GAINESVILLE, Fla. ​​— Forty-seven minutes after a victorious Billy Napier was booed on his way to the tunnel, he heard a voice from the field.

“Hey, Coach!”

Ryan Snow wanted a picture.

He, Kari and their two kids had driven down from South Carolina for their annual Gators game. He knew the heat around Napier — “a lot of hate,” he said — that didn’t dissipate with Saturday’s 23-21 victory over Mississippi State. He has been frustrated with Napier’s results, sure, but he still wanted a memento of the embattled coach he respects.

“Just in case it’s his last game,” Ryan said.

It sure felt that way, final score and $21 million buyout be damned.

Billy Napier booed as he jogs off the field after Florida’s 23-21 win over Mississippi State pic.twitter.com/NfnwCezcvg

— Matt Baker (@MattBakerCFB) October 19, 2025

Before the game, a pair of fraternities flew anti-Napier banners in front of their houses. “Fire Billy!” read one. “Welcome to Lanesville,” read another, referencing Ole Miss coach (and Florida fan favorite) Lane Kiffin.

Afterward, Napier choked up the first time he was asked about his future, then declined to look beyond enjoying a celebratory postgame dinner with his family.

“I’ll wake up tomorrow,” Napier said, “and we’ll worry about what’s next.”

In the middle, “FI-RE BIL-LY” chants broke out from the home crowd at least three times — in a conference game, it should be repeated, that Florida won.

The final score seems irrelevant to a fan base that has given up on a 3-4 season, as evidenced by the pockets of empty seats at a sold-out stadium on homecoming. It was irrelevant in 2021 when LSU fired Ed Orgeron a day after he beat Dan Mullen’s Gators and two years ago when Texas A&M canned Jimbo Fisher the morning after a 51-10 victory over … Mississippi State. It should be irrelevant now as Florida enters an open date that would give an interim coach and his players time to adjust before facing No. 9 Georgia.

And it should be irrelevant to athletic director Scott Stricklin, considering what he said the last time he fired a football coach.

“People look at losses as a cause to get rid of a coach,” Stricklin said the day he fired Mullen after a loss at Missouri in the penultimate game of 2021. “But a lot of times the losses or things that don’t go right on the field, those are symptoms of other issues.”

Issues like the ones that have plagued Napier’s 22-23 tenure and showed up again Saturday: confounding game management, befuddling play calling and the kind of self-inflicted mistakes Napier was hired to fix. The three converged in one second-quarter sequence that encapsulates why Napier has the worst winning percentage (.489) of any full-time Florida coach since World War II.

First, a late substitution forced Napier to burn a timeout near the red zone just before the play clock ran out. A play later, the Gators called a rush for quarterback DJ Lagway on third-and-7. It was stuffed.

Fans booed.

Then Florida couldn’t get the fourth-down snap off, resulting in a delay of game penalty. The first “FI-RE BIL-LY” chant followed.

Finally, the Gators were flagged for a personal foul that pushed back a field goal attempt even further. Although Trey Smack nailed the 54-yarder, it was a small, hollow win on a day that felt like one massive empty victory.

If that stretch wasn’t enough, Florida returned to another head-scratching theme — an inability to field 11 players — in the fourth quarter. Since 2023, the Gators have failed to have enough men on special teams in at least five games. This time, the Gators lined up with 12 for a two-point conversion.

The penalty led Florida to settle for an extra point. The difference meant that when Mississippi State regained the ball down 2 with 1:39 left, a field goal would no longer tie the score. It would win the game.

The Gators were saved because the Bulldogs remain one of the worst teams in the SEC, entering with a 14-game conference losing streak (combined score: 502-245) to prove it. The streak is 15 now because Bulldogs quarterback Blake Shapen didn’t see 349-pound defensive tackle Michai Boireau dropping into coverage on the edge of field goal range. The interception sealed Florida’s win.

BIG MAN INT TO SEAL THE WIN FOR THE GATORS 😱🚨@GatorsFB pic.twitter.com/5NTLvuPWv9

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) October 18, 2025

Boireau hoisted that ball above his head as he ran toward the locker room, to roars from the fans that remained.

Seconds later, Napier sprinted faster than usual into the tunnel after him.

More boos.

The boos were long gone when Napier stood in the tunnel three-quarters of an hour later to finish up a chat with a recruit. No cheers echoing, either. The stands were empty except for the cleaning crew, and the only remaining people on the field were Napier, a handful of staffers and a family of four from South Carolina.

Napier looked over and greeted the Snows warmly. He made small talk with the parents about their hometown.

When the cell phone camera popped out, he turned to 1-year-old Senna. He had to make sure the little girl in a Florida cheerleading uniform was smiling.

After all, the Gators won.