Paul Finebaum: Billy Napier cannot waste 2023 at Florida

Florida posted their second straight 6-7 finish in Billy Napier’s first season down in Gainesville. Those in The Swamp can forgive that if there’s progress in year two but, if not, Paul Finebaum says the Gator’s head coach will lose his free pass.

Finebaum spoke about the expectations for Napier and Florida during ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Tuesday. He placed a big focus on the first few weeks of their season because, if they don’t start off strong, he could see them in a significant hole early.

“The first game is really important. It was important last year and it didn’t really matter in the end that they beat Utah,” said Finebaum. “The Cam Rising injury is a question mark and I don’t have a good answer yet. There’s some people in Gainesville that believe that they can go out there and steal that game. I’m not one of them. I would like to know who the quarterback is going to be for Utah.”

“But, assuming they lose that game? Their schedule is problematic,” Finebaum said. “They have Kentucky and Tennessee in the first few weeks of the year. It’s entirely possible that they could have three losses even before they get to Georgia, Florida State, and the garden variety SEC East games.”

Florida leaped from unranked to No. 12 in the nation after their opening win over the Utes last fall. They followed that up by losing their next game to Kentucky. That started a stretch where they lost four of seven to the Wildcats plus Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia.

The Gators then looked as though they could finish above .500 with three games to go. That was before they lost their final three games of the year to Vanderbilt, Florida State, and Oregon State.

Playing around .500 is good enough for a coach who’s in his first year of making a jump from the Sun Belt to the SEC. However, with expectations quite low around Florida at the moment, Finebaum says Napier needs to take advantage or miss out on any more extensions of his grace period.

“Napier has the advantage of just dumbed down expectations but he can’t waste this. He has a half a mulligan this season. I don’t know how that carries if you hook your tee shot,” said Finebaum. “If he wins seven or eight games? He’s going to survive.”

Most people believe that Florida won’t finish much higher than fourth in the SEC East in 2023. If Napier can steal some high-profile wins along the way, though, they could go a long way toward extending his stay with the Gators considering the recruiting class he has on the way.