GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Wait, I thought Billy Napier got fired last year?
No, he didn’t. After a 41-17 home loss to No. 19 Miami and a 4-5 start overall and 2-4 in the Southeastern Conference, he rallied to finish 8-5 and 4-4 and survived. Some had him fired the year before during a 5-7 and 3-5 season in 2023 that included his No. 22-ranked team losing 33-14 at Kentucky and an 0-5 nosedive to finish the season.
In some fans’ minds, Napier has actually been on the hot seat since his first season in 2022 when he followed a 29-26 upset of No. 7 Utah in his debut with a 26-26 home loss the next week to Kentucky and later lost to Vanderbilt, 34-21, finishing 6-7 and 3-5.
Even Ron Zook, the worst head coach hire in modern Florida football history, was better after three seasons (23-15, 16-8 SEC) than Napier (19-19, 10-14 SEC). Zook still has the worst title, by the way, because he followed Steve Spurrier, who won 10 games in each of his last two seasons with an SEC East title. And Zook mmediately turned excellent to mediocre. Napier did inherit a 5-6 and 2-6 outfit from Dan Mullen.
HOT SEAT BILLY COMING TO TIGER STADIUM
But Napier, 46, keeps eluding the torch bearing townspeople of Gainesville like a vampire. He’s still around somehow, bloodied and looking closer to 56, yes, but he’ll be in Tiger Stadium Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC) with his Gators (1-1) trying to upset No. 3 LSU (2-0).
And in the process, he has become a bit of an expert at fire damage control. There may be no coach in the country better prepared to be fired than Napier. No, he has never been fired as a head coach, yet is coming off his third straight SEC Media Days in which most of his audience likely thought they might be watching his last.
It may finally happen this year in the wake of an 18-16 loss as the No. 13-ranked team in the country to 17-point underdog South Florida last week at home. Imagine LSU losing to Tulane. That’s what that loss was like. Never mind that both South Florida and Tulane are pretty good.
Brian Kelly delivers the Quote of the Day on potential new portal window, and injured C Braelin Moore is practicing.https://t.co/kCSiGleJ2h
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 10, 2025
If Napier finally is fired this year, he may feel like it already happened. Some of the Florida beat reporters surely will feel that way.
“All I’m doing is cuttin’ and pastin’ the stories I’ve written the last two years, pretty much,” Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel told Tiger Rag Radio Tuesday night.
Napier is surely used to the questions.
Asked on the SEC teleconference Wednesday, if he goes back to the “drawing board” or “sticks with the process of,” Napier interrupted before the question ended.
“Yeah, I think specifically here, everything that’s been built here didn’t all of a sudden just disappear, OK,” he said, though he didn’t elaborate on what he has built. Perhaps because his building topped at 8-5 and 4-4 last year. That was his best season at Florida.
“We didn’t perform to the best of our ability. Ball didn’t bounce our way on a few things,” he said of the South Florida loss. “But there’s been a ton of investment put into the people on our team within the organization. And those things still exist. If you’ve been doing this the right way, you develop some intangibles to prepare for these types of moments.”
Goodness knows he’s not in new territory.
“And sometimes, the game gives you exactly what you need,” he said.
Really. Napier “needs” another loss to motivate amid a 20-20 ledger at Florida?
“This can galvanize your group,” he said. “When adversity hits, you need to elevate. Definitely don’t need to shrink back.”
IS BILLY NAPIER TALKING ABOUT FOOTBALL OR VIAGRA?
Is he talking about football or Viagra?
If he’s talking about football, Florida should be one of the most “elevated” football teams in the country this side of the New Orleans Saints, because the Gators have been scheduling the University of Adversity regularly since Napier got to town.
“So we’re going to double down on who we are and try to go play a brand of football that we all can be proud of,” he said.
That would be a newfound result. Pride around The Swamp has been about as plentiful as masks during COVID. Florida hasn’t won double-digit games since 2019.
Napier definitely knows the drill as he has never been better than 1-1 after two games with the Gators. After a lengthy question about how a team decides when to run or pass, Napier just kept on going with his same mantra as if he didn’t hear the question.
And I could almost hear Edgar just cutting and pasting.
“We need to play with more consistency, precision and detail,” Napier said, completely ignoring the question that he actually had repeated. “We need to stack plays within possessions. We need more plays where we go 11 for 11. We need to communicate better and play with more poise and composure and discipline.”
It was like he was reading from a script … maybe from Edgar’s story last year at this time.
“And then I think they’ll be patting us on the back when we do it right,” he said. “Much like when you do it wrong, you get criticized.”
Napier clearly knows how fast fans can flip. But the Gator Nation may have had one flip too many.
“We signed up for it all,” Napier said. “So, hopefully we can get it turned around.”
The last coach to be worse than 20-20 two games into his fourth season at Florida was Charley Pell in 1982 when he was 17-19-1. Pell got it turned around and stayed until monumental NCAA violations ended him.
No Florida coach with such a mediocre record as Napier has made a fifth season since Doug Dickey did in 1974 after a 23-21-1 (10-16-1 SEC) mark. Zook didn’t get to year four at 23-15 and 16-8. Will Muschamp didn’t see year five at 29-21 and 17-15. Jim McElwain didn’t see year four at 23-15 and 16-8, despite two SEC East titles. Not even Mullen at 34-15 and 21-13 with an East title saw year five.
BILLY NAPIER BUYOUT
Napier makes $7.4 million a year with a contract that runs through the 2028 season. The buyout is $22 million, which is high for a coach from Louisiana-Lafayette yet to prove himself on the big stage. But Florida brass is hungry and will take care of it. Florida also has a new president in Donald Landry, who is not in Napier’s corner as was former president Kent Fuchs.
Present Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin hired Napier and has admirably stood by him, but he won’t this time. Sticklin also hired Mullen. But he will likely remain as he hired mens’ basketball coach Todd Golden, who just won the national title last season in his third year. But how much will Stricklin have to do with hiring the new football coach? Should he be allowed to possibly go 0-for-3?
Meanwhile, Napier faces another henchman’s row – No. 3 LSU, No. 5 Miami, No. 7 Texas, No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 6 Georgia, No. 17 Ole Miss, No. 15 Tennessee and No. 10 Florida State.
“I’m excited about what’s ahead of us,” Napier said.
You’ve got to love him. But Florida can’t keep him. He’s a Fired Man Walking.
Of course, I said that last year.
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