Florida head coach [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] is on top of USA TODAY Sports’ list of the most overpaid head coaches in the country.
At the midway point of Year 3 under Napier, the Gators are 14-17 overall and could be headed for a third-straight losing season. Napier is set to earn $7,370,000 this year, according to USA TODAY Sports’ annual analysis of coaches’ compensation, and the math works out to about $1 million per win so far.
Those kinds of results are not acceptable at the University of Florida and usually mean a change is coming. Many believe this will be Napier’s last season with the Gators, which shifts the focus to buyout numbers.
To fire Napier without cause — no, losing a bunch of games in the SEC is not enough to fire someone with cause — it would cost Florida $26,704,167. Keep in mind that Florida would also have to fork over some big bucks to find a suitable replacement for Napier, but that’s never stopped the boosters in the past. After all, this is the SEC — where “it just means more.”
It appears the only path for Napier to save his job is beating the two remaining unranked opponents on the schedule — Florida State and Kentucky — and pulling off an upset against Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss or Texas to reach bowl eligibility. Even then, the athletic department could decide to move on.
Other overpaid head coaches
Napier isn’t the only SEC head coach on this list. Second-year Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze is right behind him after starting off 2-4 following a losing 2023 season.
Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell is third on the list, and there’s a clear trend developing. Napier had success at Louisiana, Freeze thrived at Liberty and Fickell made the College Football Playoff with Cincinnati. All three have struggled to duplicate that success in a major conference.
Fourth on the list is Florida State’s Mike Norvell, who is coming off an undefeated regular season. It’s shocking to think that a team can go 12-0 and have a coach on the hot seat one year later, but Florida State has been cursed since missing the College Football Playoff last year.
Georgia demolished them by 60 points in the Orange and Bowl, and Florida State would have to win out to even reach bowl eligibility in 2024 after starting the year 1-5. However, moving on from Norvell appears unlikely with a $63.8 million buyout.
Rounding out the group is former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Before Dilfer took over, UAB was one of the top Group of Five programs in the country, but the Blazers are 5-13 since.
“The former Super Bowl-winning quarterback will go down as one of the worst hires of the decade,” said USA TODAY’s Paul Myerbeg.
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