Florida Gators Fire HC Billy Napier

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida Gators are making a change with its football program, announcing on Sunday the firing of head coach Billy Napier seven games into his fourth season.

The decision was first reported by Football Scoop and corraborated by multiple outlets, including On3 and 247 Sports.

Florida will pay Napier a buyout of roughly $21 million, 85 percent of his remaining deal, with roughly $10.7 million due within 30 days, according to On3's Chris Low.

The rest of his contract will be paid out in equal installments every July until 2028. Napier originally signed a seven-year, $51.8 million deal in 2021.

Billy Napier's tenure with the Florida Gators ended with a 23-21 win over Mississippi State. | Kyle Lander / Florida Gators on SI

Napier will not coach the final five games of the season with receivers coach Billy Gonzales set to take over as the interim, according to Football Scoop. Offensive coordinator Russ Callaway will likely take over as the primary offensive play caller.

The team is on a bye this week and will play Georgia on Nov. 1.

Napier's firing comes a day after the Gators' 23-21 win over Mississippi State, which moved Florida to 3-4 to start the season and Napier to 22-23 as the program's head coach. His 23 losses in a single tenure are the most by a UF head coach since Raymond Wolf (1946-49) and Josh Cody (1936-39) each had 24 in their tenures.

"Man, I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to enjoy this one tonight," Napier said after Saturday's win. "That's what I'm going to do, okay? I'll wake up tomorrow, and we'll worry about what's next."

Napier also finishes his tenure 3-12 against Florida's five main rivals (Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami and Tennessee), 18-23 against FBS opponents, 14-22 against Power 4 opponents and 12-16 in SEC play.

Napier's firing seemed imminent with three-straight losses after a 55-0 win over LIU to begin the year. Florida dropped a game against USF at home before road games at then-No. 3 LSU and then-No. 4 Miami. In those losses, Napier had especially been criticized for his offense, which only managed three combined touchdowns in the losses.

Napier cooled down some of the heat with a 29-21 upset over Texas but was quickly back on the smoldering hot seat after a 34-17 loss at No. 5 Texas A&M.

Leading up to Saturday's win over Mississippi State, Napier's job security had continued to be a topic of national conversation as reports indicated that Florida could move on from Napier no matter the results of the game.

"I think that as a competitor, as a leader, you know, I think that it comes with the territory," he said leading up to the game. "So I think you have to have the ability to focus on the things that are important today, you know? I think it's, that's the whole key here is you got to stack good days, and you got to do a good job setting a great example for your players and staff."

Additionally, Napier had been criticized for multiple incidents involving a player and an assistant coach with defensive lineman Brendan Bett being ejected in the loss to USF for spitting on a player and assistant coach Jabbar Juluke recently being suspended three games for his role in a pregame altercation with LSU.

Juluke made his first post-suspension coaching appearance on Saturday.

Additionally, Napier has faced tremendous criticism for the development of former five-star quarterback DJ Lagway, who has dealt with numerous injuries this past offseason and has struggled with consistency 2025 with 1,513 yards, nine touchdowns and nine interceptions, including a five-interception performance against LSU.

Florida's 61 passing yards against Miami were the least since 2014, and he threw two interceptions in Saturday's win.

DJ Lagway's development has been a major criticism towards Billy Napier. | Kyle Lander / Florida Gators on SI

Napier consistently addressed his job security in the weeks leading up to his firing.

“I think I'm trying to solve problems," he said before the Miami game when asked if he was coaching for his job. "You’re trying to find the right combination of things to help. We’re a handful of plays away from winning that game Saturday. You got to try to be as objective as you can and you got to get consumed with how you help the players, how you help the players improve, how you help the position of the players a little bit better spot here and there, and keep the human element intact.

"That’s the really important part. I do think, in my opinion, a man is not defeated until he blames someone else. So I think it's key for us to evaluate what we can do, every individual within the team and organization, to contribute and help us get better.”

He had also previously defended his decision to remain the team's play caller despite the offensive inconsistency.

"It's Year 8 for me, and I think it's the way we've done it. I think it helped us get here. But look, I think there's a lot of guys that are still doing it, too. You could argue both ways here," he said on Sept. 29 leading up to the Texas game. "... I think each year you're evaluating what is best for the team, for the staff, and certainly, I think with who we had coming back, the quarterback in particular, I think is a huge piece of that puzzle - in terms of the verbiage, the system, the dialogue, how you teach the quarterback. I think that's a big piece of the puzzle."

Stricklin's decision comes 10 months after his public vote of confidence for Napier after the team's 4-5 start last season, where he remained steadfast in his belief that the program was heading in the right direction. Florida went on to win five-straight games, including four-straight to end 2024, before its current three-game losing streak.

With Napier's firing, Florida will look to hire its 25th permanent head coach while continuing its search a longterm head coach.

Since Urban Meyer's resignation after the 2010 season, Florida has not had a head coach last longer than their fourth year with Napier (2022-25), Dan Mullen (2018-21) and Will Muschamp (2011-14) all getting fired in the middle of their fourth year, while Jim McElwain (2015-17) was fired midway through his third year.

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