Now or later, Florida’s Billy Napier feels like a dead man walking
By David Wasson
Published:
“There’s a pale horse coming
And I’m going to ride it
I’ll rise in the morning
My fate decided
I’m a dead man walking”
– Bruce Springsteen, Dead Man Walking movie soundtrack
One of these days, maybe this week or maybe the next – or maybe not even until the end of the season – Florida Gators coach Billy Napier might catch himself as the title character of one of The Boss’s more eclectic tracks.
There was a vocal subsect that wanted Napier’s separation from Florida to happen on the field last Saturday after the Gators absorbed another shocking home upset. The South Florida Bulls were busy celebrating their 18-16 upset win and getting their picture taken on the midfield logo at Steve Spurrier-Florida Field shortly after Napier jogged off it with a chorus of boos raining down on his head.
The scene was almost identical to 2024, when Napier was showered with ire-and-epithet sandwiches after a 33-20 loss to Texas A&M caused the Gators to fall to 1-2. At that point, Napier was 13-16 as Florida’s coach and confidence was without question at an all-time low.
Last year, though, Napier saved his hide with a 45-28 victory at Mississippi State and then rattled off season-ending victories against No. 21 LSU and No. 9 Ole Miss and rival Florida State. He also was bolstered by superstar freshman quarterback DJ Lagway, who replaced Graham Mertz due to injury and infused all kinds of hope into Gator Nation.
But now? Can Napier possibly go from drawing dead to inexplicably sucking out to a straight flush in consecutive seasons?
Just as 365 days prior, the schedule ahead is decidedly unfriendly. Going to No. 3 LSU this weekend and No. 5 Miami the next is as tough a 2-game road trip as anyone will make all season. And home clashes with potential top-5 teams like Texas, Georgia and perhaps even resurgent Florida State means Florida’s victories are going to be awfully tough to come by.
Although the Bronx cheers and “Fire Billy!” catcalls after losing to USF might well have been prescient, does it really behoove Florida to show Napier the nearest door this soon?
One school of thought was embraced in Gainesville by former Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, who often would muse that anything that eventually needed to be done should be done right away. Currently 20-20 with no real path toward a successful season in sight based on how the Gators played the Bulls, Napier has clearly shown Florida who he is by now, so why not rip the proverbial Band-Aid off immediately?
The other school of thought is this: What does Florida gain by sending Napier to the bread line in early September? Even if you figure the Gators are destined for another losing season, playing the bulk of it with an interim coach would assuredly cause in-season insurrection within the locker room even before the transfer portal bursts open just from the sheer force of departing Florida players banging on it.
It also wouldn’t appear wise to fire your coach before you know precisely who you can target – and it is far too early into the 2025 season to properly figure out who might be available. And causing the roiling unrest a September firing would spark inside the locker room months before you can bring in the guy tasked to fix it also feels like a fool’s errand.
You could argue that the very worst thing that could happen for Florida would be exactly what happened to Florida last season: Napier somehow pulling multiple rabbits out of a hat full of holes and winning what should be vastly unwinnable games. Should the Gators actually pull off a couple of the same miracles they did in 2024, and current Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin somehow get duped into Napier’s ability again, it is theoretically possible that all this is just a hallucination from 2024.
Fire Napier now? Less than ideal. Fire Napier toward or at the end of the season? Not something Florida fans will exactly be fired up about, either. Don’t fire Napier at all? That seems the most unlikely outcome out of all the possible outcomes.
About the only thing that is certain is this: Billy Napier feels like a dead man walking in Gainesville.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
