Billy Napier on noise surrounding his job: ‘We created it, we deserve it’

Going into the 2024 season, Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier was already on the hot seat by most accounts. He pulled out of that with a strong finish to the season and the emergence of quarterback DJ Lagway. With that new life in the program, Florida entered 2025 with raised expectations.

Then Florida lost to USF in Week 2 at home. Now, once again, Napier has found himself on the hot seat as tension grows within the fanbase. After the game, Napier addressed the noise surrounding his job, admitting that they created and deserve it themselves.

“Yeah, we created it,” Billy Napier said. “We deserve it. So, if you play football like that, you’re going to be criticized. It comes with the territory, right? So, the only thing you can do is go get it fixed. That’s what we’ll start working on tomorrow.”

After opening the season with a win at home against LIU, Florida welcomed USF to The Swamp on Saturday. There, Lagway and the Gators offense struggled. Florida would fail to score a touchdown in the first half. In fact, it wouldn’t be until the fourth quarter when the Gators found the endzone. In the final minutes of the game, USF missed a long field goal, which gave the Gators a chance to try to run out the clock. However, Florida would throw multiple incomplete passes and gave the ball back to USF. A few massive defensive penalties and a long drive later, the Bulls made a chip-shot field goal to win.

In the end, USF outgained Florida 391 yards to 355 yards. That included gaining 6.0 yards per play to 5.5 yards per play by the Gators. Lagway’s interception also would cost Florida the turnover battle.

As Florida fans exited the game, they let their frustrations with Billy Napier be felt. Within the stadium, “Fire Billy” chants broke out. Other fans updated Napier’s Wikipedia entry. It, at least briefly, read, “William Hall Napier (born July 21, 1979)[2] is, unfortunately a American football coach currently trying to single handily destroy the University of Florida.”

Billy Napier got to Florida in 2022. Since then, the Gators have gone 20-20. Previous head coach Dan Mullen was fired after going 34-15 during his time with the program. Prior to that, Jim McElwain was 22-12, though coming off a 3-4 start to the season, and Will Muschamp was 28-21 when they were fired.

Billy Napier deflects question on future as Florida head coach

After the game, Billy Napier was more directly asked about his future as the Florida head coach. However, he did his best to deflect those questions and keep the focus on improving as a team.

“Yeah I think I’m more concerned with doing my job to help lead these young men,” Napier said. “I think that’s a big picture question and I think right now it’s more about today. It’s more about what we do tomorrow and that’s what we’ve got to get consumed with. So I think I’m consumed with doing the best job I can do for the players and leading the staff and getting the football fixed. Ultimately, that’s gonna decide how far we go around here.”

There’s no rest for the weary. Napier and Florida are headed to Death Valley next week for a difficult test against LSU. That’s part of a stretch of six games against five teams who entered Week 2 ranked in the AP Poll.