Posted on 10/20/2025 11:39:49 AM PDT by Red Badger
Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said Monday he has one goal when it comes to hiring the next football coach: Find someone who can win championships.
During a news conference in Gainesville, Florida, Stricklin said his decision to fire Billy Napier on Sunday following a 3-4 start to the season was ultimately because "we didn't win to the level we needed to."
Napier went 22-23 in four seasons with the Gators, including 12-16 in SEC play. Although Stricklin credited Napier for leaving Florida in a much better place than he found it -- including modernizing the football program structure -- he also said the two had long conversations about whether Napier should give up playcalling headed into this season.
Napier decided to continue calling plays, and ultimately the Gators struggled on offense behind an injured DJ Lagway and a lack of consistency across the board. Florida ranks No. 90 in the country in total offense, averaging 363 yards per game.
"I shared with him I thought his strength may be in leading the program and overseeing the bigger picture, but my philosophy is you hire head coaches, you give them the authority to make decisions on how they want to run their program," Stricklin said. "And then you hold them accountable and that's probably a big part of the reason why we're here today."
Napier had been under fire over the past two seasons as Florida struggled to win consistently. Stricklin decided last year to stick with Napier, and the Gators finished the year with four straight wins. But that momentum did not carry into this season, and the situation grew untenable as the losses mounted.
Florida owes Napier about $21 million, a cost Stricklin said was not "insignificant."
"We have tremendous resources, but it's not unlimited so we'll have to manage that," Stricklin said. "The resources are not going to be a reason why we don't make the right decision going forward here."
Stricklin said he will decide the next head coach, with feedback from a search firm, the board of trustees and the university president. This is the third time Stricklin will hire a football coach at Florida -- he initially hired Dan Mullen in 2018. Stricklin fired Mullen in 2021 and hired Napier.
When asked what Florida is looking for in its next head coach, Stricklin said, "We want people who can win championships at the University of Florida. That's going to be our goal. We want somebody who can come in here and be a strong leader and win championships."
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LSU’s Brian Kelly next. It takes a while to scrape up $50 million to pay off the contract, so it may be a week or two.
Maybe Florida needs a new Athletic Director.
He hired Todd Golden, who got us a basketball Natty, so he won’t be going anywhere.
Yeah...Florida would have to hire her too...LOL
Yeah...Florida would have to hire her too...LOL
I like Billy Gonzalez as the interim, there will be immediate changes. Georgia won’t know what hit them.
I mean, 3rd and 1, with a first down putting the game away, you had a running back who had been going through Mississippi State’s defense all day like a hot knife through butter, and what does he do? He decides to try a pass.
That’s what told me, he wanted to get out of Gainesville with that payout.
yeah, message boards lit up on that 3rd down play. I wasn’t surprised by it at the time though. Ha.
Do you think the backup QB will play in two weeks? He’s good.
Who? A coach who is interested in winning championships. That's who. UF is probably a top 10 job in the whole country. It has brand new facilities and has by far the largest fanbase in one of the biggest talent producing states in the country. There's a reason UF has won 3 national titles in the last generation.
Billy Napier is a good man but unfortunately, he was not up to the job. He finishes as UF's first coach with a losing record since the 1940s. By the way, that will get your fired at any major program.
He deserves a shot.
I don’t even ask for championships. Just put a good product on the field that’s fun to watch. You have to be real lucky to win Natties, as well as good.
With NIL, the bigger issue now is major-market teams. Florida (Jacksonville market) is one of those “major market” teams. Florida State is not “major market”. LSU is somewhat because the Saints once called Baton Rouge home. Teams in smaller markets will suffer in the new wildness of NIL. Vanderbilt is taking advantage of major markets (Nashville).
There will be teams that will suffer from being not “major market” teams in college sports.
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