Brian Kelly and Billy Napier don’t know each very well.

Their paths never really crossed much while Kelly, now at LSU, was becoming the winningest active coach in college football, and Napier, now at Florida, was shedding his Nick Saban training wheels as an assistant at Alabama before winning four consecutive Sun Belt division titles at Louisiana-Lafayette to make the leap into the Southeastern Conference.

But the first-year coaches face similar tasks at their new schools — namely, making sure tonight’s meeting is the last time the two traditional powers kick off with neither team ranked.

But the coaches are somewhat linked, given that Napier was a mere 50 miles away when LSU got into the coaching market last season.

“We both have the same challenges,” Kelly said. “We’re rebuilding our rosters …trying to build up the depth on our teams. We’re out there in the recruiting world. So that’s probably where we’ll see each other a lot over the next few years.”

They still may need a pregame introduction tonight before LSU (4-2, 2-1 SEC) takes on Napier’s Gators (4-2, 1-2) at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

“I haven’t,” Kelly said when asked if he’d had much interaction with Napier. “I know he did a great job at Louisiana.”

Kelly knows the climb. His path to LSU included stops at Division II Grand Valley State, Central Michigan and Cincinnati before leaving Notre Dame as the Irish’s all-time winningest coach to come south.

“He’s at this level because he’s earned it,”Kelly said. “He didn’t do it because he got lucky. And he’ll do great at Florida. He’s a great hire for Florida.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for what he did. You have to do so much more with less and he did a great job and put a consistent winner out there.

“You have to be creative. You have to be willing to take chances. You’ve got to put together a great staff. He’s done all those things.”

Napier begged off from commenting this week when asked if LSU showed any interest in hiring him last December.

But it’s a program he says he has a lot of respect for.

“When you play LSU, you know they’re going to be unique players on the field, and they’ve got lots of them,” Napier said. “We’ve got a ton of respect for Coach Kelly and the staff that he’s put together.”

Both are off to up-and-down seasons in their shake-down cruises.

The Tigers, who opened SEC play with wins over Mississippi State and Auburn, will have to bounce back from a humbling 40-13 loss to Tennessee last week.

Florida opened the Napier Era with a win over then-No. 7 Utah, but lost its first two SEC games against Kentucky and Tennessee before a sloppy victory over Missouri last week.

Both teams feature mobile quarterbacks who sometimes struggle in the passing game, Anthony Richardson with the Gators and Jayden Daniels with LSU.

“The strength to me of this Florida team is the offensive line,” Kelly said. “Really good. That will be the challenge for us.”