Prominent sports talk host goes scorched earth on Florida HC Billy Napier for his controversial comments after loss to Miami

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier entered the 2024 season firmly on the hot seat.

The temperature increased on that seat after a Week 1 blowout loss at home against the Miami Hurricanes.

Napier then seemingly made things worse for himself on Monday after he expressed frustration with a certain portion of the Florida fan base.

"One thing I can say is that we have a group that’s working hard," said Napier. "I do think that we have character. We have to go to work on the football part. And I think we have to become a more consistent team, and we have to execute better. If we can focus on those things and not necessarily what some guy in his basement is saying in rural Central Florida on social media, then we got a chance to get better ."

Unsurprisingly, the basement comment quickly went viral.

On Tuesday, SEC Network host Paul Finebaum joined ESPN's "Get Up" and he obliterated Napier for his comments about fans in Central Florida.

"Simply egregious," said Finebaum. "Here's a guy who's really down to his last breath. He's lost more games in two seasons and one game in the Swamp than Steve Spurrier lost in 12 years. And he is going after his own fan base? Those folks who go to Walmart and buy Gators jerseys and beg and plead for tickets to his games. I mean, that is one of the most inexcusable shots I have ever seen. And one more thing here, I don't live in Florida, but I was there over the weekend at that game, they don't have basements in Florida. It's too close to the water. So Billy, know your geography my friend."

It's going to be tough for Napier to recover from that comment. In fact, the only way to recover from it is to start winning games (and that won't be easy with Florida's daunting schedule).

And the thing is, it's not that Napier is wrong -- his team has to block out the outside noise at this point to have a chance of turning things around. But making that comment in front of a room full of reporters isn't going to help his team handle the noise. Obviously, it's made it worse. That's something Napier should've saved for the locker room.

It's just another misstep for the man who was too good to entertain job overtures from Mississippi State and Auburn a few years ago.

Related: Steve Spurrier sends strong message to Florida Gators HC Billy Napier