“I would have grabbed that sh*t out of that kid and slung him into the stands,” and yet again The Coach JB and Big Smitty show brings us another hot take regarding this entire Cormani McClain and Billy Napier situation. The entire drama started on July 16th when some tweets on X went viral, claiming that McClain has apparently been removed from the team because of his lackluster behavior.

Now Coach JB from The Coach JB and Big Smitty show on July 17th dashes out a harsh criticism towards Billy Napier. “Napier is known to be a pushover and a non-disciplinarian. I’m blaming Billy Napier. I’m blaming Billy Napier, a guy that has no power five experience prior,” he said. According to JB, the entire scenario regarding McClain is a direct fault of Billy not being strict enough with his team. Steve Kim, a guest on the show, also added his take. “From the time that he announced his verbal commitment to Miami, it was November of 2022. We were all surprised because we thought he was going to Florida. Then he started acting funny at the end. I don’t care what this game is. I don’t care what the rules are. I’m talking about college football. You still have to have a base of kids that have old school, old-fashioned values that will buy into your program.” Kim’s perspective, although a bit orthodox, can be considered morally correct.

If Billy Napier himself had set the foundation from the beginning regarding the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of the team then maybe McClain would not have had the audacity to act like he allegedly did with all the workout sessions and meetings. But’s not just McClain’s behavior that makes Coach JB think that Nappier is a pushover. In the same episode, he described exactly why he thinks that with another anecdote. “I’m blaming Billy Napier, a guy that has no power five experience prior, who last year, if you noticed, I did a viral video of a coach actually slapping him and his assistant coach’s hands off of him and going back in the game as if, what?”, He shared the shocking incident from last year where Billy’s inaction to the situation can easily be interpreted as him being a weak leader. 

He further added how he would’ve reacted in the same situation and maybe Billy being so laid-back isn’t the best for the team or the players. “I would have grabbed that shit out of that kid and slung him into the stands. That’s the problem we have. We allow this shit. And then the kid went right back out there and played, and Billy Napier is the problem. And his high school, his high school coaches were the problem.” Safe to say, he blames the people in authority at Florida.  

This is exactly why McClain’s transfer from the Buffs to the Gators can be seen as the first red flag. Although he was a 5-star recruit, he never got on a good footing with the team. However, is the behavior the problem or is McClain destined for a different home?

Bad behavior or a misunderstanding?

Jake Schwanitz and RK put out their perspectives on the entire situation. “Everyone liked Corman on the team. It’s just he didn’t put in the work,” Schwanitz mentioned. Although McClain never had any problems with his teammates, it’s the fact that his “tardiness/immaturity” was the thing that started creeping up on his team. RK also added, “It wasn’t that the guys didn’t like him. It wasn’t that they thought he was a bad guy. It wasn’t any of that. It was just he was really struggling to the word that Travis used ‘mature.’” This was a major problem back when McClain was in Buffs and one of the prime reasons why he could never get into a proper connection with the whole team.

However, what’s surprising is that McClain has always been someone who has claimed that he wants to “play for real” instead of “playing for clicks”. So, seeing reports like this about him from On3 Nick de la Torre and also rumors of him being removed from the Gators is shocking. At the end of the day, all of this could just be some “locker room cancer” but as the season approaches, Gators fans can only hope that McClain finally gets his head back in the game.