Reports circulated during the week that Florida could fire football coach Billy Napier regardless of the Gators’ outcome Saturday with boosters pressuring for a change, and sure enough Napier was officially let go Sunday despite winning his final game.
The morning after Florida’s 23-21 win over Mississippi State, athletic director Scott Stricklin announced the move and named wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales as the interim head coach.
“Today I met with Coach Napier and informed him that a change in leadership of our football program would best serve the interests of the University of Florida.
“On behalf of Gator Nation, I want to sincerely thank Billy and his family for their tireless commitment to the Florida Gators. Billy built a tremendous culture of accountability and growth among the young men he led each day. His organized and detailed approach had a meaningful impact across all levels of our program,” Stricklin said of Napier. “As Coach Napier has often said, this is a results-driven business, and while his influence was positive, it ultimately did not translate into the level of success we expect on the field. …
“Making this decision during the open date provides our team valuable time to regroup, refocus, and prepare for the challenges ahead. The timing also allows us to conduct a thoughtful, thorough, and well-informed search for our next head coach. We remain fully committed to utilizing every resource available to identify the right leader to guide Gators Football into the future. … Any time you conduct a head coaching search, especially for a high-profile sport like football or men’s basketball, you learn something. The lessons from past experiences will guide us through the work ahead.”
This will be Stricklin’s third search for a football coach during his tenure at Florida. He inherited Jim McElwain and fired him seven games into his third season. He then hired Dan Mullen and let him go near the end of his fourth season — with a 5-6 record but 34-15 overall mark and two 10-win seasons at Florida. That’s when he hired Napier, a former Alabama assistant who had gone 40-12 in four years at Louisiana.
Napier never found success with the Gators and spent much of his tenure on the hot seat. An 8-5 finish last year marked his only winning record in three and half years. The Gators were 3-4 so far this fall. Napier finishes 22-23.
Napier is the eighth college football head coach fired during this season, following Brent Pry at Virginia Tech, DeShaun Foster at UCLA, Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State, Sam Pittman at Arkansas, James Franklin at Penn State, Trent Bray at Oregon State and Trent Dilfer at UAB.
Florida will always be a marquee coaching job in college football, with a storied tradition that includes three national championships — in 1996 under Steve Spurrier and in 2006 and 2008 under Urban Meyer.
As for who Stricklin might want to consider next, for a hire that will likely shape his own future at Florida, here are five candidates …
Five Names to Know For Florida Coaching Search
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin
Expect to hear Kiffin’s name prominently linked to the Florida coaching search (and other jobs), unless Ole Miss is able to lock him up to a lucrative extension quickly like Indiana did with Curt Cignetti.
Many comparisons have been drawn between Kiffin and Spurrier, from their reputation as elite offensive coaches to their colorful personalities. But that’s not why Kiffin tops this list — he simply is a proven winner.
While he didn’t find early success in stints coaching the NFL’s Raiders, Tennessee or USC, he reset his career as Alabama’s offensive coordinator for three years, went 26-13 in three seasons at Florida Atlantic and is now 50-19 in six years at Ole Miss. That includes three 10-win seasons and a 6-1 start this year. Before Kiffin, the Rebels had reached 10 wins just once in the prior 16 seasons and had four straight losing seasons before his arrival.
Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz
Drinkwitz took over a Missouri program mired in mediocrity and built it back up over the last six years, going 11-2 and 10-3 the last two seasons and off to a 6-1 start this fall. He also went 12-1 in his lone season at Appalachian State.
Drinkwitz also is regarded as an elite offensive coach if that’s a priority to Florida.
After reaching to the Group of Five level to hire Napier, it would make sense for the Gators to hire a proven Power Four head coach and landing one who has succeeded in the SEC already would be an extra plus.
Former Penn State coach James Franklin
Franklin was just let go from Penn State a week ago and has stated he is eager to quickly land another head coaching job.
While his struggles against top 10 opponents at Penn State was well documented, it also can’t be denied that he walked into a tough situation in Happy Valley and went 104-45 in 11 and a half seasons there, including four 11-win seasons, a 10-win season and a 13-3 mark last year while reaching the College Football Playoff semifinals.
Franklin is going to land in another high-profile job, and Florida should at least interview him and see if there is a mutual fit.
Washington head coach Jedd Fisch
Would Fisch want to leave Washington after just two seasons after spending just three at Arizona before that? Well, he’s never stayed in one place for long and he’s a Florida alum who got his start as a graduate assistant at Florida under Spurrier in 1999-2000 before bouncing between NFL and college jobs since then.
As the story goes, Fisch went to Florida with every intention of getting Spurrier to give him a job in the football program, leaving notes on the coach’s car daily until it happened. He considers Spurrier a mentor, so this might be the dream job for Fisch.
As for why the Gators might be interested? He turned Arizona from 1-11 his first year there to 10-3, and after a 6-7 debut season at Washington the Huskies are off to a 5-2 start this year.
Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm
The question is, does Brohm have any interest in leaving his alma mater? He starred at quarterback for Louisville in the early 1990s and is in his third season back there as head coach, going 10-4, 9-4 and 5-1 so far this season, including the big upset win over No. 2 Miami on Friday night.
Before that, Brohm went 36-34 in six years at Purdue and 30-10 over three seasons at Western Kentucky.
His record includes several high-profile upsets of highly-ranked teams. His Purdue teams beat No. 2 Ohio State in 2018, No. 2 Iowa in 2021 and No. 3 Michigan State in 2021, while at Louisville he beat No. 10 Notre Dame and No. 11 Clemson in 2023 and then the big win over Miami this week.