GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida coach Billy Napier was supposed to have an answer, or at the very least, some new ideas.
Napier was hired in Gainesville in 2021 in part because the Gators, who were largely an afterthought for the past decade, had a detailed plan to close the gap on Alabama and Georgia in the powerhouse Southeastern Conference and become bona fide national championship contenders.
Napier’s proposals included hiring more people, spending more money, and taking more time than usual to put it all together.
It’s now a generally worthless project, the latest and least effective restructuring in the program’s history.
Napier is on the brink of being fired for the first time since Clemson’s Dabo Swinney fired him in 2010. The question is not if, but when.
The Gators (1-2, 0-1 SEC) face Mississippi State (1-2) on Saturday as one of the few remaining weak spots on what many consider to be the toughest schedule in the country. With a bye week ahead of them, a loss to the struggling Bulldogs could spell the end of Napier’s tenure after 29 games.
But Florida doesn’t appear to be in any rush to fire its fourth head coach since two-time national champion Urban Meyer resigned at the end of the 2010 season.
The Gators have never fired a football coach before October, and there’s a reason they kept Napier despite embarrassing home losses to Miami (41-17) and Texas A&M (33-20), which extended the team’s losing streak against strong conference opponents to seven.
Some points to consider when deciding Napier’s fate:
The 10 assistants and more than 50 support staff members would immediately begin searching for new jobs. All players on Florida’s roster must enter the transfer portal within 30 days, creating the possibility of a mass transfer. Dozens of other teams can (and do) try to contact players through the back door who don’t enter the portal immediately. Players who have not played four or more games can opt to redshirt and retain an extra year of eligibility, but again, this is a roster management issue. Does Florida have a strong candidate to step up to interim head coach – someone who can take the reins for a few months and bring the team, staff and freshmen together?
So it makes sense to keep Napier around for as long as possible, even if it means he’s no longer the long-term solution in Gainesville and will be booed endlessly at upcoming home games against UCF and Kentucky.
It has helped that Napier has remained calm and professional despite being bombarded with questions about his job security.
“Responsibility, accountability is the only option,” Napier said. “The most important thing, as I told the players after Saturday’s game, is to come together. … We can’t control what’s said on the outside, we can’t control what’s done on the outside. We can control what’s said inside our walls.”
Firing Napier would surely appease a large portion of Florida fans, giving them a sense of temporary relief after three years of frustration, and the move could also help ensure the program’s third-party organizations continue to raise funds and ensure monthly payments to players don’t fall through.
But the downsides of ending the program in September appear to outweigh the upsides.
“We all know there’s going to be a lot of noise. It’s up to the players to decide what they pay attention to,” said Florida quarterback Graham Mertz, who was part of a Wisconsin team that started 1-3 in 2021 but then won seven straight to reach the Las Vegas Bowl. “Is it about each other or is it something that’s going on outside? Are we doing our job or is it something else?”
Napier maintains there’s still time to turn things around, but anyone who’s watched the Gators play this season can tell you they’re close to being one of the worst teams in the league.
There’s a clear talent deficiency, especially on both lines at the line of scrimmage, and Napier continues to miss defenders in the transfer portal. Add to that the loss of his two best players to SEC rivals, the departures of edge rusher Princelee Umanmillen to Mississippi and running back Trevor Etienne to Georgia, and the need to replace eight of his original 11 staff hires, and Napier’s once-promising plans are now doomed.
“We can’t keep thinking about should have done, could have done, if only, what if,” Napier said. “At the end of the day, I think we owe it to our players and to the university leadership to try our best this week and play well.”
“That’s the only thing we can control. Anything else is a waste of time. … It’s important not to blame anyone, but to accept responsibility and point out where accountability is needed. That’s key, especially for young people in the world they’re living in right now.”
Investigative reporter Katie LaGrone obtained the latest exit interviews with Florida teachers detailing, in their own words, why they left the classroom this summer.
‘It’s a sad profession’: Florida teacher reveals why he quit
