- Billy Napier’s $22 million buyout is steep, but digestible.
- Florida’s university leadership gained clarity with new interim president and contract extension for athletic director.
- If Billy Napier is fired, he’d finish as Florida’s worst coach since the 1940s.
If Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin needs inspiration to fire Billy Napier, he need only listen to the coach himself.
In the aftermath of Florida’s most embarrassing loss in years, the Gators’ embattled coach laid the result at the feet of … the coach.
“It’s ultimately my responsibility,” Napier said after an 18-16 loss to South Florida.
Bingo. He’s responsible for this mess.
Napier, in his fourth season on the Gators sideline, routinely flunks Clock Management 101. He refuses to surrender play-calling duties of an offense that resists ignition. Special teams gaffes persist.
Florida’s showing against South Florida was gross, complete with a Florida Man spitting a loogie into a Bull’s face. As for who’s responsible for the South Florida calamity, nobody said it better than the Gators’ .500 coach.
“I think it is coaching,” Napier said.
This experiment failed. What more evidence does Florida need?
At this point, it’s a compliment to describe Napier as a coach on the hot seat. He’s a seat warmer for the next Florida coach.
Gators fans exiting The Swamp after the Week 2 debacle chanted their orders.
Fire Billy! Fire Billy!
The Gators’ upcoming stretch of four straight ranked opponents, starting with No. 4 LSU, can supply the epilogue to the worst Florida coaching tenure since the 1940s.
Florida, after delaying last year, finally has the framework to fire Napier. His nearly $22 million buyout, with no duty to mitigate the damages, is steep but digestible. And, importantly, the university has clarified its leadership.
Clarity in Florida leadership clears path to Billy Napier firing
Florida recently installed Donald Landry as its new interim president. Landry replaced Kent Fuchs, the previous interim president and a Napier supporter. Fuchs, Stricklin and Napier were a three-man band. Fuchs was Florida’s president when Stricklin hired Napier.
There’s a whole lot more to being a university president than cheering good sports teams, but having a spiffy front porch never hurt any administrator. What better way for Landry to prove himself viable for the university’s full-time presidency than kick-starting an invigorating new direction for the decaying football program?
There’s also clarity within the athletic department. Stricklin received a contract extension before the season that will keep him in his role through 2030. Stricklin previously hired and fired Dan Mullen. This extension settles whether Florida would allow Stricklin to oversee a third coaching search. Stricklin staunchly supported Napier in past rocky times. He gave him miles of rope, but they no longer are tied at the hip.
The coach can go, while Stricklin stays.
With fresh eyes in the president’s chair and Stricklin strapped into his athletic director’s role, Florida’s administration can set about fixing its ailing football program, lest the Gators fall further behind Miami, Florida State and South Florida.
Napier’s proven he’s a problem, not a solution. Even he can’t deny it. Florida repeatedly tried to make this work, with a coach who’s not a bad guy, just a failed coach.
Decent guys who are failed coaches walk away with buyout checks. That’s business.
No living down a Gators loss to South Florida
This loss to the Bulls will cling to Napier like a nylon shirt on a humid summer day.
It doesn’t much matter that South Florida looks like a solid team.
Folks, a Gators spit-wad influenced the outcome, and an instate Group of Five school turned The Swamp into their personal party pad. That’s how this game will be remembered.
It’s as Bulls center Cole Best told me this week: “It really came down to, one team was more disciplined than the other.”
That about spells it out.
There’s a pivotal moment in most fired coaches’ tenures that you can pinpoint and say, that’s the day he was toast.
Will Muschamp was cooked after his 2013 loss at The Swamp to Georgia Southern, a Championship Subdivision opponent that won despite completing no passes. Jim McElwain made unsubstantiated claims about receiving death threats. Dan Mullen’s fortunes turned when Marco Wilson threw a shoe into a foggy sky.
The flimsy firewall Napier erected with four straight victories to close last season disintegrated after that loogie left Brendan Bett’s lips and USF’s Nico Gramatica made a winning field goal.
Florida could allow Napier to play this out, and maybe he scrambles to something along the lines of an 8-4 record. We’ve seen that act before. That was last season. And, then what happened?
In a continuing pattern, Florida lost more than it gained in the transfer portal. As a recruiter, Napier’s more of a Jack of clubs than an Ace. He recruits to a level more comparable to Mullen than to Urban Meyer, and he’s a far worse game-day coach than either.
It’s as Napier says: Coaching is part of the Gators’ problem. It’s time for Florida’s now-settled leadership to break the cycle and hunt solutions.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
