Dan Mullen retweets shot at Florida amid Miami blowout as Billy Napier hot seat talk spikes
Former Florida head coach and ESPN analyst Dan Mullen shared a post appearing to highlight how Mullen was fired from the Gators in similar amount of time that current head coach Billy Napier has had. And with markedly better results.
The post, a tweet from Mullen’s ESPN colleague Matt Barrie, cites how Mullen made multiple high-level bowl games in three years. He was fired in his fourth.
“The Florida coach that got fired went to three consecutive news years six games in his first three years. And was let go in his 4th season,” Barrie said.
Mullen shared the post from Barrie amid the Gators getting blown out at home by Miami in the home opener for Florida in Year 3 for Napier, who entered Saturday with an 11-14 record as the head coach in Gainesville.
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Florida Fans voiced their displeasure for Napier on Saturday
Saturday’s Florida vs. Miami game was shaping up to be one of the most interesting on the Week 1 slate. The two rivals were playing for the first time since 2019, and both Napier and Mario Cristobal are entering their third seasons with their respective programs.
For Miami, it would’ve been hard to script a better start to the season. As for Florida, it was the opposite – and the fans made their thoughts known in the third quarter.
Chants of “Fire Billy” and “Billy, you suck” broke out at The Swamp as Jeremy Crenshaw came out to punt for the fourth time. That led to another scoring drive for Miami, which extended its lead to 38-10 6:08 to play in the third quarter.
And the Gators’ foe was quick to mock after the win
Cam Ward wasn’t fazed at all after stepping into The Swamp on Saturday night. The Miami quarterback threw for 385 yards and three touchdowns to one interception as the Hurricanes rolled to a 41-17 victory over Florida.
Ward spoke postgame about the crowd noise, and had a defiant answer when asked whether it was the loudest environment it had played in during his college career. He adamantly defended the crowds at several Pac-12 stadiums when he played for Washington State, saying they were much louder.
He even went a step further to offer advice to Gators fans on when is the most opportune time to cheer.
“It wasn’t (the loudest),” Ward said. “I played at USC. USC wasn’t packed, but it was louder than this. I played at Oregon and it was louder than this. The Pac-12 is misspoken for. That’s where I believe real football is played. Coming from Washington (State), Washington is one of the loudest environments I’ve played.
“Some advice to the fans: I would say if you’re gonna be loud, be loud when we’re huddling. You can’t just be loud when we break the huddle. By that time, there’s no point. We hear the play and we communicated already. But it was a good atmosphere to play in and I was just excited that we were able to get a victory.”