Nick Saban’s program for struggling coaches was more than a rehab center. Consider it a coaching school, too.

So much so that one SEC coach learned much more with Alabama football than he had in all of his prior stops.

“I had gotten let go at Clemson,” Florida coach Billy Napier told Josh Pate this week. “I was regrouping. Just married. Then it’s, what is the next step? You kind of have to invest, even if you have to go backwards. I think that first year at Alabama as an analyst, that was my 11th year, I would say I learned more in that year than I learned the prior ten. You think you know until you’re right in the middle of that thing.”

Napier started his career as a graduate assistant at Clemson in 2003-04. Then he joined South Carolina State as an assistant coach for quarterbacks. Then he returned to Clemson for five seasons, where he eventually became the offensive coordinator.

Once Clemson let him go, Saban hired him at Alabama in 2011 to be an offensive analyst.

“I was 30 years old at the time,” Napier said. “I was relatively still young. Obviously, you’re working with coach Saban, but it’s the other people. The network that go out there and are in the NFL and Power Four football.”

Napier turned that analyst job in Tuscaloosa into an assistant job at Colorado State in 2012 before he returned to Alabama from 2013-17 to be wide receivers coach. That earned him the Arizona State offensive coordinator job. Then, Louisiana hired him to be its head coach in 2018, where he worked until he took the Florida head coaching job in 2022. With the Gators, Napier has gone 19-19, appearing in two bowl games over three seasons.

Napier is one of a handful of coaches who used Saban’s coaching rehab to resurrect their careers. That includes Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, Maryland coach Mike Locksley and more.

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for Follow him on X and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.