Florida coaching search: CBS Sports names eight candidates to replace Billy Napier

The Florida Gators made the move on Sunday to fire Billy Napier. Now, they’re back on the market as one of the premier jobs in all of college football. So, it’s no surprise that they’re going to garner a lot of interest in the job.

Florida has won three national championships since 1996 when Steve Spurrier was the head coach. Add in eight conference championships dating back to the start of the Spurrier era, and there is proof coaches can succeed there. That’s part of why the Napier era was so frustrating, as he leaves the program’s first coach with a losing record since Raymond Wolf, who led the program from 1946-49.

With all of that in mind, CBS Sports released a list of eight coaches who could be candidates to replace Napier at Florida. Notably, they’re all current or former head coaches. With that in mind, here’s a look a who CBS Sports thinks Florida is going to look at in the coming weeks.

Ole Miss‘ Lane Kiffin

CBS Sports didn’t go out on a particularly thin limb to start its list of possible Florida coaches with Lane Kiffin. The current Ole Miss head coach has been a popular name multiple cycles now without leaving Oxford, and there is an expectation Florida looks into Kiffin this time around. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s definitely heading to Gainesville.

At one point, Kiffin had struggled as a head coach, being fired from USC and the Oakland Raiders. However, he’s since seemingly turned his career around. That includes success in the state of Florida, albeit it at a lower level, with FAU. It’s also included making Ole Miss one of the consistently best teams in the SEC, no small feat that Florida would love to get a piece of.

James Franklin

The last image fans have of James Franklin isn’t great. Losing three straight and being fired in a season he was expected to take Penn State to national championship heights. At the same time, it would be wrong to dismiss all of the success that he has had in his long career.

A coach with SEC experience, going back to his time at Vanderbilt, Franklin inherited a Penn State team struggling to deal with massive sanctions. There, he’d turn the Nittany Lions into one of the best programs in the country, even making the College Football Playoff semifinal a season ago. He never got over the hump, but he can build a program, which Florida does need right now.

Washington‘s Jedd Fisch

For its third coach listed, CBS Sports turned to the Washington Huskies and Jedd Fisch. That’s because of what CBS Sports cites as personal ties. He’s a Florida alum, after all, who worked as a GA for Steve Spurrier.

With both college and NFL experience, Fisch has had a long career and got his first head coaching job in 2021 with Arizona. That was a massive rebuilding project that he took from 1-11, to 5-7, to 10-3. He’d leave for Washington after that and is 11-9 in his time there.

Missouri‘s Eli Drinkwitz

If Florida wants to go poaching from a fellow SEC program, an interesting option could be Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz. The success he’s had at Missouri, especially by that program’s historic results, is very hard to deny. So, bringing him to Gainesville, with what should be a higher floor, could be interesting.

Drinkwitz got the Missouri job after one season at App State, where he went 12-1. It took a couple of seasons to get his feet under him, but is now coming off back-to-back double-digit win seasons. Now sitting at 6-1 this season, it doesn’t seem like the Tigers are going away any time soon.

Notre Dame‘s Marcus Freeman

Will Marcus Freeman leave Notre Dame? The knee jerk thought is that he wouldn’t. Of course, nobody thought Brian Kelly would leave either. So, it would almost be irresponsible of Florida not to call and test the waters on one of the best young head coaches in all of college football.

Freeman is usually seen as a Midwest coach, having played at Ohio State and never coached outside of the states of Ohio and Indiana in his career. On the field, however, it’s impossible to argue with the results. A season ago, Notre Dame played for a national championship. Now, it seems like a matter of when, not if, he gets the Irish over the hump as they’re more talented than ever before.

SMU‘s Rhett Lashlee

SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee has now taken the Mustangs from the AAC to the ACC, thriving in the process, going to the College Football Playoff his first season at the Power Four level. That’s impossible not to take note of. It also means he shouldn’t be intimidated by another jump up in competition and expectations that comes with the Florida job.

This season, SMU is 5-2. So, the Mustangs are on pace to potentially win double-digit games for a third-straight season under Lashlee. On top of that, the Arkansas native does have SEC ties, having once been the offensive coordinator at Auburn.

Georgia Tech‘s Brent Key

Another name out of the ACC is Brent Key. Since becoming the full time Georgia Tech head coach in 2023, he’s turned the Yellow Jackets into one of the toughest games in the country. Now, he has the Yellow Jackets unbeaten in late October.

Of course, Key could be happy at Georgia Tech. In his own playing career, he was an offensive lineman for the Yellow Jackets. He also had multiple stints as an assistant there before becoming the head coach. At the same time, that doesn’t mean Florida shouldn’t kick the tires there.