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Florida coach Billy Napier appears resigned to fate as Gators reportedly rally troops to consider ouster | OnlyGators.com: Florida Gators news, analysis, schedules and scores
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If the manner in which the Florida Gators performed Saturday in a listless 33-20 loss to the Texas A&M Aggies was not indication enough, the way head coach Billy Napier held court after the game was all the proof one needed to confirm his tenure in Gainesville, Florida, was coming to an end. Napier, who has steadfastly pushed his process and the Gators being close to turning a corner, appeared dejected and resigned to his fate in a 15-minute media availability after his program lost a seventh straight game to an FBS opponent.
“Everything that happens within our organization, top to bottom, is under my direction and control. And I take full responsibility for that,” he said. “… Ultimately, at some point, it becomes about production. Two out of three weeks here, we have not played good enough football in many parts of our team at all.”
Napier now holds a 12-16 overall record at Florida, though that takes into account a decent start in Year 1. The Gators are 3-12 in their last 15 games against Power Four opponents with seven straight losses, including four in a row inside the supposed-to-be-friendly confines of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. With a 10-6 record in The Swamp, he has more home losses through 2.25 seasons than Steve Spurrier or Urban Meyer (five each) had in their entire careers.
Florida fans knew the game was over at halftime. That’s why they booed a scoreboard advertisement of Napier despite the positive message he was promoting: preventing drunk driving.
“I have no excuse. I have no negative comment about that,” Napier said when asked about jeers from the stands. “Ultimately, when you play a certain way in this arena, you’re going to be criticized. This is one of those places where there’s history and tradition and expectations. There’s been a lot of really good football teams that played in that stadium in the past. When you play ugly ball, and it doesn’t look quite like we all want it to, then it comes with the territory.
“I probably would have done the same thing, truth be known.”
The University of Florida Board of Trustees has called a previously unscheduled meeting for Sunday morning, according to multiple reports. The obvious agenda item will be Napier’s immediate and long-term future.
Contrary to a report stating the Gators rounded up approximately $26 million in buyout money on Saturday night, those funds have long been raised, multiple sources told Only Gators earlier this week.
Even if Napier’s immediate firing is on the table, there are multiple significant problems at hand, including who would lead the team in an interim capacity given there are nine games left in the regular season. Ron Roberts, whose pitiful defense has been Florida’s biggest issue, is the only assistant with a semblance of head coaching experience; that came a decade ago at Delta State and Southeastern Louisiana. Neither of the other coordinators would make reasonable options.
The truth is that Napier, despite being a dead man walking, is probably the best option to lead the Gators — as deep as through their second bye week — despite whatever results may come. That is particularly true given there is no one at the helm of the University Athletic Association who should be allowed by UF to initiate another head coaching search.
Athletic director Scott Stricklin needs to be jettisoned alongside Napier. (He should have been fired years ago amid accusations made within the women’s basketball program.) There is no scenario in which Stricklin should be allowed to make a third hire of a head football coach given how dreadful his decision making has been across the entire UAA throughout his tenure.
But who will be tasked with firing Stricklin? The political appointee who briefly served as UF president — while running through millions of dollars and funneling money to his friends — is out. Kent Fuchs is back serving in an interim capacity. Does he have the power to eject Stricklin, whom he actually hired in 2016, from his post? Is he capable of hiring a replacement? Will he be empowered to do so by the board?
Perhaps 71-year-old AD/Emeritus Jeremy Foley wants to team up with 79-year-old Steve Spurrier to steward a transition of the athletic department and football program.
Napier appeared to be the right man for the job when Stricklin hired him. He had the pedigree (Nick Saban coaching tree, strong performances at Louisiana), the patience (turned down multiple jobs before accepting Florida) and the sales pitch (“The Process.”) In many ways, he did improve the badly lacking infrastructure around Gators football, one of few accomplishments he proudly hung his hat on Saturday night.
“We’ve worked extremely hard. There’s been a ton of progress made,” he said. “My frustrations have been with how we played two out of the last three weeks. We’ve done a lot of good behind the walls, just the organization as a whole. I truly believe that, and I think most people that have familiarity with our program would see that. We’re not getting the result on the field that we want.
“Ultimately, that’s how you’re judged to some degree in this arena. It comes with the territory. We all understand that as coaches. We have to play more competitive football. We have to play better quality football. And that’s my responsibility. … This is a production business, and ultimately, we gotta play better.”
