Florida Gators football coach Billy Napier seemingly had things turned around during the 2024 season. In November, UF quarterback DJ Lagway took the reins and guided the Gators to four straight wins to end the year, including a 33-8 win over the Tulane Green Wave in the Gasperilla Bowl.
It was merely a mirage, though. Besides a 55-0 win over the LIU Sharks in the team’s opener, Florida has wildly underperformed, with an 18-16 loss to the USF Bulls being the low point of the Napier era. Even if Alex Golesh’s Bulls look like a potential College Football Playoff contender from the Group of 5 ranks, that’s an unforgivable loss in the Sunshine State.
Well-funded SEC powers aren’t supposed to lose to teams that fill up a quarter of a pro football stadium, lacking their own home field on campus. UF did in Week 2, then proceeded to lose its next two games by 29 combined points.
USA Today’s Paul Myerberg made a depressing point about the fall of Florida: as the Gators were going down, the Tennessee Volunteers, Ole Miss Rebels, and South Carolina Gamecocks created sustainable success with head coaching hires around the same time “Sun Belt Billy” was hired in Gainesville.
“Napier’s tenure will go down as one of the most disappointing in program history given his losing record and the fanfare that came with his arrival from Louisiana-Lafayette. The former Nick Saban disciple has overseen the Gators’ drop down the SEC standings as rivals No. 15 Tennessee, No. 4 Mississippi and South Carolina have parlayed successful hires made in the same general timeframe into near-annual College Football Playoff contention. Based on his time in the Sun Belt, Napier is a very good coach who might be a better fit on the Group of Five level,” Myerberg wrote.
Tennessee made a home run hire with Josh Heupel, who’s repeatedly found the right guy under center for the Vols and even took the most wrong choice he made, Nico Iamaleava, to the College Football Playoff last season. Ditto for Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin, who’s got the Rebels marching on the CFP’s doorstep year in and year out. Shane Beamer has had a more up-and-down path at South Carolina, but the Gamecocks were right there last season and have the 2026 NFL draft’s consensus top QB, Shane Beamer.
Florida is far behind in the NIL game after hiring Napier, and will be financially hamstrung by his contract buyout. Napier’s buyout is 85% of his remaining pact, which would be close to a $20 million payout if he were let go at the end of the season.
The right coach may be able to recoup some of that, but UF doesn’t have the caliber of donor base to have a Texas Tech Red Raiders-esque turnaround.
They do have the right resources to make the right hire and have a similar trajectory to Tennessee, Ole Miss, and South Carolina.