It has been a tumultuous tenure as Florida football’s head coach for Billy Napier, who has presided over two of the three straight sub-.500 seasons the program has posted. With bad decisions coming both on and off the field, the Gators are still struggling to climb out of mediocrity.
The recent news of former quarterback commit [autotag]Jaden Rashada[/autotag]’s lawsuit against [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] and two other defendants has taken the wind out of a strong transfer portal season that saw the Orange and Blue finish among the top five schools. Add that dark cloud to Florida’s five-game losing streak to end the 2023 season — missing a bowl berth in the process — and things are stacking up against the third-year skipper.
The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel answered a question in his latest mailbag column whether Napier will be able to rebound from the latest black eye inflicted on the program.
“It’s often hard for me to gauge how a fan base truly feels about its coach because the disgruntled ones are always the loudest. But it does feel like the heat is on Napier after the Gators started 5-2 then lost five straight games to end last season,” Mandel begins.
“As for the Rashada NIL debacle, Napier certainly doesn’t come off well in the lawsuit filed Tuesday. There are few remaining NCAA rules surrounding NIL, but a head coach allegedly promising a kid $1 million to sign is still a no-no.”
Of course, everyone knows that winning cures all ills, which is what Napier has struggled to do.
“It’s more fuel for Napier’s critics, but let’s be honest. If Napier were coming off a 10-win season, Florida fans would be playing all the same cards as Michigan fans last season — there’s no proof he said that, everybody else is doing the same thing, go investigate Mike Norvell, blah, blah, blah. But he’s coming off 5-7, after a 6-7 debut season, so I don’t see a lot of rallying around the coach.”
Florida faces one of the toughest schedules in the nation this fall, which now includes the newly added Texas Longhorns on the SEC slate. Expectations must be tempered and the administration cannot be hasty in jettisoning its head coach.
“It would also be very expensive to fire Napier after just three seasons — his buyout is $25.7 million,” Mandel continues. “Ironically, Florida may have lost the ability to fire him for cause, with the NCAA backing off its investigation into Rashada’s recruitment following February’s preliminary injunction in Tennessee prohibiting the NCAA from enforcing its rules around NIL and boosters.”
But again, it really all comes down to winning.
“If I’m Florida, I’m rooting like heck for Napier to wildly exceed expectations this season, if for no other reason than to break the school’s endless cycle of hiring and firing coaches,” Mandel concludes.
“Napier is Florida’s fourth head coach since [autotag]Urban Meyer[/autotag]’s exit after the 2010 season, following Will Muschamp (2011-14), [autotag]Jim McElwain[/autotag] (2015-17) and [autotag]Dan Mullen[/autotag] (2018-21). Were the Gators to hire yet another coach in 2025, it would mark four straight who lasted four years or less. That’s not a winning formula.”
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