Billy Napier Is Gone, but Florida’s $20M Bill Just Beginning
It’s unusual to lose a job and still get paid tens of millions of dollars, unless you’re a college football coach.
Former Gators football coach Billy Napier received the first annual payment of his $20 million buyout Wednesday. The former coach will receive $2.65 million annually from the University of Florida through July 15, 2029.
The coach was in his fourth season with the Gators when he was sacked following a 23-21 win over Mississippi State. Gator fans were getting ready to be disappointed once again as the Bulldogs drove the length of the field before sophomore defensive lineman Michai Boireau intercepted a Blake Shapen pass to win the game.
Napier ended his Gator tenure 22-23 and 5-17 against ranked teams with one bowl win since signing his seven-year, $51.8 million contract in 2021.
As part of that contract, half of Napier’s $20 million buyout was due within 30 days of his Oct. 19 firing, which came out to $10.6 million. The firing wasn’t unexpected as Napier had been on the hot seat for quite some time. Many thought he shouldn’t be the one to head up the 2025 team after going 8-5 in 2024, with big-time wins over LSU and Ole Miss.
With high expectations, the Gators started the year off right, beating Long Island 55-0. However, Lagway’s inaccuracy and inability to drive the ball down the field, highlighted by averaging only eight yards per completion, brought doubts as to how good they would be down the line.
Those doubts came true the very next week, as Florida lost to USF 18-16 on a last-second field goal. That was the moment when many in the Florida fanbase realized that the team wasn’t going to have the season they thought they would.
The Gators tallied three more losses before the Mississippi State win sealed the fate of Napier.
In terms of all-time buyouts, Texas A&M’s 2023 firing of Jimbo Fisher ranks first at $76.8 million. LSU’s Brian Kelly was similar to Napier, as he was fired mid-season in 2025. The former Notre Dame coach’s buyout ranks second all-time at $54 million.
Penn State also fired coach James Franklin in 2025. The Virginia Tech coach’s buyout was 49 million dollars but Penn State was able to get out of most of his contract once he was hired at Virginia five-weeks post firing.
Napier’s buyout doesn’t compare to these monstrous numbers, but that doesn’t mean his isn’t historic. The failed Florida coach’s $20 million dollar firing ranks seventh all-time among fired coaches.
Florida is now paying out two coaches that no longer reside in Gainesville. Former coach Dan Mullen is still being bought out from his firing in 2021.
Along with Napier, the Gators paid Mullen $1 million Wednesday and have done so annually since the second-year UNLV coach was driven out, much akin to former Mets player Bobby Bonilla. The 2025 Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach of the Year Award recipient’s last million-dollar installment will take place in 2027.
Napier can’t blame anyone but himself for his lack of success, as in an interview with On3’s Wilson Alexander, the former Gator admitted that he was “probably a little stubborn,” when it came to his decision to remain the offensive playcaller. Now James Madison’s coach, Napier also talked about how he did not delegate effectively when it came to NIL and the transfer portal
“I think that we really struggled to manage the workload that came with NIL, that came with the portal,” Napier told On3. “I think in general there, the work continued to be loaded up in terms of my responsibility to our team and to our entire organization. So, for me, in general, if I can sum it up, I would say the ability to delegate and hire exceptional people in certain areas and hand over more responsibility to those guys and empower them to do their job at a high level.”
With such levels of mismanagement in the past, Florida can only hope that Jon Sumrall’s tenure doesn’t end the same as his predecessors.
Category: Feature Sports News, Gator Sports, Gators Football
