Florida Fires Billy Napier After Years of Falling Short

After three-and-a-half seasons of chronic underperformance at a one-time juggernaut program, Florida finally fired football coach Billy Napier on Sunday, sources confirmed to Sports Illustrated.

Napier leaves with a record of 22–23 and a winning percentage of .489, which is the lowest for a full-time Gators coach since Raymond Wolf was at the school from 1946 to ’49. Napier’s 12–16 Southeastern Conference record also is the worst since Wolf’s tenure.

Arriving from Louisiana in the Sun Belt Conference, Napier never proved to be up to the task of elevating Florida back to the upper echelon of the SEC. Given that failure, expect Florida to seek a more established new coach who has already proved he can win at a power-conference level. The Gators will take big swings at this hire, sources tell Sports Illustrated, with Mississippi's Lane Kiffin, Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz and even Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman on the potential target list. Freeman would be the least likely of those four to be swayed from his current position. Indiana's Curt Cignetti was of interest by Florida but agreed to an eight-year, $93 million contract to stay with the Hoosiers last week. James Franklin, recently fired at Penn State, could also be a candidate, but his shortcomings in big games could be a deterrent at a school looking to get back to the top of the SEC.

Napier was never able to get the Gators off to a fast start, compiling an 8–9 record in August and September games. That led to a near-permanent cloud of criticism and negativity surrounding a program that won three national championships between 1996 and 2008. He was nearly fired just three games into the 2024 season, but athletic director Scott Stricklin preached patience to an angry booster contingent. That was temporarily rewarded when the Gators won their final four games to finish 8–5 against a stout schedule. With a talented roster kept largely intact, expectations were high entering this season.

Once again, those expectations were not met. A shocking home loss to South Florida in the second game started the downward spiral, which continued with road losses to LSU and Miami. Even an upset of Texas provided only temporary joy; Florida followed it with a road loss to Texas A&M that set the wheels in motion for Napier’s dismissal.

2025 Gators Schedule	Result
Week 1: vs. LIU	W, 55–0
Week 2: vs. South Florida	L, 18–16
Week 3: at LSU	L, 20–10
Week 4: at Miami	L, 26–7
Week 5: Bye
Week 6: vs. Texas	W, 29–21
Week 7: at Texas A&M	L, 34–17
Week 8: vs. Mississippi State	W, 23–21
Week 9: Bye
Week 10: vs. Georgia	Nov. 1, 3:30 p.m. ET
Week 11: at Kentucky	Nov. 8, TBD
Week 12: at Mississippi	Nov. 15, TBD
Week 13: vs. Tennessee	Nov. 22, TBD
Week 14: vs. Florida State	Nov. 29, TBD

This is the fourth straight football coach Florida has fired during a season since Urban Meyer stepped down in 2010, and none of those four made it to 50 games at the school. Will Muschamp and Dan Mullen coached 49, Jim McElwain 34 and Napier 39. The Gators have an open date Oct. 25, which makes this a logical time to make a change before heading into a five-game gauntlet in November.

Napier’s buyout is about $21 million, according to USA Today, a sizable sum that seems more reasonable with Penn State on the hook for more than double that amount after firing James Franklin earlier in October.

When asked about his job status, Napier became emotional after the Gators defeated Mississippi State on Saturday night: “I love the game of football,” he said. “I love the game.”

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