Florida Gators announce Billy Napier will continue as coach

Billy Napier will be the Florida Gators’ football coach moving forward, UF athletics director Scott Stricklin announced Thursday after weeks of speculation about Napier’s future.

Thus far, Napier is 15–18 in three seasons at Florida and 4-4 this year entering Saturday’s game at Texas. He is 1-10 in rivalry games. However, the hope in Gainesville is that he can turn things around next year and that optimism is centered largely around the play this fall of true freshman quarterback DJ Lagway and solid recruiting classes in 2023 and 2024.

Buying out Napier right now would have come with a price tag of about $26 million with half due up front and the other half paid in installments over the next four years.

UF hopes this news will help with recruiting

Meanwhile, Thursday’s announcement potentially could give Florida recruiting a much-needed boost. With National Signing Day less than a month away, the Gators have 11 commitments and the No. 32 class in the country for On3. That’s good for only 15th best out of 16 SEC programs.

With talk of Napier being on the hot seat in recent months, the Gators have lost three commitments since the last week of September. Another commit, 3-star defensive lineman Jeramiah McCloud, is considering a flip to Georgia. At the same time, Napier and the Gators are trying to flip players, too. One of them is 4-star FSU quarterback commit Tramell Jones.

Billy Napier‘s plans have yet to materialize with the Gators

Napier was named Florida coach Nov. 28, 2021.

He arrived in Gainesville with championship aspirations after going 40–12 in four seasons at Louisiana, which included three straight years of 10 or more wins. But in Year 1 at Florida, Napier went only 6-7 despite having Anthony Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick in the NFL Draft the next spring, at quarterback. That was followed by an equally disappointing Year 2 when the Gators finished 5-7.

As the losses have mounted, fans have been critical of Napier, from his hires to his in-game coaching. The noise seemed to hit a high after Florida suffered ugly homes losses to Miami (41-17) and Texas A&M (33-20) in Weeks 1 and 3 this season. The Gators were not particularly competitive in either game.

DJ Lagway could be the key to Billy Napier’s success at UF

But in the weeks that followed, Florida looked better and nearly beat No. 8 Tennessee on the road before losing in overtime 23-17. In that game, starting quarterback Graham Mertz sustained a torn ACL and was lost for the season. Lagway played reasonably well with Mertz out vs. the Vols and then had a strong game the following week vs. Kentucky, a 48-20 win. He sustained a hamstring injury with Florida leading No. 2 Georgia 10-3 late in the first half last week (the Gators would lose 34-20) and his status this week is unclear.

Another true freshman also has Florida fans excited. That’s running back Jadan Baugh, who scored five touchdowns against Kentucky. But while there appears to be young talent on the roster, the starting lineup is filled with veterans, many of whom were transfer additions. It is likely the Gators will have to be active in the transfer portal again this offseason. One big uncertainty moving forward is which current players will stay and which ones will leave after the season.