All three of Napier’s defensive coordinators have been failures. His unwillingness to give up offensive play calling duties — when so many of his peers have done the same over recent years — was a sign of stubbornness that does not jive with Napier’s constant preaching of self-evaluation. His insistence of having two offensive line coaches has been a pox on the program given the unit plays poorly and the coaches neither recruit nor develop well.
“If you watch the Miami game and the Texas A&M game, you would say, ‘No,’” Napier said of whether the offensive line has performed up to standard. “Ultimately, you got to do something to fix it. That’s about as simple as I can put it. We have struggled to rush the ball, and we have struggled to protect the quarterback. … We haven’t played well enough up front on offense in the opener or today.”
Florida on Saturday had a rare opportunity to evaluate itself twice in game. The first chance came during a lightning delay between the first and second quarter. Napier said the Gators watched every play with immense frustration given how many mistakes were made in regard to decision making and technique. Florida then came out and played just as poorly in the second quarter before showing at least some signs of life in the second half.
“Not good enough,” Napier said. “… We’ve done a lot of good behind the scenes in terms of building infrastructure. We’ve got a great organization of people. But the quality of football in the opener and today [is] not up to standard.
“We’ve played some good football at times and gotten beat. Maybe I’ve been able to stand up here and say, ‘Hey, we did a lot of good things and were close,’ but that’s not been the case [this year]. That’s the facts. We have to do much better.”
Whether Napier even gets another 60 minutes to do better is a legitimate question as of Saturday night.
BOCA RATON, Fla. — There are only two facilities in the entire world that study leatherback turtle hatchlings, and South Florida is home to one of them.
Inside, there are pools upon pools upon pools, all filled with newborn sea turtles.
The team at the Florida Atlantic University Marine Science Lab in Boca Raton provides groundbreaking research in understanding how turtles live and survive in the ocean.
“We bring in different species of sea turtles, the loggerheads, the greens and the leatherbacks and we raise them usually anywhere from two to six months,” said lab coordinator Emila Turla.
Director Jeanette Wyneken has been studying these reptiles for 24 years.
“We need to know what characteristics the population of turtles have that may be advantageous for species recovery, they are all either threatened or endangered,” she said. “One of the things we never knew was that this species of turtle dives down pretty far, at least at this age, we know the big ones do but we didn’t know the little guys are going down.”
Experts say the mysterious leatherbacks spend 70% of their lives in deep water.
The research facility is using satellite tagging to answer questions about the turtles that have never been known, until now.
“One of our turtles went down to 330 feet on one breath, one little baby leatherback turtle,” said Turia. “And the turtles are typically going to about 230 feet deep.”
But it’s what is happening in the nests on the beach that has these scientists focusing on the vulnerable leatherbacks that have declined by 90%,
David Anderson works in tandem with the Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex on one very important study.
“My team and I survey all five miles of Boca Raton beaches for all the sea turtle nesting activity,” he said. “The sex ratio study, to determine how many hatchlings are male and how many hatchlings are female from that particular nest, because they are temperature dependent to be male or female.”
Meaning if its cool in the sandy nests, the leatherbacks will be male, and if those nests are hot then the turtles will be female.
Tje team’s research over decades shows the heat is producing way too many females and not nearly enough males.
“We know in general its hot chicks cool dudes, but the hot part up here, that’s easy, it’s too hot to make anything but girls,” said Wyneken. “If it gets too much hotter they’re just dead so that’s too hot to hatch.”
Climate change, a hotter planet, warming oceans, all of these symptoms are capable of wiping out the sensitive sea turtle population, but this turtle nesting season has seen a whopping 41 leatherback nests on Boca Raton beaches so far, which is double the annual average.
“Just because there’s a lot of nest numbers doesn’t mean everything’s great, because the hatchlings still have a tremendous struggle to survive to adulthood, which would take them 20-25 years to do so,” said Anderson.
Only one in one thousand hatchlings will even survive, and this summer season has seen record breaking heat.
Hatchlings also get confused by light pollution and piles of seaweed that trump the feverish work of tiny flippers.
After the turtles grow to the size of a human hand, they take a boat ride offshore to be released into the gulf stream.
Some will be equipped with satellite tags to continue the search for answers to help understand how to help in the sea turtle species survival.
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.
The Treasure Coast has 13 breweries, 4 distilleries, 1 winery and 1 cider house.
Looking for somewhere to kick back and chug a frosty brew or smooth glass of wine?
The Treasure Coast has plenty of breweries, cideries, wineries and distilleries.
Here is every one in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties. If we missed any, email valeria.bartra@tcpalm.com.
