The college football coaching carousel never stops moving, and that’s never been more true than in 2025.
Penn State fired James Franklin last weekend following three straight losses to Oregon, UCLA and Northwestern. Indiana locked in head coach Curt Cignetti with a contract extension, making him the third-highest-paid coach in the country.
Florida’s Billy Napier is the next name to be relieved of his duties. At 22-23 over his four seasons, he has the fewest wins of any Florida head coach since Raymond Wolf, who went 13-24-2 in four seasons in Gainesville from 1946 to 1949. Florida has cycled through four head coaches since Urban Meyer’s departure in 2011 and hasn’t found the right fit.
According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, Florida is moving on from Napier after his 3-4 start. The Gators have a bye before facing off against Georgia on Nov. 1.
Given his success at Ole Miss, one coach rumored to be linked to the potential Florida opening is Lane Kiffin. Kiffin has compiled a 50-18 overall record in Oxford and is already the program’s third-winningest head coach in just six seasons.
Let’s take a look at whether Kiffin could leave Ole Miss for Florida — and who might end up in Gainesville if he turns the job down.
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Would Lane Kiffin leave Ole Miss for Florida?
That’s the million-dollar question. According to ESPN’s Ryan McGee, Florida boosters were convinced last season that they could have Kiffin in orange and blue by October.
“Last year in the 2024 season, we did Marty & McGee and SEC Nation in Gainesville, Week 1 and 3,” McGee said. “And Week 3, we had to go to this mandatory dinner at Stricklin’s, the athletic director’s house, all those boosters were saying, ‘we’ll have him here by the end of October’ because, and you know, obviously Billy Napier saved his job, but now it’s happening again. And his name is coming up for a lot of jobs.
Florida started 2024 1-2, with a blowout home loss to Miami and a 33-20 loss against Texas A&M. The Gators also lost 23-17 in overtime at Tennessee. Napier appeared to be a dead man walking.
But as the 2024 season progressed, the Gators improved. Napier nearly knocked off Georgia on Nov.2 with a third-string quarterback. Less than a week later, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin confirmed that Napier would return in 2025. The Gators ended up winning their last four games, including upset wins over LSU and Ole Miss to finish out the season 8-5.
Fast forward to October 2025, and it appears Napier is right back where he was last season. McGee recently mentioned another Florida connection to Kiffin — his ex-wife, Layla. Her father, John Reaves, played quarterback for the Gators in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Reaves later coached as an assistant under Steve Spurrier in the early 1990s, and Layla attended the University of Florida while her father was on staff.
“People in Gainesville are convinced that if they call, he’ll leave,” McGee said on a Sept. 30 appearance on the College GameDay podcast. “And for folks that don’t know, his ex-wife — who now lives in Oxford, and they’re hanging out all the time — her dad was the legendary quarterbacks coach during the Steve Spurrier years. So there are ties to Florida.”
Kiffin has previously said that his reason for wearing a visor on the sidelines traces back to Spurrier. He grew up a Florida fan who admired the Gators’ offensive style during Spurrier’s tenure.
Kiffin currently earns $9 million a year at Ole Miss, compared with Napier’s $7.47 million salary in 2025. Florida boosters would likely be willing to make a major financial push to bring Kiffin to Gainesville. He has extensive SEC experience and has turned around an Ole Miss program that was once the league’s doormat.
His reputation as an offensive strategist, strong recruiter and effective user of the transfer portal checks many of the boxes Florida has been missing. The Gators’ NIL resources and facilities are also in a much stronger position than they were five years ago. The program recently signed a Top 10 recruiting class for 2025, which included true freshman star receiver Dallas Wilson.
Still, as confident as Florida boosters may be, they may be overlooking one important factor — Kiffin’s attachment to Oxford and Ole Miss.
MORE: Meet Lane Kiffin's family
Why is Lane Kiffin likely to stay at Ole Miss?
In Kiffin's recent E:60 documentary "The Many Lives of Lane Kiffin," Kiffin said that when he arrived at Ole Miss, he noticed the slower pace of life. But he admitted that "maybe there's a reason for that." The documentary also details how Kiffin found sobriety while living in Oxford.
Much of Kiffin’s family now lives in Oxford, including his younger brother, Chris Kiffin, who serves on the Ole Miss staff. His eldest daughter, Landry, also attends Ole Miss, along with his ex-wife, Layla, and their youngest son, Knox.
Family & football.
