Will Napier get fired even after a win Saturday?
Coaches don’t lose their jobs after wins. It rarely happens. By definition, it is, in fact, their objective to win. Right? … Right?
After facing Mississippi State on Saturday, Florida enters its final bye week of the year. In recent years, firing a coach before a bye week has become a common practice across college football. Programs use the off week to reset, allowing the interim coach time to make adjustments while giving players an opportunity to adjust.
We saw this most recently with Arkansas. The Razorbacks dismissed Sam Pittman before a Week 6 bye week, giving interim coach Bobby Petrino and his players time to acclimate. The difference: Pittman was fired after a blowout 56-13 loss to Notre Dame, not a win.
Florida enters this week as a 9.5-point favorite over the Bulldogs, with ESPN Analytics giving the Gators a 67.7% chance to win.
So Billy Napier’s time at Florida would most likely only end with an upset loss Saturday against Mississippi State, but athletic director Scott Stricklin could make a bold move: firing Napier, even if the Gators win as expected.
It’s Happened Before
Former Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher gathered the largest buyout in college football history coming off a 51-10 win against Mississippi State in 2023. Fisher finished 45-25 over six seasons with the Aggies, but his fate had already been determined before his final contest. Despite a 6-4 record and a $76 million check (still $28 million more than any other coach ever), Texas A&M still decided to move on because Fisher hadn’t met the program’s standards.
He’s not alone.
In the wake of a National Championship just two years prior in 2019, LSU and ED Orgeron agreed to part ways following the 2021 season. The announcement came shortly after a 49-42 win against Florida, with the Tigers improving to 4-3 on the season. The university allowed him to continue coaching for the remainder of the season, capping off his final game with an upset win over No.15 Texas A&M.
It’s not likely that Napier and UF will agree to part ways like LSU and Orgeron did, but it was unusual that the announcement came after a midseason win.
Other coaches have gotten the boot in the aftermath of a win at the end of the season, but Fisher and Orgeron are the only recent cases that were fired following a victory in the middle of the season.
The Current Situation
Scrutiny over the head coaching position has intensified following Florida’s 34-17 loss to No. 5 Texas A&M this weekend. According to Matt Hayes of USA Today, Stricklin had a meeting with boosters Tuesday. They said that their future financial support depends on the football team moving in a new direction, which includes letting Napier go.
The spotlight is on Napier for Saturday’s homecoming game, but if the win is unattractive or if it seems like Napier has lost the team, it wouldn’t be shocking for the fourth-year coach to be unemployed regardless of the outcome.
Loading ...Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Gators Football, NCAA, SEC
