MARLER: The problem at Florida isn’t just Billy Napier

By Chris Marler

Billy Napier’s time in Gainesville is seemingly coming to an end.

If he’s fired, Napier’s tenure as the Gators head coach will have lasted less than three full seasons, and his parting gift would be a cool $26 million and a vacation from the hardest schedule we’ve seen since Alabama’s faced all those “Mike” head coaches in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. But Napier isn’t the main problem.

Thinking that firing Billy Napier is going to fix ALL the issues this program and athletic department are facing is like me thinking that eating a banana and drinking a coconut water is gonna fix me and my liver after a three-day bender in Vegas.

Napier left a G5 program (Louisiana-Lafayette) where he finished 33-5 in his last three years, and took over a Florida program that was not only behind in facilities and recruiting but coincided with the rise of every one of UF’s biggest rivals to each of their pinnacles in the last ten to, in UGA’s case, 42 years.

He’s gone 12-16 at Florida, and the biggest win of his tenure, sadly enough, came in his debut against Utah at the start of the 2022 season. Florida is one of the largest and proudest institutions in the SEC and in all of America. But, they’re behind. Badly. And, they are currently near the bottom tier of programs in the SEC.

Worst of all, their problems are bigger than just Billy Napier. Much bigger. They have a university president who’s currently in flux, and they have an AD Scott Stricklin who has made a series of disastrous hires. Giving Napier the axe instead of Stricklin would be in the most simplest of words – stupid.

Stricklin has been in charge of six separate coaching hires at Florida. Two of them have been fired and only one has a winning record versus conference opponents.

A breakdown of @ScottStricklin coaching hires against SEC teams:

WBB Cam Newbauer: 15-47 (24.2%)🚨
FB Billy Napier: 6-10 (37.5%)
SOC Tony Amato: 3-6-1 (35%)🚨
WBB Kelly Rae Finley: 20-28 (41.7%)
SOC Sam Bohon: 2-13-5 (22.5%)
MBB Todd Golden: 20-16 (55.6%)

🚨fired for abuse

— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) September 13, 2024

Napier has been bad, and he may need to go. But, there’s no way you can look at THIS level of dysfunction and incompetence and say, “Yep, the football coach who we’ve had for the length of an AT&T iPhone 14 plan is the reason everything has gone to hell.”

And, if you’re a Florida fan assessing the situation, and everything I just told you, that exact way – then you’re part of the problem.