Assessing a potential Billy Napier firing if Florida is punished for recruiting violations

News broke on Friday revealing that the NCAA is investigating Florida’s football program regarding their previous recruitment of quarterback Jaden Rashada, who was famously offered a $13 million deal by the program’s NIL collective.

The information regarding the investigation is still minimal, but that didn’t stop On3’s Andy Staples from asking Gators Online’s Nick de la Torre if potential recruiting violations for Florida could be used against Gators’ head coach Billy Napier and result in his firing.

“It certainly smells like it could be a for-cause situation if your actions cause the program to go on probation,” de la Torre said. “And I’ve seen some fans, because I added it to my story, that Florida had run into some NCAA recruiting issues with Dan Mullen. But Florida was not placed on probation, Dan Mullen was placed on probation and had to show cause. So I could be wrong Andy, but I don’t think Florida has been on probation since the 80s.”

Florida found itself in another NCAA investigation in 2020 under Mullen, which resulted in Level II and Level III violations. But Staples believes that precedent does not matter regarding Florida’s latest investigation as it relates to Napier’s future with the program, citing two examples from the past that show two different ways the cookie could crumble for Florida’s head coach if the investigation does put him at fault.

“Tennessee had a coach who was not winning enough in Jeremy Pruitt, they caught him with a bunch of NCAA violations, and they fired him for free. And they used it to fire him for free and it helped them kind of springboard, gave them more money to use when they hired Josh Heupel and his staff,” Staples explained.

“Meanwhile you have Michigan where the NCAA thinks they’ve caught Jim Harbaugh on the cheeseburger gate thing, we’re not even getting into the sign stealing stuff, and Michigan defends him. Michigan they self impose the suspension, trying to keep it as minimal as possible, but Michigan has said we’ve got your back and if he comes back and doesn’t go to the NFL they’ve got his back,” Staples said. “And it’s just crazy how nakedly obvious it is when a school is happy with how you’re winning, they got you. But when you’re losing, if I’m Billy Napier I’m watching my back right now.”

Napier has led the Gators to an 11-14 record in his two seasons as head coach, with just six wins against SEC opponents to his name. And if the Florida program did eventually want to part ways with him, it certainly wouldn’t hurt them financially if they could do so with cause tied to their ongoing investigation.

“Yeah if Billy Napier were to be fired after or during the 2024 season Florida would owe him $25.67 million if firing him without cause. So that’s a pretty big number, especially if you’re looking at firing a coach then paying somebody else’s buyout. Dan Lanning just reportedly told Alabama no thank you and has a $20 million buyout so these are all money things that you would end up looking into if you’re gonna be going down the line of another coaching change,” de la Torre concluded.