ST. LUCIE COUNTY
Four friends — David BuShea Jr., Nick Bischoff, Mike Sturgis and Danny Horton — opened the Treasure Coast’s first brewery in Fort Pierce’s historic Edgartown neighborhood north of downtown in 2013. That’s is now Pierced Ciderworks. They moved downtown to a larger, 25,000-square-foot space on Second Street in 2017. The brewery went from a three-barrel system to a 20-barrel system. It hosts bingo nights, trivia nights, holiday celebrations and live music performances. Its signature and most popular beer is the Sunrise City pale ale.
Gary Roberts opened Summer Crush, the Treasure Coast’s first and only winery, on the same property as his nursery and landscaping business in 2012. He planted 6 miles of vines on 10 acres, using two native muscadine grape varieties: Carlos for white wines and Noble for red wines. His estate wines are made with only his grapes. For others, he supplements his homegrown grapes with the same two varieties from other Florida vineyards. Summer Crush has all the components of a boutique winery: a vineyard; cellar and crush pad; tasting room and gift shop; and festival and event area with a covered pavilion for concerts. Summer Crush specializes in muscadine and tropical fruit wines. Almost all the specialty wines can be made as the “estate” version, which contains 100% of Summer Crush’s grapes. It also hosts live music and tribute band performances. Its signature wine is the Old Florida White table wine.
St. Lucie County firefighters Jim Kelly and Robert Tearle, along with Tearle’s cousin, Jeffrey Blitman, opened the brewery in a St. Lucie West industrial park in 2017. They started homebrewing in 2011 and sold apparel to raise enough money to open a brewery. The 2,000-square-foot Port St. Lucie brew house, containing a 15-barrel system, is separated from the taproom by large glass windows. It often has food trucks. It hosts music bingo nights, ladies nights, beer and corn pong nights as well as live music performances. Its signature drink is its award-winning Puckr’d “Mother Pucker” beer; it also serves ciders, sangria and specialty drinks.
Fox & Crown is an authentic British pub with legit British food and beer, said owner Matthew Teun. His roots are English, and some of his family still lives there. The pub opened in 2025 and serves food imported from England that includes Scotch eggs, sausage rolls, fish and chips, bangers and mash, and steak and kidney pies. Even bags of potato chips — called “crisps” in England — are imported with flavors that include tomato ketchup, pickled onion and prawn cocktail. Teun also plans to brew beers with British and European influences, including a traditional pale ale, a traditional English IPA he named “London IPA” and a British red ale, which is sweeter than an Irish red ale. Guest taps include Wrexham Lager. It hosts weekly trivia nights, karaoke sessions and shows European football matches. Its signature drink is a pub ale called the Crown Standard Bitter.
Jon Nolli opened the Treasure Coast’s first cidery in Fort Pierce’s historic Edgartown neighborhood north of downtown in 2018. The 1901 home previously was owned by famed photographer Harry Hill and occupied by Sailfish Brewing Co. The current cidermaker is Rich Milton. Unique flavors include caramel apple, lime habanero, chocolate hazelnut and peanut butter jelly. It typically has a food truck near the outdoor back deck and an old, brown rat rod parked in front. Its signature year-round ciders are the ‘Merica Dry and the Coco Loconut. It hosts yoga events, bluegrass jam nights, bingo nights, yappy hour and other live music events.
Florida Atlantic University friends Jose Herrera, Tyrone Bradley, Chris Trentine and Nik Schroth started Islamorada Brewing Co. in the Florida Keys in 2014, then opened a second location near the St. Lucie County airport in 2016. That 25,000-square-foot production facility and taproom allowed for 10 times more brewing. They later expanded to add a distillery and changed its name to Islamorada Brewing & Distillery. Its signature beers are the Sandbar Sunday, Islamorada Ale and Channel Marker IPA. It hosts regular and music bingo nights, flip nights, fishing club meetups, line dancing and themed trivia nights.
Thomas Neidhart and his sons, T.J. and Michael, opened a second location of their brewery in Port St. Lucie in 2025. They opened their first location in Yaphank, Long Island, New York, in 2023. The food is overseen by their partner and close friend, Matt Rappa of Wading River, New York, who has owned multiple pizzerias and restaurants in his hometown. Neidhart’s daughter, Alyssa, is the face of the company. Southpaw Brewing is known for its craft beer, inventive craft cocktails and pub food, featuring crispy, flat-crust, brick-oven pizza. Southpaw also serves cider. It hosts national holiday events such as national French fry day, national mojito day and national chicken wing day. Its signature beer is the Lefty Lucie Lite Lager.
