Unranked Florida faces a daunting stretch with coach Billy Napier’s job on the line

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Florida coach Billy Napier has a path to a fifth year in Gainesville. It’s one of the most perilous in school history.

The now-unranked Gators (1-1), coming off an embarrassing loss to South Florida in the Swamp, have an opportunity to climb out of their latest early season hole over the next three weeks. The stretch begins at No. 3 LSU (2-0) on Saturday, followed by a trip to fifth-ranked Miami, an off week and then a visit from No. 7 Texas.

The top 10 trifecta spans 22 days and gives Napier a chance to change the narrative – or perhaps seal his fate.

“It’s all about how you respond to it,” Napier said. “It’s all about, ‘Do we take the lessons that we learned?’ It’s all about application. How do we channel this emotion? Do we have the maturity to turn it around? There’s certain emotions that come with getting beat that can go both ways. I’m anxious to see how we are going to respond. … But you don’t know until you play again.”

The Gators rallied from a 1-2 start last year, so this is familiar territory. They won their final four games to finish with a winning record (8-5) for the first time under Napier.

Those victories, though: against a Tulane team playing without its starting quarterback; against the worst Florida State team in 50 years; against an Ole Miss team that dropped at least six passes, including three would-be touchdowns; and against an LSU team that was bickering on the sideline.

Florida’s current road to redemption appears tougher, although players and coaches might have a map.

“We’ve had that taste in our mouths before and had to regroup and come back,” tight end Hayden Hansen said. “One of the positives is that we know how to handle it. We know how to respond.”

Napier got credit for keeping his team together after lopsided home losses to Miami and Texas A&M in the first month of the 2024 season.

The Gators responded by playing stellar defense down the stretch, finding a potential star in quarterback DJ Lagway and developing young talent on both sides of the ball. Napier will need a similar winning formula to keep his job now.

Otherwise, he would be owed roughly $20 million – 85% of what remains on his contract – if Florida fired him during or after this season.

Even Napier’s most ardent supporters could be losing faith amid the latest debacle.

Florida never found an offensive rhythm and settled for field goals early. And with the Bulls hanging around, the Gators botched a snap that resulted in a safety, were penalized for an illegal substitution that kept a drive alive following a failed fourth-down play and gave up a 66-yard touchdown pass that came while defenders were caught staring at the sideline.

The most egregious mistakes were 11 penalties for 103 yards, including defensive tackle Brendan Bett getting flagged and ejected for spitting at an offensive lineman. The undisciplined error helped set up Nico Gramatica’s chip-shot field goal, which gave the Bulls an 18-16 victory.

Florida’s first loss in five meetings with USF landed Napier back on the proverbial hot seat. Athletic director Scott Stricklin, however, is unlikely to make a coaching change soon, even if the Gators lose the next three games and fall to 1-4.

Stricklin made it clear last year that patience is the best approach, especially with the Gators now paying some $20 million annually to athletes and planning a $1 billion renovation to Florida Field. But there’s little doubt Napier is on thin ice.

The two-time Sun Belt Conference coach of the year was hired from Louisiana-Lafayette in November 2021 and is now 20-20 at Florida, with eight of those wins against teams outside the Power Four. It’s the worst 40-game start for a Florida football coach since Charley Pell (18-21-1) in 1982.

Napier is 10-14 in Southeastern Conference play, 15-7 at home and 3-10 against rivals Florida State, Georgia, Miami, LSU and Tennessee.

He’s often compared with Ron Zook, who replaced Steve Spurrier in 2002 and was fired midway through his third season. Zook was 20-13 overall and 14-7 in league play when he was canned.

The better match might be Will Muschamp, a great recruiter, a defensive mastermind and someone well liked inside the program who just couldn’t get it done on game days. Muschamp was 27-20 overall and 17-15 in the SEC when he was let go in his fourth season in 2014.

The 46-year-old Napier has done plenty right during his tenure. He oversaw the opening of an $85 million standalone facility, roughly doubled his support staff, more than tripled his recruiting budget and signed consecutive top-15 recruiting classes.

But the on-field results – mounting losses, game-management clunkiness and play-calling ineptitude – have been difficult for the Florida faithful to stomach. The miscues at Tennessee last year, the unforgivable special teams mistake against Arkansas in 2023, the comedy of errors at Utah earlier that year or the stunning loss at Vanderbilt in 2022.

“We’ve been here before; we know what it is,” center Jake Slaughter said. “A lot of guys on this team, we’ve experienced this kind of adversity, and we need to use it as a springboard. We cannot let it hold us back. We’ve got to learn from our mistakes. We’ve got to move forward.”

The question is whether – or when – Stricklin is saying the same thing.