{"id":15044,"date":"2025-10-22T02:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/15044\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T02:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:59:08","slug":"early-favorite-emerges-to-replace-fired-billy-napier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/15044\/","title":{"rendered":"Early favorite emerges to replace fired Billy Napier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\tGambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our links. Read our <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/betting-editorial-standards\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">editorial standards<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<p>Two days after Florida fired Billy Napier, there is an early favorite to become the next Gators coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ole Miss\u2019s Lane Kiffin leads the market as a 64 percent favorite to replace Napier, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/betting\/kalshi-promo-code\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kalshi<\/a>, a New York-based financial exchange and prediction market. <\/p>\n<p>Kiffin, who experienced his first loss to No. 5 Georgia on Saturday, has led the No. 8 Rebels to a 6-1 start, placing fourth in the SEC.<\/p>\n<p>James Franklin, who was recently fired by Penn State, is listed with the second-best chance at 26 percent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>No. 15 Missouri\u2019s Eliah Drinkwitz follows at a 10 percent chance. Drinkwitz\u2019s Tigers, 6-1, are rolling off a thrilling overtime victory over Auburn on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Other than Georgia Tech\u2019s Brent Key, who reflects a three percent chance of getting hired, no other candidates have developed.<\/p>\n<p>As of Tuesday evening, the market, which opened at 10 a.m. Eastern, has drawn $8,022 in bets at Kalshi.<\/p>\n<p>Florida parted ways with head coach Billy Napier on Sunday, less than 24 hours after a sloppy and inconsistent performance in a narrow 23\u201321 win over Mississippi State.<\/p>\n<p>The game was emblematic of the common issues that plagued Napier\u2019s four-year tenure in Gainesville \u2014 puzzling play-calling decisions and prolonged offensive stagnation. <\/p>\n<p>Athletic director Scott Stricklin made the decision to move on from Napier shortly after the game, with Florida improving to 3-4.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37448171\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Billy-Napier.jpg\" alt=\"Florida Gators coach Billy Napier pointing on the field.\" class=\"wp-image-37448171\"  \/>Gators head coach Billy Napier gestures before their win over Texas at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Oct. 4, 2025.\u00a0 Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>In those four seasons, Napier was 22-23 at Florida, including 12-16 in SEC games. He went just 5-17 against ranked teams \u2014 0-14 on the road.<\/p>\n<p>Napier was the first Florida coach to exit the program without a winning record since the 1940\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Betting on College Football? <\/p>\n<p>Florida wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales has been named interim head coach and will lead the team for the rest of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Gators head into a bye week before preparing for their first matchup without Napier against No. 5 Georgia on Nov. 1.<\/p>\n<p>Why Trust New York Post Betting<\/p>\n<p>Sean Treppedi handicaps the NFL, NHL, MLB and college football for the New York Post. He primarily focuses on picks that reflect market value while tracking trends to mitigate risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gambling content 21+. The New York Post may receive an affiliate commission if you sign up through our&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4640,4636,143,28,30,29,4978,10713,110,5775,5776],"class_list":["post-15044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-betting","tag-college-football-betting","tag-college-football","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-franklin","tag-lane-kiffin","tag-sports","tag-sports-betting","tag-sports-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15044","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=15044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}