Paul Finebaum analyzes whether Billy Napier will make it through 2025 season at Florida

Multiple coaches on the hot seat, Brent Pry at Virginia Tech and DeShaun Foster at UCLA, ran out of time following Week 3 and were fired. Now, the pressure is continuing to mount on coaches like Billy Napier of the Florida Gators, as he tries to get their season back on track.

Paul Finebaum recently shared some thoughts on Napier’s situation during an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. There, he explained that Napier’s situation is a little different from those fired coaches. However, that doesn’t mean he’s going to be safe throughout the season.

“I think there’s a difference between Napier’s situation at Florida and UCLA and Virginia Tech,” Paul Finebaum said. “I mean, those two were self-explanatory. Nobody was showing up at UCLA. The coach was a terrible hire from day one. Pry was done. I understand that. Just clear the deck. Give the team and the fans a chance to maybe have a fun season. Florida has been competitive. I’m not trying to come up with cliches here, but they did lose the game a week ago by one and the game Saturday they were in [it].”

Billy Napier has, seemingly, long since been on the host seat at Florida. He’d save himself from it with a strong second half of the 2024 season. Now, after starting 1-2 with a bad home loss to USF, Napier and the Gators are facing a stretch of three straight games and four of their next five against teams currently ranked in the Top 10 of the AP Poll.

That’s a stretch where, like in 2024, Finebaum needs to pull off an upset or two to help solidify Napier. If that doesn’t happen, though, and Florida’s season goes off the rails, Finebaum believes it would become a matter of when the Gators make a coaching change.

“So, I don’t think you just fire a coach at Florida just to fire them at Florida. But I think the next three to four weeks are going to tell the story. This was often a stretch that we talked about. He had to split that four-game stretch, and he’s already lost a game before the stretch even began. So, I think if he can’t win anything at the end of this stretch, and by the way, Texas right now is the easiest win of the group, then the season is effectively over. Then you decide. Do you just want to make a change now to have it in cement?” Finebaum said. “Or is there a reason for a lame duck coach to continue to show up every week?”

This September, On3’s Pete Nakos reported that Billy Napier has a $20.4 million buyout. That comes after he inked a seven-year deal with over $50 million guaranteed in November 2021. Following the 2026 season, his buyout drops to $13 million, and following the 2027 season, it will drop to $6.1 million.

Next up, Florida travels to Miami to take on the No. 4-ranked Hurricanes. That’s before returning to SEC play in The Swamp against Texas.