Paul Finebaum: Florida, Billy Napier in turmoil, loss to USF 'put them underground'

Paul Finebaum stuck a fork in Florida and Billy Napier because they are done following an 18-16 loss to USF on Saturday. The Gators were upset at home no less.

Going into the game, Florida was ranked No. 13 in the country, per the AP Poll. Safe to say, they might be out of that come poll time Sunday afternoon.

When looking ahead at the schedule, particularly at the next four games, Finebaum couldn’t believe what he saw. This could get ugly quickly for the Gators.

“Did you ask me, did last night end their playoffs hopes or the next four games,” Finebaum said on SportsCenter. “Last night put them underground, and I am very much in on that. Thanks for asking me an easy question, finally, after a couple of weeks. This team is one in turmoil. Look at this. What kind of schedule did they get? They scheduled Miami and Florida State as nonconference and USF, and they already lost that. 

“There doesn’t look to be any light at the end of the tunnel, and that’s just part of the schedule. They still have Georgia down the road, Florida State down the road, and Ole Miss, should I continue on? Or do you smell a .500 or losing record for Billy Napier?”

Those next four games for Napier and Florida? At LSU, at Miami, bye week, home against Texas and at Texas A&M. Good luck finding some wins based on the performance Saturday.

In the loss, DJ Lagway threw for 222 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Jaden Baugh led the way with 93 yards on the ground but no scores.

Everything was seemingly out of sync and Florida was left scratching their heads. Based on this game, more fans are surely going to come after Napier and the coach he and the rest deserved it.

“Yeah, we created it,” 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.”

As Florida fans exited the game, they let their frustrations with 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.”

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.

Dan Morrrison contributed to this report