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY
Hogan Yards opened near the Vero Beach airport in June 2026. The unique entertainment complex has BBQ, games, pickleball, craft beer and live music in the former Hogan & Sons citrus packing house. Orchid Island Brewery provides the craft beer, and Pepper & Salt BBQ provides the Texas-style barbecue. The brewery uses ingredients grown on-site and from area groves. The owners — Tom and Tiffany Corr, Alden and Valerie Bing, and John and Heather Chianis —grow mangoes, finger limes and vanilla beans on-site to use in their beer. It hosts live music nights and its signature brew is Orchid Island Brewery’s Star Ruby Grapefruit IPA.
Pete and Lynn Anderson initially opened Sebastian’s first brewery in a U.S. 1 plaza in 2014 before moving two blocks north to the original Sebastian post office in 2017. The new location gave them better exposure and a bigger space to triple their beer production. The couple, who moved to Florida in 2004, previously lived on the West Coast and were exposed to the craft beer scenes of the Pacific Northwest and Northern California that had been around since the mid-1980s. They named the brewery after the human tendency to see familiar objects or patterns in otherwise random or unrelated objects or patterns, such as faces, and such photos decorate the walls. Its small kitchen offers hot dogs, flatbreads, paninis and other snacks. Its signature drinks are the 32958 Hazy IPA, also known as the Zipcode, and Mel’s Gold Ale. It hosts open mic nights, trivia nights and live music nights.
Mike Malone and Alan Dritenbas opened the brewery in a former World War II aviation supply warehouse just south of the Vero Beach airport. Malone now runs the business with his wife, Brooke. The name comes from the nickname for red mangrove trees whose roots continually “walk” outward toward the water. Its beer has won multiple awards at the Great American Beer Festival. The building uses large industrial fans instead of air conditioning. It had food trucks for years, but Linda Moore and Courtney Cotherman opened the Salvador Deli restaurant inside the brewery in 2024. Moore, who co-owns the Kilted Mermaid in Vero Beach, and Cotherman, who worked there for 10 years, started Salvador Deli together in 2022 for catering events. Its award-winning beers are the Barnacled Manatee Barleywine, Babycakes Oatmeal Stout, Walking Tree IPA, Treasure Kolsch, Straw Hat Blonde Ale and the Prop Root English Pale Ale. It hosts board game nights, yoga events, live music and trivia nights.
Developer Michael Rechter opened the brewery in 2017 in Vero Beach’s former diesel power plant, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. He paid the city $500,000 for the building in 2016 and spent over $4 million in renovations. The original giant diesel engine is the backdrop. The brewery has a full-service kitchen, garden area, outdoor patio and mezzanine that allows customers to look down on the operations. Rechter opened a second location in Fort Lauderdale in 2019, which closed in 2022. It hosts paint parties, trivia Tuesdays and holiday events. Its signature beer is the Icon Gold lager.
Derek Gerry and Patrick Kirchner opened Sebastian’s second brewery within walking distance of what later became Pareidolia Brewing Co. in 2018. They started brewing beer together as members of the Boil Over Boys homebrewing club from their homes in Sebastian. The brewery’s name references their blue-collar lives. They make traditional brews, such as a German-style Kolsch, as well as their own creations, including a bloody mary beer. The brewery offers small bites at the bar and often has food trucks. It hosts food truck events, live music performances and Monday trivia nights.
Vero Beach natives Ray and Mandy Hooker opened Indian River Distillery in 2023 in a 4,000-square-foot city-owned building near the Vero Beach airport. It doesn’t carry beer or wine. Ray, third-generation, grew up in Sebastian and graduated from Sebastian River High School. He met Mandy at the former Long Branch Saloon in Vero Beach. The couple noticed distilleries were becoming more popular nationally, but none were opening locally. They learned how to run a distillery at a weekend workshop in Kentucky and took online classes through the Institute of Brewing and Distilling in London. It hosts live music nights on the weekends.
21st Amendment Distillery opened in downtown Vero Beach in 2023, in the building that formerly housed the Ironside Press. The name is a nod to the 21st Amendment that repealed Prohibition. It has a cigar bar and full-service restaurant with a menu featuring shareable bites people can eat while having a conversation. Owner Jeff Palleschi, who moved to Vero Beach about 14 years ago, wanted his distillery to spark more activity downtown, the way Sailfish Brewing Co. did in downtown Fort Pierce. It hosts ladies nights, pack walks, cigar nights and live music performances. Any of its signature spirits are marked by the “21” or “21 AD” on the menu.
