Joel Klatt predicts 2 most likely hires for Florida head coaching job
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Joel Klatt revealed which two names he feels could take the Florida head coaching job after the firing of Billy Napier on Sunday.
Klatt rattled off a list of names that he thinks will be “in the mix”: Lane Kiffin, Eli Drinkwitz, Alex Golesh, and James Franklin. As to who will be Scott Stricklin’s ultimate choice to lead the program?
“My hunch is Lane, and my dark horse is James Franklin,” he said.
Kiffin, of course, has turned Ole Miss into a consistent winner, having overseen three double-digit win seasons and well on his way to a fourth. Franklin, who has just been fired by Penn State, has expressed a desire to get back into coaching as soon as possible.
“One of those two guys is going to be the coach at Florida,” Klatt said.
It bears mentioning that Kiffin is set to make $9 million from Ole Miss in 2025. That makes him the nation’s 10th-highest paid coach. Franklin was scheduled to make $8.5 million. In comparison, Napier’s contract was set to pay him $7.47 million this year. So that’s not much of a difference to make up.
“These openings this year are bigger than we saw a year ago, and because of that, we’re going to see some massive contracts be given out,” Klatt said.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