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 13, 2024
Oxford is home for Lane Kiffin 🏈❤️
📸 @Lane_Kiffin pic.twitter.com/paovgoLgXX
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Schools that have tried to hire Lane Kiffin
The biggest school that tried to hire Kiffin since his arrival in Oxford was Auburn, which came open in 2022. The Tigers reportedly made Kiffin their "first target" in the search. It was reported by ESPN's Chris Low that Kiffin was leaning toward taking the job. But his daughter, Landry, intervened. Via the ESPN piece:
Had it not been for Landry, her dad might be coaching at Auburn right now. Kiffin was leaning toward taking the Auburn job toward the end of the 2022 season when Landry came to him with a heartfelt message.
"You left me one time for another job when you went to Alabama, and now I'm here with you and you're going to do it again?" she asked her father.
Landry and her friends created a slideshow, complete with music, showing all of them together with Kiffin at Ole Miss. Meanwhile, the school was prepared to sweeten his deal. (He wound up signing a new six-year contract in November 2022 that was extended another year in December 2023 and pays him $9 million annually through the 2029 season.)
The E:60 documentary also touched on the slideshow:
Wednesday on ESPN, 7 PM ET, it's our @E60 special "The Many Lives of Lane Kiffin." Here's an excerpt, about "a second chance at being an in-person parent." pic.twitter.com/j53TQArvKV
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) September 23, 2025
There were also rumblings about Alabama trying to lure Kiffin after Nick Saban retired. But new reporting from Low that emerged after Kalen DeBoer stated that Kiffin was not seriously considered. But during the Saban retirement, Florida State was reportedly prepared to make Kiffin Norvell's replacement if Alabama hired the Noles' head coach.
In the previously mentioned podcast, McGee said he believes Kiffin would leave Ole Miss if the Alabama job came open.
“Would Lane Kiffin leave Ole Miss? I think Lane Kiffin would leave Ole Miss if Tuscaloosa called,” McGee said.
Although Alabama is 5-1 and still very much alive in the SEC title and playoff hunt, Kalen DeBoer’s seat has been warm early on. The Tide finished 9-4 last season, capped by an embarrassing ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Michigan.
If the Alabama job were to open anytime soon, there’s a strong chance Kiffin would be seriously considered. After all, he spent three seasons in Tuscaloosa under Nick Saban and helped him completely revamp his offense and style of play.
MORE: How QB Trinidad Chambliss went from D-II afterthoght to Ole Miss starter
Other candidates for Florida
Although Florida boosters reportedly sound confident that Kiffin would come to Gainesville, there are several coaches capable of doing the job — and doing it well.
The hire will be made by athletic director Scott Stricklin, who recently signed a three-year extension with Florida. He missed on his last two hires, Dan Mullen and Napier, so a third miss could very well be his last if he doesn’t get this one right.
Here’s a look at some potential Napier replacements Stricklin would be wise to target.
The first call you have to make is to Oregon's Dan Lanning. He is 40-7 in his four seasons in Eugene, including three straight double-digit win seasons. He's also had top-10 recruiting classes every year since 2023, including signing the nation's No. 3 overall class in 2024.
Although he remained committed to Oregon when the Alabama job opened, where Lanning coached as a GA in 2015, Stricklin has to at least gauge his interest. Lanning has a proven track record of both winning at a high level and cleaning up on the recruiting trail, which Florida has lacked in recent years.
Washington head coach Jedd Fisch has Florida ties, having coached under Steve Spurrier in 1999-2000 as a GA. He spent several seasons in the NFL as an assistant, coaching under Sean McVay with the Rams when they made a Super Bowl appearance during the 2018 season.
At Arizona from 2021-23 and since arriving at Washington in 2024, he's led quarterbacks like Jayden De Laura, Noah Fifita and Will Rogers to strong seasons. As long as he can recruit at the level expected at Florida, he'd be fine. He had a 28-30 overall record as head coach, so Fisch might be lower on this list, just going off record alone.
And what about former Penn State head coach James Franklin? Yes, his record in big games (4-21 vs. Top-10 opponents) won't go over well with Florida fans. But Franklin had multiple top-10 recruiting classes at Penn State, and multiple double-digit win seasons, which Gainesville hasn't seen since Urban Meyer was in town. He also brought Vanderbilt to consecutive nine-win seasons for the first time in school history, just saying!
Speaking of coaches with SEC experience, it's unclear if Eli Drinkwitz would leave Missouri to go to a rival school. But he is 43-25 at Mizzou, and has coached some high-powered offenses in recent years featuring the likes of Brady Cook and Luther Burden III.
Although they lack Power-Conference experience, Tulane's Jon Sumrall and USF Alex Golesh, whose team beat Florida in The Swamp earlier this season, could be a pair of dark horses. Sumrall is 37-10 as a head coach at Troy and Tulane, Golesh is 19-13 over three seasons at USF. You can include James Madison's Bob Chesney in this list too, who is 14-5 over two seasons with the Dukes.