{"id":11274,"date":"2025-10-19T19:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T19:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/11274\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T19:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T19:01:10","slug":"florida-fires-head-coach-billy-napier-during-fourth-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/11274\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida fires head coach Billy Napier during fourth season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida<\/a> has fired head coach Billy Napier<\/a>, according to On3\u2019s Pete Nakos, Chris Low and Brett McMurphy<\/a>. He was in the midst of his fourth season with the program.<\/p>\n

The Gators are on the hook for 85% of the total remaining compensation of his contract, upwards of $20.4 million<\/a>. Napier signed a seven-year deal with over $50 million guaranteed in November 2021. <\/p>\n

The candidates that Florida will look to replace Napier with are coming into view. On3\u2019s Andy Staples released his Head Coach Hot Board for the Gators<\/a>, headlined by Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin. <\/p>\n

Napier arrived in Gainesville in 2022 after an impressive four-year run at Louisiana<\/a>. He had a 40-12 record with the Ragin\u2019 Cajuns, including three straight 10-win seasons and back-to-back Sun Belt titles. The program also won three straight Sun Belt West titles and shared first place in the division in 2018.<\/p>\n

It was an up-and-down run for Napier at Florida, though. The Gators went 6-7 in his first season in 2022 and 5-7 in 2023. That meant the pressure was ramping up in 2024, especially after UF started the year with a loss to Miami<\/a> at The Swamp. But the Gators eventually went 8-5 against a challenging schedule, including ranked victories over LSU<\/a> and Ole Miss<\/a> down the final stretch.<\/p>\n

As a result, Napier returned for 2025. But things again hit a snag in the early part of the year when USF<\/a> took down Florida in Gainesville on a buzzer-beating field goal in Week 2. That started a three-game losing streak before a huge Top-10 win over Texas<\/a> at The Swamp. But the Gators came back down to earth the following week in a 34-17 loss at Texas A&M<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The pressure ramped up once again following that game as Florida once again looked ahead to a challenging schedule. When asked about the hot seat chatter, Napier said it comes with the profession and his focus was on the task at hand<\/a>, which was a Week 8 game against Mississippi State<\/a>. Florida went on to win that game, 23-21.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that that\u2019s a reality in our profession,\u201d Napier said Oct. 15 on the SEC coaches\u2019 teleconference. \u201cI think that as a competitor, as a leader, I think that it comes with the territory. Right? So, I think you have to have the ability to focus on the things that are important today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s the whole key here. You\u2019ve got to stack good days, and you\u2019ve got to do a great job setting a good example for your players and staff. So, for me, ultimately we\u2019ve got to get consumed with what\u2019s important now.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Billy Napier\u2019s time at Florida, the Gators landed back-to-back Top-10 recruiting classes in 2024 in 2025. That came after the 2023 class came in at No. 13 despite multiple high-profile flips. Quarterback DJ Lagway<\/a> proved to be the biggest signing under Napier\u2019s watch, coming in as the No. 3 overall player from the 2024 cycle, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida has fired head coach Billy Napier, according to On3\u2019s Pete Nakos, Chris Low and Brett McMurphy. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10595,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-11274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-billy-napier-99-murray-county","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}