It is no secret that Florida football’s third-year head coach Billy Napier is facing a furnace of heat on the hot seat this fall as the Gators try to prevent a fourth-straight losing season for the first time since… well, a very long time ago.
Adding fuel to the fire is the ridiculously difficult schedule the Orange and Blue face this season, which includes a newly-minted SEC program in the Texas Longhorns. As such, a good deal of the sports media is predicting another sub-.500 finish, which could be the death knell for Florida’s current coaching staff.
USA TODAY Sports writer Scooby Axson published his 10 college football coaches with the hottest hot seat entering this season and had Napier as his headliner. His outlook on the Gators skipper was far from bullish.
“With the financial resources, the tradition, and the rich recruiting soil of the Sunshine State, this should be one of the nation’s premier programs,” Axson begins.
“Instead, Napier, with an 11-14 record in his first two campaigns, has quickly turned Gator Nation into an afterthought. And with the schedule backloaded with national title-contending teams (Georgia, Texas, LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State), the powers that be at Florida might be cranking up the buyout machine in no time to thus begin another cycle in desperately trying to get back to the top of the sport.”
Other SEC coaches feeling heat
Two other SEC coaches are sizzling on the hot stove, with Vanderbilt Commodores’ Clark Lea and Arkansas Razorbacks’ Sam Pittman also getting the nod.
“It’s tough to win at Vanderbilt,” Axson notes. “Maybe they are in the wrong conference, but when coaches take this job, they are fully aware their time on the sideline, at least at this school, could be short.”
As for the Hogs, the challenge of playing in a highly competitive conference just might not be the right fit either.
“Hiring former motorcycle-riding head coach Bobby Petrino as offensive coordinator seems to be a step in the right direction, if anything, to breathe some life and attention into the program,” Axson said. “Still, Arkansas has the unfortunate task of being in the SEC, and navigating that schedule is almost impossible.”
Florida’s season opener for 2024
The Florida Gators and Miami Hurricanes — whose head coach Mario Cristobal was among Axson’s honorable mentions — square off on Aug. 31 in Gainesville, Florida, to open their schedule for the 2024 season. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ABC Sports.
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