Sun Belt Billy: Former Gators HC Napier Returns to Conference with Hiring at JMU

Former Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier's next stop has been revealed, and it sees him return to familiar territory.

Napier, previously a rumored candidate at North Texas and after interviewing at Tulane, will be the next head coach at James Madison, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel. The hiring, a reported five-year deal, marks a return to the Sun Belt Conference for Napier after four seasons at Florida.

Breaking: Billy Napier is finalizing a five-year deal to become the next head coach at James Madison, sources told @PeteThamel. A formal announcement is expected on Saturday.

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— ESPN (@espn) December 4, 2025

Before his stint with the Gators, which saw him fired after a 22-23 record midway through his fourth season, Napier was the head coach at Louisiana, where he won two Sun Belt Conference titles and another two Sun Belt Western Division titles.

He was 40-12 with the Ragin' Cajuns with two bowl wins and two seasons where the team finished inside the top 20 of the final AP Poll rankings.

Napier will face a steep challenge with the Dukes by replacing Bob Chesney, who went 20-5 in his two seasons with the program and was recently hired as the head coach at UCLA. James Madison is 11-1 in 2025 and will play Troy in the Sun Belt Conference championship game on Friday.

Chesney originally replaced Curt Cignetti at James Madison. Now the head coach of Indiana, Cignetti oversaw the Dukes transition from the FCS level, where they went to three-straight FCS semifinals and a national championship appearance with three-straight conference titles, to the FBS level, where they had two Sun Belt runner-up finishes.

Ironically, both of Cignetti's losses in the Sun Belt title games came against now-Florida head coach Jon Sumrall, who replaced Napier at Florida and was the head coach at Troy at the time.

Cignetti was 52-9 at James Madison, including 19-4 at the FBS level. His Hoosiers are ranked No. 2 in the country at 12-0 and will play No. 1 Ohio State for the Big Ten title.

Napier's hiring also presents a unique matchup with another former Florida head coach. Napier's Dukes are set to host UNLV and Dan Mullen in the 2027 season, should Mullen, a popular name among Power Four openings since his firing at Florida in 2021, stay at the school.

Jon Sumrall replaced Billy Napier as the head coach of the Florida Gators. | Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Meanwhile, Sumrall replaced Napier at Florida after his hiring this week. Despite eerily similar stats and records while at Troy and Tulane to those of Napier's at Louisiana, Sumrall emphasized the differences between the two at his introductory press conference on Monday without saying Napier by name.

"No two people are the same," he said on Monday. "… Judge me for who I am. I'm a winner. We're going to win. Just give me a shot. Believe in me."

Notably, Sumrall has made a point of honoring existing commitments and hiring the best fits available over bringing over staffers at his current school, both criticisms of Napier at the time of his hiring and throughout his tenure.

Sumrall recently tabbed Kentucky's Brad White and Georgia Tech's Buster Faulkner as his offensive and defensive coordinators.

With his coordinators in place, Sumrall's next task will be rounding out his staff. He teased on Monday the possibility of retaining certain staffers while hiring others he's either had overlap with or those he's never coached with but will be the best fit.

"I don't hire a staff off of who are my buddies," he explained. "I hire a staff based upon what is the absolute best group of people we can put together to serve and develop our players and win championships at that place."

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