program’s assistant coach salary pool increased by 40% to $2 million, and the school began to pay the full cost of attendance for athletes, something the NCAA permitted for the first time in 2015.