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As much as I personally believe that the former UL-Lafayette head coach is still a talented top football man, “The Billy Napier Experience” at the University of Florida just hit the bottom of the pond Saturday evening in The Swamp.
The current (as of this writing) Gators’ football coach is just 1-2 after the third game of his third season in Gainesville. After finishing 6-7 during 2022 and 5-7 in 2023, the Gators lost an ugly 33-20 home game Saturday to a “not exactly great” Texas A&M team which needed to start its back-up (and likely better) quarterback this week.
Afterwards, Gator Nation is furiously “chomping” at the bit about the dire straits of their football team.
The Florida football program simply isn’t used to losing
In researching this story, I was a bit surprised to see the prolonged period of success which the University of Florida’s football program has enjoyed since 1979.
Former Heisman Trophy winner and long-time Florida football coach Steve Spurrier (1990-2001) helped the Gators to the 1996 National Championship. His teams won at least nine games ever year during his 12 seasons at the University of Florida. His successor, Ron Zook, was fired after “only” going 7-5 in 2004. Urban Meyer took over in 2005 and won two national titles (2006 and 2008) before “retiring” after an 8-5 2010 season.
However, the past 14 years of Florida Gators’ football has shown occasional slippage. Prior to the hiring of Billy Napier, three other head football coaches have been hired and fired.
Following Urban Meyer’s exit, Will Muschamp posted with a 7-6 record in 2011 and improved to a nifty 11-2 in 2012.
Alas, the 2013 season saw Florida finish with its first losing record in 34 years as the Gators sank to 4-8. Even after recovering to 7-5 in 2014, Coach Muschamp was tossed into the nearby gator pit.
His successor was Jim McIlwain (2015-2017). In his debut season, Coach McIlwain’s Florida Gators went a sterling 10-4. The 2016 team posted a respectable 9-4 record. In his third season, McIlwain’s 2017 Gators fell to 4-7. Yes, he was pushed into the gator pit, too.
Former Florida assistant coach Dan Mullen came to the rescue in 2018 for the next four seasons. After a nice 10-3 start in 2018, Mullens’ Gators went 11-2 in 2019 and seemed to be on their way. The 2020 “COVID” year brought Florida to an 8-4 record and a loss in the SEC title game to Alabama. Coach Mullin’s fourth season saw the 2021 Gators slide to 6-7 record with an ugly season-ending loss to upstart rival UCF in Tampa’s Gasparilla Bowl.
No, we must not have a losing season here in Gatorland! Dan Mullen was fired and now performs a much safer job today as a TV analyst for ABC, ESPN, and the SEC Network.
Enter Coach Billy Napier in 2022
A former college quarterback at Furman and former assistant from the coaching tree of Nick Saban, Billy Napier guided the unheralded University of Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns to four straight winning seasons. After posting three years with ten or more wins, Napier’s Cajuns finished #16 in the final 2021 AP poll.
Now a hot coaching commodity, Billy Napier accepted a 7-year $51.5 million contract to become Florida’s latest head coach in November, 2021. Gator Nation welcomed the 43-year old Billy Napier in hopes that he might finally rebuild Florida football into a powerhouse again.
After a rocky 6-7 first season in 2022, Coach Billy Napier’s Gators fell to 5-7 in 2023. Now just three games into the 2024 season, Florida is currently just 1-2 and heads to Mississippi State for an 11AM CDT Saturday kickoff on ESPN.
Billy Napier’s cumulative record at Florida is 12-16. That’s the worst winning percentage for any Florida head football coach since Raymond Wolf was relieved of his duties after the 1949 season.
Having lost ten straight road games, the visiting Texas A&M Aggies (now 2-1) came into Gainesville last weekend and dominated the Gators. The Aggies cruised to an early 20-0 lead. As the Gators headed to the locker room at halftime and again after the game, some of the 90,000 fans in attendance booed their head coach and chanted, “Fire Billy!”
After the game, Billy Napier confided with the assembled press.
“I have no excuse,” said Coach Napier. “I have no negative comment about that. Ultimately, we play a certain way in this arena, you’re going to get criticized…I probably would have done the same thing.”
What has gone wrong, Coach?
Billy Napier isn’t the only top coach scratching his head today about how to deal with the new NIL paid players and freewheeling transfer rules in college sports.
