Youth Movement

How old is he again?

Billy Napier knows they are asking. He knows some are doing double-takes at his age.

At 29 years old, he is the youngest coordinator in the history of Clemson football, beating out Whitey Jordan, who became offensive coordinator at 32 in 1968.

There is this question of inexperience and the doubt that comes with it. He knows patience and leash slack are among the rarest commodities in power-conference football.

Ask Napier for a road map to coordinatorship at 29, and he says it's simply a matter of starting early, benefiting from being a coach's son.

"I've been planning on being a coach since I can remember," Napier says.

His father, a high school head coach, remembers the path starting before Napier's first start, a night before a middle school scrimmage.

"Billy was so fired up, I found out afterward he stayed up all night," said Bill Napier, a high school head coach for nearly two decades at Murray County High (Ga.). "He just sat on his bed with his wrist bands around his wrists going over this and that in his head. He was so excited it was impossible for him to turn off the lights and go to sleep.

"It was a kind of a preview of his intensity."

If you are going to start with one quality, you might as well start with intensity.

It bothers Napier's wife that he doesn't read novels or anything not related to football, coaching or leadership.

It troubles Napier's coach at Furman, Bobby Lamb, that Napier "doesn't have any hobbies."

Such singular focus might explain how he broke the single-season passing yardage (2,475) and completion marks (68.5) at Furman in 2002 when he was a finalist for the Walter Payton Award.

You begin to understand how he arrived here at age 29, from Furman quarterback to Clemson graduate assistant — when he realized he might want to be more than a high school coach — to quarterbacks coach at S.C. State, to tight ends coach at Clemson, to recruiting coordinator to offensive coordinator.

Clemson Nation is curious to see what this prodigy, not old enough to run for Senate — which may be a less scrutinized line of work in South Carolina — does with the Tigers' offense.

Lamb said Napier is the only quarterback he's ever coached who would option out of a passing call to go to a running play.

"We ran a Pro-I, run-first offense," Lamb said. "He saw the value in our best years of running the football."

Exhibit A: In a road win against Georgia Southern in the 2001 Division I-AA playoffs, Napier threw only 12 passes.

"He understood, we understood, what we had to do under a lot of distress," Lamb said. "I think he sees the value of that. He sees value of what he has back there in (C.J.) Spiller."

Napier, who will call plays with Swinney holding a veto card, said he is intrigued by overachieving offenses.

In addition to visiting Texas with the staff this spring, Napier also spent three days at Air Force and a day at Wofford.

"They don't have major players," Napier said of Air Force and Wofford, "but they are capable of scoring. I'm just looking to learn, to apply what fits us. ... I even like watching high school games sometimes because they have some good ideas."

He has been working on his plan since the season ended. Lamb worries that a young offensive coordinator might try to fit in too much.

"Billy has to do a good job of taking what he has learned and put it into a package," Lamb said. "I think that is the battle most offensive coordinators face. You can do too much. The best coordinators are the guys who take a package and take their talent and put it inside that package and stick with it. You can't practice nearly as much as you used to.

"Mark Richt at Florida State — they had a system ... They never deviated from it, and you knew what you were going to get. They were going to execute."

Richt's advice to a young coordinator: "Just to be yourself. Don't try and be someone you are not. Offensive coordinator is a lot more than calling plays. You have to manage coaches, manage players and you have to deal with people and the media."

Napier also plans on initiating ownership at the quarterback position. He had an uncommon amount as a young player, running his father's option at Murray County School. Such freedom and responsibility continued at Furman where he would make calls and pre-snap reads at the line.

Napier intends for his quarterbacks to have a similar amount of leeway at the line of scrimmage.

"It's about ownership at that position," Napier said. "If you really want to build a true winner, you have to have a guy who can take a team and put it on his back. You have got to have that capability. If you have had to prepare for those opportunities, you are forced to become a student of the game.

"If a quarterback you're coaching knows, 'Hey next fall there is going to be a number of times where I'm going to have an opportunity to put us in the play, I better get ready to do that. I better really try to learn the big picture and better anticipate things.' "

Even if Napier executes the perfect plan on dry erase boards, even if he produces a quarterback who takes ownership, even if he has done proper diligence, he knows there will be rough patches.

He will not be new to adversity.

They call it the Miracle on the Mountain at Appalachian State. In the fall of 2002, Napier led Furman to a touchdown and a 15-14 lead with 7 seconds left. The Paladins went for two, Napier's pass was intercepted and run back for two points and a loss.

"That's as low as it gets for me as a coach ... and for him as a person," Lamb said. "That was a tough week and a tough day ... it is what have you done for me yesterday.

"He responded well. He came back and had one of his best weeks against The Citadel ... He immediately moved on."

Napier competed 11-of-20 passes for 163 yards in a 37-10 rout of The Citadel.

His senior year of high school was also pocked with adversity, injuries, handing off to a third-string running back by season's end, losing two games in the final moments, going into the finale 4-5 against rival Dalton (9-0), which was ranked No. 5 in the state.

"Billy throws a touchdown with 12 seconds to go to win the game to make us 5-5, and it kind of undid a lot of things that happened that season," Bill Napier said. "It was perseverance, a last chance.

"On that play ... he made the call. We are in a hurry-up, driving 70 yards down the field, they are in Man 3 and he comes to the hash, I'm about halfway, and he says 'run a post-wheel.' We run a post-wheel. The wheel route is open, we throw it in there for six, and the celebration begins."

Maybe to know Napier is to know that play.

In the closing moments of a forgettable season, when interest could have wandered, he knew the offense through preparation, studied the opponent well enough to orchestrate that drive, to make that final call — the right call — on the fly.

If he can do that consistently on the big stage in the coaching boxes of major college football stadiums, his age will quickly be forgotten.

Reach Travis Sawchik at tsawchik@postandcourier.com and check out his Clemson blog at www.postandcourier.com/blogs/tiger_tracks.