Clock ticking on Billy Napier at Florida: Embarrassing loss to Miami puts Gators coach on even hotter seat

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said Friday he believes Billy Napier is "going to be the head coach at Florida for a long, long time."

Does until November count as a long, long time, Scott?

It's hard to see Napier surviving past that, even with a more than $25.5 million buyout , if Saturday's embarrassing showing is a preview of what's to come the rest of this season. After a challenging offseason that included getting sued over the failed Jaden Rashada NIL deal, Napier badly needed to give Gators fans a reason to invest in a 2024 season that features the nation's toughest schedule.

Consider that mission badly failed.

No. 19 Miami thoroughly dismantled the Gators in every way in a 41-17 beatdown inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the most points allowed in a season opener in Florida program history. The blowout loss broke a 34-game home-opener winning streak that dated back to 1990. The Napier era in Gainesville keeps hitting new levels of ignominy.

"It's embarrassing, to be quite honest with you," Napier said afterward. "That's how I feel; that's how our kids feel. We have a decision to make. There's no excuses. Keep our mouths shut, show up to work and we have to do better."

Can Florida actually do better? Especially against a schedule with games against No. 1 Georgia , No. 4 Texas , No. 6 Ole Miss , No. 10 Florida State and No. 15 Tennessee still to come? There's nothing Florida showed Saturday – or really during any of Napier's time in Gainesville – that'd give you reason to believe so. The most depressing news for Gators fans is a 24-point loss to an in-state rival won't be rock bottom. It almost certainly will get worse from here.

Yikes.

Florida's defense was no match for Miami quarterback Cam Ward , who lit the Gators up for 385 yards passing and three touchdowns in a performance that immediately made the Hurricanes the early ACC favorite. Miami looks ready to take a big leap in Mario Cristobal's third year, while Florida has somehow regressed even worse defensively in Napier's third season after a disappointing 5-7 2023 campaign.

In his Friday appearance on the "Paul Finebaum Show," Stricklin promised that the patience Florida fans have shown Napier thus far, in spite of the disappointing results, would be rewarded. Stricklin is tied at the hip to Napier and needs his football coach to succeed as the veteran athletic director surely knows ADs typically don't get to hire a third football coach after failing with the first two.

"He's going to get this thing going to be at the level that all Gators want it to be at which is competing for championships, playing in meaningful postseason games," Stricklin said. "Once he gets it to that point, it's going to stay at that point."

Less than 24 hours later, Florida suffered its worst loss to Miami since 2002. It seems likely Florida will stay at that point under Napier, not suddenly skyrocket up the SEC and compete for championships. The loss dropped Napier's record at Florida to 11-15, and there's a chance that number could be as bad as 13-24 by the end of the season. This at a school that fired Napier's predecessor, Dan Mullen, after a 34-15 record and three New Year's Six bowl appearances in four seasons.

If there was a tiny sliver of hope for Napier amidst the demolition, it was the play of true freshman quarterback DJ Lagway , who came in to replace injured starter Graham Mertz after he suffered a concussion. Lagway, ranked as 247Sports' No. 1 QB recruit in the class of 2024, looked like the real deal and led Florida's best offensive drive of the game in the fourth quarter. The future could be bright under Lagway, even though Napier likely won't be around to see it realized.

It's not guaranteed that Napier will be out of a job at the end of the season, not with the massive buyout and a school administration in flux after school president Ben Sasse stepped down in July. Kent Fuchs, who originally hired Stricklin, is the interim president now, and the lack of a permanent leader could, in theory, buy Napier more time. Fuchs and Napier shared an awkward handshake and brief conversation as the Florida head coach walked off the field.

But fan apathy is a powerful thing. When the disgust, which was evident in boos and chants that rung out during the game, turns to fans not even bothering to show up to games or, even more importantly in this current era, refusing to kick in money to the program's NIL fund, the decision makers tend to take notice. Texas A&M paying $76 million to make Jimbo Fisher go away felt impossible until Aggies officials realized they could lose more money in the long run if they didn't do it. In the football-obsessed SEC, no buyout is truly too rich if the pain of losing becomes too great to bear.

Getting blown out at home against an in-state rival? That's awfully painful with no remedy in reach.