Georgia’s next opponent is looking for a new head coach, as On3 and others report the Florida Gators have parted ways with head coach Billy Napier.
Florida has not yet released any official statement on the matter nor named an interim coach. Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reports that Billy Gonzales is expected to be the interim coach.
Napier will be owed $21 million as a part of his buyout, with half of that due in the next 30 days.
Florida beat Mississippi State 23-21 on Saturday, but still sits at 3-4 on the season. Napier was in his fourth season at Florida and has a 22-23 record in his time in charge of the Florida program. Prior to Florida, Napier had been the head coach at Louisiana, where he went 40-12 over four seasons.
Napier’s .489 winning percentage is the worst for any full-time Florida coach since World War 2.
Florida’s next game comes after the off week on Nov. 1, when it takes on the Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville, Florida.
Napier was 0-3 against Georgia in his time in charge of Florida, with all three losses coming by double-digit points. Napier and Kirby Smart both worked at Alabama together for four seasons across two stints.
Early-season losses to South Florida and Miami put Napier in a tough spot. The Gators then lost SEC games to LSU and Texas A&M, both away from home.
Florida did beat Texas but that win was not enough to offset everything else that seems to have gone wrong for Napier in his time in charge of the once mighty Florida program. After the bye, Florida still has games against Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee on the schedule.
The next head coach that takes over for Florida will be the fourth since Smart got the Georgia head coaching job. The Bulldogs are also off next week. Smart enters the rivalry game against Florida with a 7-2 record against the Gators. Georgia’s last loss in this series came in 2020 when Dan Mullen was the head coach.
Early candidates for the job include Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz and South Florida’s Alex Golesh.
Georgia’s game against Florida is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET start on ABC. It will be the last time these two teams meet in Jacksonville until 2028, with the 2026 game being played in Atlanta and the 2027 game going to Tampa.