MARTIN COUNTY
Palm City couple Chris and Amanda Cischke are behind this brewery that opened in 2019. Ocean Republic has up to 16 beers on tap at a time, as well as cocktails and an American pub-style food menu. They have about six flagship beers based on customer response, and they rotate the rest. The brewery’s menu was inspired by food the Cischkes ate while visiting breweries in California and Colorado. Ocean Republic has a non-traditional style of food service, with customers ordering at the bar, getting numbers and having the food brought to them. It hosts yappy hour, give-back nights and live music. Its signature beers are the Flo Cal lager and Grapefruit Thrasher IPA.
The “brewstillery” concept is rare in Florida, said co-founder Etienne Bourgeois. Frazier Creek serves beer, wine, spirits, seltzer, soda and cocktails. It has 35 taps, mostly for its own beer, non-alcoholic craft sodas and ready-to-drink cocktails — basically vodka-based seltzers. It also has guest taps for cider. There’s a variety of brewed beers: IPAs, sours, lagers, shandys, pale ales and imperial stouts. The 9,000-square-foot brewstillery includes a 3,500-square-foot taproom and 800-square-foot cocktail lounge. It opened in The Creek District of Arts & Entertainment in downtown Stuart in 2023. It hosts throwback parties, disco nights, pint wars, Latin nights, line dancing nights and more. Its signature and award winning drink is the Sippin’ Sunset.
Founder Reinhard “Reiny” Knieriemen was the head brewer at Twisted Trunk Brewing Co. in Palm Beach Gardens for nine years before he decided to open his own place in 2025. Sound Brewing is a microbrewery in a 3,000-square-foot building that’s split 50-50 between the brewhouse and taproom. It offers a small bar menu available to be delivered from next door at Taylor Beach House Cafe. Its signature beer is the Dawn Patrol Amber Ale and it hosts music bingo, trivia nights, moonlight markets and occasionally a special event such as vinyl nights.
TCPalm breaking news reporter Laurie K. Blandford contributed to this report.
Valeria Bartra is TCPalm’s food reporter. Contact her at valeria.bartra@tcpalm.com, 772-978-2246 or follow her on Instagram @vbartrajourno.
Florida
Florida leaders react to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death, remembering his legacy of public service
Florida elected officials from both chambers of Congress, along with the state’s two U.S. senators, are mourning the death of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, praising his decades of military service, national security work and bipartisan efforts on immigration.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott called Graham “a good friend and a dedicated public servant,” saying he and his wife, Anne, were “shocked and heartbroken” by the news.
“Lindsey was a good friend and a dedicated public servant for the people of South Carolina and the United States,” Scott said. “Through his time in the Air Force and in Congress, Lindsey dedicated his career to America’s national defense and freedom around the world. I was grateful to work with him. He will be greatly missed as a legislator and a friend.”
Florida’s other Republican senator, Ashley Moody, also honored Graham, describing him as a uniquely gifted communicator and lawmaker.
“My family and I mourn the sudden passing of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham,” Moody said. “There are people in this world who have the ability to change the air in a room through wit, humor, well-placed arguments, reason, or impassioned appeals. Lindsey Graham had the uncanny ability to pull them all off at once.”
South Florida lawmakers also reflected on Graham’s influence.
U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez said Graham leaves behind “a legacy of dedicated public service, a commitment to national security, and an unwavering fight for freedom.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar highlighted Graham’s years-long work on immigration reform, noting he played a key role in discussions surrounding bipartisan immigration proposals, including the DIGNITY Act of 2025.
“Few people in Washington fought longer or harder to fix our broken immigration system than Lindsey Graham,” Salazar said, adding that she was grateful for his counsel and commitment to finding a legislative solution.
Republican Congressman Byron Donalds, who is running for Florida governor, said Graham dedicated his life to serving the country both in the U.S. Air Force and in Congress.
“He was an incredibly effective lawmaker who always led with courage and deep conviction,” Donalds said. “He always did what he thought was right even if it wasn’t popular, leaving behind a massive legacy of leadership that won’t be forgotten.”
Miami-Dade’s tax collector honored Sen. Lindsey Graham, praising his steadfast support for freedom, democracy, and human rights, especially for his outspoken stance against Cuba’s communist dictatorship. The tribute, shared in both English and Spanish, thanked Graham for his leadership, his hope-inspiring words, and his unwavering commitment to liberty, saying his voice gave hope to millions dreaming of a free Cuba.
Graham served in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades after representing South Carolina in the U.S. House. Throughout his career, he became one of the Senate’s most influential voices on national security, foreign policy and immigration.
His death prompted an outpouring of condolences from lawmakers across the country, including many in Florida who worked alongside him on defense, immigration and other legislative priorities.
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