“We are absolutely thrilled to identify a head football coach with the experience and success that Billy Napier brings to the University of Louisiana,” UL athletic director Bryan Maggard said in a statement issued Friday afternoon. Wochit
New UL football coach Billy Napier recently was asked about the decision to allow Will inside linebacker Tanner Holmes, an opening-game starter in 2017 who quit the team early in the season, to return this spring.
Holmes, a redshirt freshman, told The Daily Advertiser earlier this month that he is back at UL and is on scholarship.
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“I think Tanner — you know, all the guys that have eligibility left, we want those guys to stay around,” Napier said. “We want to have a chance to coach those guys, work with those guys.
“It’s not my job to judge, maybe, what was done in the past. You know, my job is to coach the players that are here now — and certainly Tanner (Holmes) has eligibility left, and is still on scholarship here, and wanted to give it another run. So we’re gonna give him another opportunity.”
Holmes, from Newton High in Texas, appeared in just two games before leaving the team. He sustained a season-ending knee injury during the 2016 games in which he played.
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