Firing Billy Napier is the Only Choice for the Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla.– Saturday’s 33-20 blowout loss to Texas A&M should be the nail in the coffin, the writing on the wall, the clincher or whatever word or phrase you prefer to use to describe Billy Napier’s tenure as the head coach of the Florida Gators.

Whatever wordage you prefer, it truly doesn’t matter. Saturday’s blowout loss must be the last time Napier takes the field as head coach. It’s time for the Napier experience to end.

I already wrote two weeks ago after Florida’s 41-17 loss to Miami about the Gators’ broken promises of a better team who played fast, tackled aggressively, created turnovers, took shots down the field, etc.

It was a kick in the stomach for those, including myself, that had believed this was Napier’s best team he put together in his tenure.

I had even said on multiple appearances on the podcast Hightop Sports (shoutout Shelton and Dave) that this felt like the Napier-led team that finally had the missing pieces to the puzzle, could put it all together and would surprise many outsiders despite having the nation’s toughest schedule. I told multiple people that Florida’s only seemingly-guaranteed losses were against Georgia and Texas.

Every other game, had a semblance of a chance to win, and, boy, was I wrong, and so was Napier, who even said this was the best team he’s had since becoming the head coach. And, all it took was three games for that to be proven.

Let’s get the obvious, statistical components of Napier’s 28-game tenure out of the way.

His 12-16 record (42.8 winning percentage) in a little over two full seasons as Florida’s head coach is the worst by a full-time head coach since Raymond Wolf’s 35.9 winning percentage from 1946-1949. His 12 wins and 28 games mark the least amount of wins and shortest tenure by a full-time head coach since James Van Fleet (1923-1924).

Specific to Napier, it wasn’t just the fact that he lost. It’s the way he lost and who he lost to.

Against Florida’s five biggest rivals (Florida State, Georgia, Tennessee, LSU and Miami), he has one win in nine matchups. In a broader aspect, he accomplished a 6-11 record in the SEC, a 7-16 record against Power-4 opponents and 2-11 record against ranked teams.

In 16 losses, 10 came by double-digits. In the six that weren’t, Florida trailed by at least 10 points in three of them.

Not to mention, close and baffling losses to Vanderbilt and Arkansas in 2022 and 2023, both of which are included in the “trailed by at least 10 points at one point” category, are still massive eyesores in the Florida history books, and his two losses this year were flat-out embarrassing due to the lack of competitiveness.

It was clear after the loss to Miami that his time was numbered. The loss to Texas A&M should be the one that ultimately pulls the plug.

These numbers look even worse considering Napier took over the Florida job from a head coach that was fired despite leading Florida to three-straight New Years Six bowl games, back-to-back 10-win seasons and an SEC East title

It’s easy in retrospect to look back into the past and say that firing former head coach Dan Mullen was the wrong decision. Mullen’s firing came in my first year covering the Gators as an intern with Inside The Gators, and I genuinely thought that Mullen would get one more year to turn things around.

I have come to my own personal belief that it was probably best for Florida to move on from Mullen, but at the same time, no one truly knows how that tenure would have ended. That’s in the past now. Let that be the final time we talk about it.

I attended Napier’s first press conference as Florida’s head coach, and his words, self-proclaimed attention to detail, emphasis on a strong organization, focus on in-state recruiting at a high level had me believing he could be the guy the Gators need for sustained, long-term success, even if it meant a couple years of bad football (I think that’s what most anticipated anyways).

No matter what you think about Florida firing Mullen and choosing Napier as his replacement, it’s clear that Napier was never the answer. Every small step forward was met by five steps backwards. Year three felt like year one of a tenure. And, honestly, year three for Napier in only three games was far worse than year one.

Napier’s tenure, from press conferences to games, felt like my scratched Heart “Dreamboat Annie” record that skips and stops playing in the middle of “Magic Man” (shoutout to my cat, Chester, for ruining one of my favorite records I own). It has been nothing but repetition with an inability to move forward unless a divine force intervened, and it never did.

There was also the baffling decisions to not hire a full-time play caller, paying $2.1 million for a co-offensive coordinator and co-defensive coordinator who both do not call plays and the whole two-offensive line coach debacle when it’s arguably become the Gators’ worst position unit and worst-recruited unit.

And when he did make an attempt to move the program forward through decisions such as coaching changes on the defensive side, transfer portal recruiting and more, the decisions ended up making the team look worse than they did prior to those choices.

Now, before I finish, I do want to give Napier some slight credit. He is a genuine person who did make a point of improving the off-field life for players. Players did truly like him and like playing for him, but that doesn’t keep a coach from being fired.

It’s been said by many that winning solves every issue. Napier did everything but win in his time as the head coach.

Less than three years from Mullen’s firing, Florida could back in the search for a new head coach, and now with what will be four-straight failed tenures since Urban Meyer, it’s a must that the next one one is a success. Patience for a head coach to rebuild a program was promised multiple times to no avail. Now it’s time for results.

Because of the patience promised during Napier’s failed tenure, good luck to Florida’s next coach, who maybe won’t have that same leash initial leash to turn things around.