One by one, the moves are telling the story. Billy Napier is all-in on the 2024 season.

He has added an experienced defensive mind to his staff as co-defensive coordinator.

He hired a new strength and conditioning coach.

He signed a 3rd quarterback from the transfer portal.

He tried to hire Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr.

And the offseason of change is just beginning in Gainesville, where Napier’s first 2 seasons as coach at Florida have translated to an 11-14 record. Just how ominous is that start?

He is the first Florida coach since 1946 to begin his coaching career with back-to-back losing seasons.

Meanwhile, the combined record of Florida’s opponents in the 2024 season — the first season with the 16-team SEC — is 106-50. I’ll save you the time of research: no Power 4 team has a more difficult 2024 schedule.

Hence, the sense of urgency.

There’s little doubt that 2024 is win or walk for Napier, and if you don’t think he knows this, look at offseason moves.

— Florida returns rejuvenated QB Graham Mertz and signed DJ Lagway, the nation’s No. 2-rated quarterback (according to the 247Sport composite). So why did Napier add Yale QB Aidan Warner?

Because he can’t afford to be without another option at the most important position on the field — should Mertz and/or Lagway miss games because of injury. Warner, who chose Florida over Miami, was a 3-star recruit in 2023 who redshirted.

— Napier added Roberts, his DC at Louisiana in 2019 and a successful and respected coach in the NCAA lower divisions prior to that, to help young DC Austin Armstrong.

Armstrong, 31, was clearly overwhelmed in 2023 during his first season coordinating a defense, his unit producing historically bad numbers. Florida gave up an average of 33.6 points in SEC games and was last in the SEC in turnovers gained (7) and next to last in sacks (22).

— Napier added strength and conditioning coach Craig Fitzgerald, a widely-respected college and NFL veteran who has worked with some of the game’s best coaches, including Ralph Friedgen (Maryland), Tim Murphy (Harvard), Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) and Bill O’Brien (Penn State, Houston Texans).

Murphy, Spurrier and O’Brien have publicly raved about Fitzgerald, and his importance to a football program. Florida has been pushed around on the lines of scrimmage the past 2 seasons and can’t afford another season of opponents imposing their physical will.

— Multiple sources told Saturday Down South that Napier took a run at Weis Jr., a definitive sign that he understands the enormity of what he’s facing in 2024. He couldn’t convince Weis — one of the game’s top young offensive minds — to leave Ole Miss. But his pursuit shows he’s interested in giving up complete control of the offense (he coaches the quarterbacks and calls plays, despite the staff titles) and becoming more of a CEO coach — if he can find an OC who fits.

To be fair to Napier, the Florida offense got better in the 2nd half of last season when Mertz began to take more chances with 2nd- and 3rd-level throws and was weened off the safe, dink and dunk throws that dominated the first half of the season. Not unlike Jayden Daniels’ first season at LSU, which was contained early by Daniels not taking enough chances downfield.

But the rest of the Florida team continued its dysfunctional ways in Year 2, the fundamental issues ranging from pre-snap penalties, to poor tackling and leverage, to special teams implosions. The same operational issues that should’ve been cleaned up in the early stages of Year 1.

It’s those issues that have cost games, including a last-second fire drill special teams field goal attempt that led to a penalty that affected a missed field goal — one that would’ve won the Arkansas game in regulation and given the Gators bowl eligibility.

Not that another 6-7 record (or even 7-6) would’ve changed a win-or-walk reality of 2024, but it would’ve given a young team 15 more practices together. Players need practice and game repetitions, and the potential momentum of a bowl win.

A program desperate for something good to happen could’ve gotten it in the postseason. Instead, it quickly lost key players to the transfer portal — and the negative momentum continued.

“It’s such a fine line between winning games and getting fired in this league,” an SEC coach told SDS. “You’re on the edge every week. If you don’t have confidence — and I’m not breaking any news saying that team lacks confidence — you’re running blind in a dark, dark valley.”

The roster is now nearly entirely made up of players Napier recruited or signed from the transfer portal, and there’s hope with young talent upgrading the 2-deep depth chart (even though Florida has been hurt by transfer portal defections).

That, more than anything, is what these offseason moves are all about. It’s staff realignment (Napier also spoke with former LSU coach Ed Orgeron about a job), and roster management, and the delicate dance between the two.

The current numbers — 22 players (12 who started games) in the transfer portal, 8 signed — still leave Napier searching for impact players for 2024.

Because that’s the only way this thing turns: a better, smarter roster pulling the program from a rare 3-season dive and avoiding a final, potential indignity tagged to Napier’s tenure: a 4th straight losing season for the program.

That hasn’t happened since 1938.

How about that for a sense of urgency?