$51.8 Million Head Coach Expected to Turn Around Career After Being Fired

The 2025-2026 college football head coaching carousel created mass turnover all across the FBS ranks.

In the SEC alone, six different programs hired new coaches, five of which occurred because of firings. The second coach to lose his job in the SEC was Billy Napier, who was in the midst of his fourth season at Florida.

Prior to his first head coaching job, Napier spent 15 seasons working up the coaching ladder as an offensive assistant. His most notable stop was with Nick Saban at Alabama from 2013 to 2016, where he worked as the Crimson Tide's wide receivers coach.

Louisiana hired Napier as its head coach in the 2018 offseason. The Ragin' Cajuns never missed a Sun Belt Championship game under Napier, taking down Appalachian State in the 2021 installment. After amassing a 40-12 record with the Ragin' Cajuns, Napier was receiving interest from Power Four schools in search of head coaches.

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier walks off the field after the game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Kyle Field. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

Florida hired Napier to replace Dan Mullen in the 2022 offseason. The Gators were 11-14 in Napier's first two seasons on the job, their worst mark in a head coach's first two seasons on the job since Charley Pell's 8-14-1 mark between the 1979 and 1980 seasons.

A strong finish to the 2024 season kept hot-seat discussions at bay, but a loss to USF two weeks into the 2025 season created a downward spiral that ended in Napier's firing in late October.

Despite the shortcomings at Florida, James Madison was willing to give Napier a shot as Bob Chesney's successor. Richard Johnson of CBS Sports released grades for each of the 33 head coaching hires in FBS ahead of the 2026 season. Johnson gave James Madison a B- for its hiring of Napier.

"Can a tiger change his stripes? That will be the question for Napier at JMU, particularly regarding how much of the reins he'll cede to offensive coordinator Cam Aiken," Johnson wrote. "The Dukes have succeeded with two head coaches in their FBS era. If they can sustain it with a third, this becomes the destination job in the Group of Six."

As Johnson alluded to, James Madison has become somewhat of a springboard for head coaches in their rise to the head coaching ranks. Curt Cignetti is the most notable coach to have launched a tenure elsewhere because of his time at James Madison, and 2025 head coach Bob Chesney is hoping to do the same at UCLA next season.

Mike Houston and Everett Withers, the Dukes' coaches prior to Cignetti, also left James Madison for other jobs thanks to successful tenures.