Florida Keeps Napier: Why this is a good idea

News came through for Florida Gators that embattled head coach Billy Napier would stay on for at least another season.

Gators AD said: “As we’ve seen these past several weeks, the young men on this team represent what it means to be a Gator. Their resolve, effort and execution are evident in their performance and growth each week — building a foundation that promises greater success next season and beyond…I am confident that Billy will meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.”

SO WHY WASN’T HE SHOVED?

The Gators had performed as expected, with a 4-4 record (2-3 SEC). The wins against Kentucky and Mississippi State were comfortable (ie no upsets), and the losses to Georgia, Tennessee and Texas A&M were also as expected.

But the discussion all year long has been about player effort, which has gone right up since the laughable disaster against Miami, when they lost 41-17 at home.

Florida’s players didn’t seem to be thinking: “Nah, Coach’s going. Screw ’em. I’m going in the transfer portal and riding this out on the bench”. In fact, they played for him.

They should have beaten Tennessee. They took Georgia to the hilt – and the game would have gone to the wire had DJ Langway – looking already like one of the SEC’s best QBs for 2025- not been hurt midway through the game, and they had to rely on a dude from Yale.

Striklin obviously thought – like I did – that firing Napier when the school would be on their third quarterback for the rest of the season and when the players were fighting for their coach was probably an unwise choice AND an unwise PR move.

Florida fans might not like to hear this, there is also a cost element to this: Florida will owe Napier $25.67m if he’s fired, on top of Dan Mullen’s $12m buyout that had already been paid out. He’s also paying $18m to basketball coach Mike White, and $1.8m to head baseball coach Kevin O’Sullivan.

Money doesn’t grow on trees….particularly when you’ve got NCAA NIL mandates to put out as well.

Speaking of money, ESPN’s Pete Thamel tweeted: “Per ESPN sources, 70% of Florida’s NIL money is in freshman and sophomores. There’s a feeling in the program that star freshman QB DJ Lagway is aligned with Napier, and Napier can grow this core of young players”. In other words, Lagway’s the big voice in the room, and he wanted to keep Billy around.

That’s player power for you.

And there’s also another fact: Who better is there out there right now who’d want to come to such an unstable environment? Lane Kiffin – everyone’s favorite target – seems to be pretty happy at Ole Miss. Every other coach in the SEC is going to stick around. Florida may make a dart at Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, but the guy’s 63. James Franklin at Penn State could be persuaded if UF pay Penn State out, but Franklin’s shown to be utterly flawed in monster games. So would he be suited with the big ones every year?

Florida did the right thing.

Shock the world by beating one of Texas, LSU and Ole Miss, it might look even better.

 

 

 

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