The Foregone Conclusion
Florida finally fired Billy Napier, one of the worst kept secrets in college football
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for news that shouldn’t shock anyone: The University of Florida has fired head coach Billy Napier.
Napier leaves with a 22-23 overall record at Florida and never got the Gators out of the blocks.
This has been a saga spanning the past two years.
He struggled at the start of the year in 2024, and was essentially a dead man walking. Somehow, miraculously, he ended the year on a five-game win-streak that included dashing the playoff hopes of LSU and Ole Miss.
He won back some trust and the faith from the fanbase. Then he blew it in Week 2 with an 18-16 loss to South Florida in the Swamp.
So how did this happen? This was a guy that did a tremendous job of restoring the culture at Florida. When previous coach Dan Mullen left, even the players would tell people it was the Wild West, and everyone was out for themselves.
I truly believe Billy Napier turned that around. These players care about one another and this seems like a much more close-knit team.
But none of that means a thing when you don’t win.
And that is where the fans lost their patience.
Napier was given every resource needed to produce a winner. Unlimited budget for recruiting and the transfer portal. New facilities. Investment in Name Image and Likeness. You name it.
But he couldn’t get out of neutral, and most of it was his own doing.
His continued arrogance of maintaining play-calling duties and refusing to change offensively, was ultimately what caused his demise.
There were reports of opposing teams knowing what plays the Gators were going to run, which is completely believable since they only ran four plays total.
He showed he was incapable of making in-game adjustments.
He was a poor clock manager.
The South Florida game was the epitome of that (and the game that cost him his job) as he decided to throw the ball when more than anything, he needed to kill the clock.
He rarely showed emotion. He was the grandpa who wanted to keep everything calm when it was clearly anything but around him.
And he couldn’t take advantage of the defense his staff built and has truly been amazing the past year and a half.
I said after the LSU game, a 20-10 loss, he would be fired October 19th.
Today, that prophecy was fulfilled.
I take no pleasure in this.
My wife will never understand, but the saying, “I bleed orange and blue,” is part of my identity.
This hurts. I thought he could succeed. Not winning hurts. And we’ve not won in forever.
Are we Gator fans spoiled? Of course. But this was the worst coaching performance since the 1940’s.
People thought he’d have more time since he won yesterday, 23-21 over Mississippi State. He only won, however, because Jeff Lebby did an even worse job coaching at the end of the game than he did.
So where does Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin and GatorNation go from here?
I can’t imagine the new coach will be a hot name. I’m sure it will be an established coach.
How to translate that established name to winning in a pressure cooker is the trick.
Florida should be a destination job. I guess we’ll find out if that is something that is true. Otherwise we’ll be back in this boat sooner rather than later.
The players will be the next concern.
They have a ton of talent on the roster. I’m sure the NIL money is being discussed as the vultures circle. But the new coach will need to be a home run to keep some of these pieces locked into place.
Someone who can come in and make DJ Lagway better should be one of the highest priorities.
It will be an interesting next couple of months to see how this all plays out. But for now, at least, the circus will leave town.
We’ll just have to wait to see what the next train brings.