Want hater facts for Florida candidates? Here’s 1 piece of ammo against each of them
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You can find a flaw in anyone. Even Kirby Smart has a flaw of being 1-6 vs. Alabama.
With Florida‘s list of potential candidates, you can find a way to talk yourself out of anyone being the right fit to replace Billy Napier. Some of those issues are more obvious than others. Context is important, too. Not everybody dealt with the same set of circumstances.
But hater facts aren’t always about giving full context. They’re about finding the flaw, clinging to it and building a narrative against someone being the right fit for the job.
Kidding, sort of.
At the very least, we’re going to provide some ammo against every coach because nobody should be seen as an obvious slam dunk. While there could certainly be some off-the-radar candidates to be considered, we’ll use 10 of the most common names popping up.
Lane Kiffin — He’s 1-10 vs. AP Top 25 teams in true road games at Ole Miss
And the lone win came in 2023 at Tulane, who was starting a backup quarterback. Historically, Lane Kiffin is 3-15 in those matchups, and his last victory vs. a ranked Power Conference foe in a true road game was in 2011 at No. 4 Oregon. The knock against Napier was his 0-14 mark vs. AP Top 25 foes away from The Swamp (road and neutral). As great of a candidate as Kiffin would be, that’s the thing that’s prevented him from being considered a Tier 1 coach. It’s possible that Florida could be stuck with the same issue with Kiffin on board, albeit with a bigger check to write.
Eli Drinkwitz — He’s a $9 million coach with 0 wins vs. AP Top 10 teams in the regular season
As much as Eli Drinkwitz deserves credit for the job he’s done at Mizzou, let’s remember that context. He’s getting paid extremely well at his current job, so any sort of poaching is likely going to take at least a $10-11 million annual investment into someone who lacks that signature victory in the regular season. Even Napier just beat a top-10 Texas team in the regular season. Go figure that with a win on Saturday at No. 10 Vandy, Drinkwitz would finally get his first regular-season win vs. a top-10 foe in Year 6 in Columbia after an 0-7 start in those matchups.
Jedd Fisch — He hasn’t had a Year 4 at a job since 2007
Fisch’s path in football has had more stops than he can probably count. The 3-year run he had at Arizona in 2021-23 marked his longest stay somewhere since he was an offensive assistant with the Baltimore Ravens from 2004-07. Florida infamously just had a 4th consecutive coach in the post-Urban Meyer era fail to earn a Year 5. The goal is not to hire a quick-fix rebuilder, but to hire someone who can truly build year-over-year success. While Fisch’s allegiances wouldn’t be questioned as a Florida graduate, it would be fair to wonder if he’d be the answer to that ever-pressing issue of finding long-term stability.
Rhett Lashlee — He’s an offensive play-caller head coach with 3 offensive coordinators
You could argue that it’s a positive that Lashlee would bring his offensive acumen to Gainesville. You could also argue that someone who has held onto play-calling duties as a head coach with 3 different people who hold the “offensive coordinator or co-offensive coordinator” titles is asking for trouble. Lashlee has said in the past that play calling is a year-to-year process for him after what he witnessed at Auburn while working as Gus Malzahn’s non-play-calling offensive coordinator. The issue could be whether Lashlee holds onto those duties too long, just as Napier did.
James Franklin — Besides the 4-21 record vs. AP top 10 teams? A premier program committed $49 million to fire him
That has to mean something. Florida isn’t in the position that someone like Arkansas is in. The support has been there in Gainesville. Franklin is a rebuilder who has been out-coached repeatedly in the games that defined his tenure. Losing to UCLA and Northwestern was just the final nail in the coffin for a team some believed would finally get over the hump and win a national title. That ignored the fact that Franklin hadn’t beaten an AP Top 10 foe from the Big Ten since his team walked off the 2016 conference title game with a comeback win vs. Wisconsin. And like Napier, he was disastrous vs. ranked foes on the road (2-13 at Penn State). Hiring Franklin, who has $49 million on the way in some form, wouldn’t make any sense with his 0-15 regular-season record vs. AP Top 10 teams in the last 8 seasons.
Jeff Brohm — He’s got 1 AP Top 25 finish in 8 seasons as a Power Conference head coach
That’s an ironic fact considering that Brohm just took down No. 2 Miami (FL) on the road, where Napier watched his team get bullied down the stretch. But while Brohm has established himself as one of the premier upset coaches, that’s not the type of win you’re asked to get at Florida. Napier just beat a top-10 Texas team, but because it was in the midst of a 3-4 start in which Florida was again out of SEC contention by the end of September, it didn’t carry as much weight. Brohm is 7-8 lifetime in games in which his team carries a top-25 ranking, and 4 of those wins came in that 2023 season when he earned his lone ranked finish … but it also included a devastating home loss to 7-win Kentucky.
Alex Golesh — He’s got the least head coaching experience of any candidate here
And it’s all Group of 5 experience. Golesh is 1 year older than Meyer was when he was hired at Florida, and he only had 4 years of Group of 5 head coaching to that point, so you could poke holes in that. But Golesh stands out in this group because others have more high-level experience at this stage in their careers. Napier was a 42-year-old coach with 4 years of Group of 5 experience as a head coach, so it’s possible that Golesh fits a background that Florida is trying to correct more than it’s trying to double down on.
Marcus Freeman — He’s not leaving, but you’d be writing a blank check without offensive answers
No, you cannot assume that Freeman’s OC, Mike Denbrock, is a packaged deal. Before Denbrock left Brian Kelly’s LSU staff for a return to South Bend in 2024, that was a major issue in the first part of Freeman’s Notre Dame tenure. He went consecutive years without a New Year’s 6 Bowl because the Irish offense lacked an identity vs. quality foes. While one could predict that a massive, 10-year megadeal investment in Freeman — I’m assuming that sort of thing is the only way he’d even pick up the phone to consider leaving — would covet an elite offensive coordinator, it’d still be a major question mark after he was hired.
Brent Key — He’s never even coached in a battle of ranked teams
Isn’t that a wild thought? Napier’s 5-17 record vs. ranked foes was much worse than Key’s 7-6 mark in those matchups, but the latter is completely unproven in matchups of ranked teams. To be fair, Napier went 0-2 in those games (2022 vs. No. 20 Kentucky and 2022 at No. 11 Tennessee). Just for a little perspective, Clark Lea just won a matchup of ranked teams on Saturday. Dan Mullen was 4-7 in those games, and what people who claim “they shouldn’t have fired Mullen” forget is that he was 1-6 in those final 7 opportunities, which spanned his final 2.5 seasons in Gainesville. If you’re the head coach at Florida, you’re asked to earn and win those types of games. Just for a little perspective, Smart is 23-6 in those matchups since he walked off the field after that 2020 loss to Florida. Go figure that as long as Georgia Tech doesn’t free fall from this 7-0 start, Key’s first ever opportunity to coach in a game of ranked teams could come next month … against Georgia.
Urban Meyer — It’s 2025, not 2005
Need I say more?
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
