The Florida Gators football program used to be a program that consistently competed for SEC and national championships. The offense put points on the board while the defense was dominant and forced a lot of turnovers. This program is far away from those times, and today’s 33-20 loss to Texas A&M shows just how bad it’s gotten for Billy Napier and the Gators.
Speaking of Billy Napier, I hinted at changes needing to be made within the program a couple of weeks ago. After today’s game, it’s officially time for a coaching change. There’s absolutely too much talent on this team for them to look this bad. The job is clearly too big for him and the team clearly needs a new voice to lead them. The fans let Napier know how they felt by booing him off the field during the weather delay, and again after the game.
If you ask most of the fans, the coach they would love for Florida to hire is Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin. I can’t blame them because he would bring the explosive offense that’s been missing back to Gainesville. He knows how to use the transfer portal and puts his players in a position to be successful and win. Another name I’ve heard that could be interested in the job will come as a surprise to a lot of fans: USC head coach Lincoln Riley. He’s another coach that has an explosive offense and he’s a known quarterback guru. Both coaches would be great options to replace Billy Napier.
The effort that I saw on defense tonight was just as atrocious. There’s way too many blown coverages in the secondary and the defensive line continues to get pushed around. As a kid growing up, I never saw that happen to any Florida Gators team I watched. Both the offensive and defensive lines need to be completely overhauled. There’s too many mistakes happening both on and off the field, and it only seems to be getting worse with every game under Napier.
If Napier is fired, he’ll be owed $26 million. There’s gonna be a coaching search, but I’ve already hinted at both Kiffin and Riley being the top two options. Both coaches are big names with great resumes and have proven they can win at the power 5 level. Florida doesn’t need to experiment with anymore up and comers because we’ve seen that movie numerous times and it hasn’t worked out either time.
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Photo Credit: Nick De La Torre
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