Florida football general manager Jacob LaFrance appears to be on the way to James Madison, with the Dukes planning to hire LaFrance as associate athletic director for football personnel, according to a report late Saturday afternoon by CBS Sports.
Despite Florida‘s recent struggles on the field, LaFrance has been a bright spot for the Gators in the recruiting process. Florida signed back-to-back top 10 recruiting classes in 2024 and 2025 under the leadership of LaFrance. LaFrance’s recruiting talent is well-known around college football, as he also helped Louisiana bring in 3 No. 1 classes in the Sun Belt Conference between 2019 and 2021.
LaFrance heading from Florida to James Madison would continue a sudden connection between the 2 programs from different worlds of college football. Billy Napier, who was fired as head coach by Florida earlier this season, just took the head coaching job at James Madison, so the Dukes’ 2026 football staff could have a big-time Gators flavor if Saturday’s CBS Sports report comes to fruition.
And if LaFrance does indeed end up at James Madison, it would reunite him with Napier yet again. Before taking the UF head coaching job in 2022, Napier spent 4 years at Louisiana from 2018-21. LaFrance was at Louisiana for 3 of those years between 2019-21 before the duo was together in Gainesville.
Now, it appears there could be a Sun Belt Conference reunion at James Madison between LaFrance and Napier, who LaFrance warmly called “Sun Belt Billy” after Napier tried to quiet critics at Florida with that upset victory over Texas earlier this season in Gainesville.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