Many college football players are openly requesting hundreds of thousands of dollars per year (in name, image, and likeness promotional money, of course) as they consider switching schools for more money each year. These rapid changes are causing much of the chaos in college football that many (including former Alabama head coach Nick Saban) had predicted.
It is unlikely that Coach Billy Napier had to deal with this issue very much at cozy UL-Lafayette. To remain competitive in the SEC today, teams are spending less time recruiting high school talent and spending more time and money to “buy” transfer players seeking more playing time, fame, and, of course, money.
Billy Napier should be able to get by on a $27 million contract buyout
Regardless who is the football coach at the University of Florida, the 2024 schedule was generally considered to be the most difficult in major college football this year. With remaining games against the AP’s new #1 Texas, #2 Georgia, #5 Ole Miss, #6 Tennessee, and #16 LSU, Florida will be fortunate to win four games this season.
If Florida’s athletic department wants to send Coach Napier home soon, they must pay him 85% of his contract (valued at $7-$7.5 million annually) for the remaining four years of his seven-year agreement.
That works out to around $27 million.
Since Florida is a public university, this sizable expense will fall onto the school’s wealthy football backers to ante-up the dough. While they’re shaking the bushes for money, don’t forget that the next new football coach will likely require at least $10-20 million in order to terminate the coaching deal at his current school, too.
Why fire Coach Napier if the Gators are unlikely to win many games this season?
The grand tradition in college and professional athletics has been to fire the head coach so that fans can start to have “hope” once again.
It is actually all about money – on both sides of the equation.
Sticking with an unpopular head coach too long could translate into millions of dollars in unsold season tickets for multiple years. The school also loses the associated parking, concessions, and merchandise revenues from the diminished gate.
If Florida should lose upwards of 10,000 season ticket holders next year, the annual revenue hit may be in the ballpark of $7 million for Florida’s seven-game home football schedule.
If and when Billy Napier is dismissed, the school could turn to one of the current assistant coaches to run the team for the remainder of the 2024 season. However, many of those top assistant coaches have loyalty to Billy Napier. The assistant coaches know that the new head coach will bring most of his own staff with him.
What about “The Ol’ Ball Coach”, Steve Spurrier?
The legendary 79-year old former Florida Gators signal caller and long-time coach Steve Spurrier is another person who might be able to put a short-term tourniquet on the Gator football program this fall.
The 1966 Heisman Trophy winner, Coach Spurrier commands respect of Florida football team and its fans. If he is healthy enough to want the job for a few months this fall, he is the best short-term fit.
Calling Tim Tebow…
The Heisman Trophy winner in 2007, Tim Tebow won two national championships as a quarterback for the Gators in 2006 and 2008. After retiring from professional sports, Tebow has been a very popular television analyst with ESPN’s SEC Network.
Let’s assume that the chance to save Gator Nation for the next two months would interest Tim Tebow. Though Tebow has not expressed any desire to coach college football, he would immediately generate renewed excitement for the program.
There is no doubt that ESPN (capitalizing on this national story/publicity) would grant a short-term leave of absence for Tim Tebow. For their part, Florida could offer to pay Tebow’s current salary and, in another fan friendly move, perhaps donate a similar amount to the charity of Tebow’s choice.
Tebow could write another book from the coaching experience and add another chapter to his legendary sports career.
It happened recently. Remember Cadillac Williams at Auburn?
Before you laugh at the idea of hiring Tim Tebow as an interim head coach at Florida, consider what happened at SEC rival Auburn only two years ago.
After Coach Bryan Harsin was fired in mid-season during 2022, former Auburn All-American running back legend Cadillac Williams was elevated from the school’s running backs coach to the interim head coach. The Auburn players and fans loved it. Finishing 2-2 in the remaining games, the school gained positive national recognition in an otherwise forgettable football season.
The clock is ticking at Florida
The next loss by Florida under head coach Billy Napier will likely be his last. What is not as clear is whether any future head football coach will be able to quickly turn around the Florida Gators’ football program.
With 90,000 seats to fill on Saturdays every fall, the university and its wealthy benefactors need to do some soul searching quickly. They must also pass the hat – a very large one – to cover the $27 million payout for Billy Napier and then ante-up even more to buy-out the new coach’s current agreement at another school.
So…who you gonna call now, Gators? There are plenty of ghosts to be busted in Gainesville.