Billy Napier taking a shot at Florida fans after embarrassing loss to Miami is a choice
To say Billy Napier is on the hot seat is an understatement. Florida’s 41-17 loss to No. 19 Miami was a sobering start to a make-or-break season for Napier, who is now 11-15 as the Gators’ head coach. After a drubbing from an in-state rival with seven games against Top 25 opponents still to come, most coaches would probably lay low. Not Napier, it seems.
In his press conference today, Napier jabbed back at the criticism he’s faced in recent days, telling reporters his team needs to focus more on football and less on what fans are saying online. Specifically, fans in their basements in rural Central Florida.
“We’ve got to go to work on the football part. We’ve got to become a more consistent team and we have to execute better. If we can focus on those things and not what some guy in his basement is saying in rural Central Florida on social media, then we’ve got a chance to get better.”
Clearly, Napier doesn’t get around rural Central Florida much or he’d know there aren’t a lot of basements there. This kind of tone-deafness can only come from someone with a $25.2 million buyout. That said, the vultures are circling. Paul Finebaum started his show today with the clip and social media is on fire, and not just with takes from laptop warriors in Central Florida. Swamp Talk, GatorsOnline‘s message board, has multiple threads up about the clip, with longtime fans begging Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin to fire Napier.
It’s probably going to get worse. Florida hosts Samford on Saturday, which should be an easy win; however, after that, No. 20 Texas A&M comes to town. Then, the Gators go to Mississippi State before returning home to host Central Florida. On October 12, Florida plays at No. 15 Tennessee. By the time Kentucky goes to Gainesville on October 19, there’s a very real chance the Gators are 1-5. After that, Florida plays five Top 15 teams to close the season: No. 1 Georgia, at No. 4 Texas, No. 13 LSU, No. 6 Ole Miss, and at No. 10 Florida State. No wonder Napier couldn’t even open a water bottle on Saturday night.
If you go back to last season, Florida is on a six-game losing streak. As @GatorsSZN outlined on Twitter, Napier is 1-8 vs. Florida’s rivals, 2-11 vs. ranked teams, 9-4 vs. unranked teams, and 2-4 vs. the trio of Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Missouri. We thought a third-straight loss to the Cats could be what gets Napier fired, but it may happen well before then.
We could spend all day swimming in Gator tears. If you only have three minutes, I recommend this clip below (language NSFW).
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