Billy Napier doesn’t blame Florida fans for boos as his ‘proven-it’ season deteriorates

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The sky was dark above Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as both teams returned to the field. The start of the second quarter had been delayed by a 47-minute lightning delay with Florida already trailing 10-0. Head coach Billy Napier stood on the sideline, hands on hips, dressed in all-black. It was a fitting prelude to the funeral circumstances.

He later donned a Gator blue jacket when the skies opened up, but it did little to quell the boos that poured down from the floor during Florida’s 33-20 loss to Texas A&M.

“I just don’t think we executed it. … There are mental errors, there are fundamental errors,” Napier said afterwards. “If we don’t have success and we don’t play quality football on Saturday, that’s my responsibility.”

A game that lasted more than 4 1/2 hours with the delay felt like it was over much sooner. The Aggies, playing without injured starting quarterback Conner Weigman, outgained the Gators 302 yards to 73 in the first half, punctuated by a 99-yard touchdown drive late in the second quarter. Napier drew a barrage of boos from the home fans as he ran off the field trailing 20-0 at halftime.

“If you play a certain way in this arena, you’re going to get criticized,” Napier said. “I probably would have done the same thing, to be honest.”

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By the end, Florida had been outscored 488 to 301, including 310 rushing yards for the Aggies. Texas A&M redshirt freshman quarterback Marcel Reed threw for 178 yards and ran for 83 in his first career start, good for three touchdowns. The Gators fell to 1-2, and with Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, LSU and Ole Miss still on the schedule, a season that has only just begun feels all but over.

Saturday’s loss could be the final straw for Napier after a humiliating 41-17 home defeat to rival Miami to open the season. Napier, just three games into his third year since being hired from Louisiana, has a 12-16 record at Florida and is 6-11 against SEC opponents. The Gators have lost seven straight games to FBS programs, four of them at home. The Swamp — where three national championship plaques are prominently displayed and statues of Heisman Trophy winners Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow loom out front — has become a bit of a speed bump for away teams. The announced attendance for Texas A&M was 89,993, but plenty of Gators fans were already counting down before Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” blared over the loudspeakers at the end of the third quarter.

“This is one of those places where there’s history, tradition and expectations,” Napier said. “If you play ugly balls, that’s part of it.”

Napier’s job status was already hanging by a thread as the weekend approached. The last glimmer of hope was quarterback DJ Lagway, a five-star prospect in the 2024 class. After filling in late for an injured Graham Mertz in last week’s loss to Miami, Lagway threw for 456 passing yards in last week’s win over Samford, the most by a true freshman in school history. A freshman appearance from Napier’s prized recruit felt like a last-ditch opportunity to save the day.

Instead, Lagway struggled against A&M’s much stiffer defense, completing just six of 13 passes for 54 yards. He had one touchdown and two interceptions, the second coming on a bad overthrow that sealed the loss late in the fourth quarter after the Aggies missed a field goal. Lagway split time with a healthy Mertz, who got the start and looked the more comfortable of the two, completing 12 of 15 passes for 195 yards, with one touchdown and one going the other way on a pick six.

Lagway’s talent is clear, and he’ll get plenty more chances to grow and figure things out. Napier, however, doesn’t have the same luxury. Lagway’s potential isn’t enough to save his coach much longer, even if it means losing the QB to the transfer portal this offseason.

“Even if DJ Lagway is as good as Florida thinks he can be, can he overcome the coaching issues, the poor defense, the litany of issues that we’ve seen?” said David Waters, host of the “Gators Breakdown” podcast. “I think I’ve seen enough to know that Billy Napier is not a championship-winning coach at Florida.”

It was clear Saturday that Napier has lost the diehards, many of whom are clamoring for Florida executives to target Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin — perhaps unrealistically. But moving on from Napier comes with its own complications. The 45-year-old signed a $51.8 million contract through the 2028 season when he was hired in November 2021. His buyout, if he were fired this year, would be more than $26 million, half of which would be due within 30 days, plus additional buyouts for the coaching staff.

Such a costly decision will hardly please athletic director Scott Stricklin, who hired Napier and Florida’s previous coach Dan Mullen, who fired Stricklin at the end of Mullen’s fourth season. The university also has no permanent president following the controversial departure of former Nebraska senator and Florida alum Ben Sasse in July. Kent Fuchs, Sasse’s predecessor, is serving as interim president.

The Gators have failed to match the title-winning heights of Spurrier’s “Fun n’ Gun” era of the 1990s and Urban Meyer’s six-year run from 2005 to 2011. If he were to leave Napier, he would be the fourth coach Florida has fired since 2014 without a full four-season tenure. The turnover has become part of the problem, particularly during a time when rival Georgia has emerged as college football’s powerhouse. But in an era when name, image and likeness and multiple transfers make it far more feasible to microwave a rebuild, not moving on from Napier could eventually become the more expensive option for the program.

“A lot of people say you can’t fire coaches every three or four years. But it’s not a firing problem — it’s a hiring problem,” Waters said. “It’s been a consistent problem since Urban Meyer left.”

After the game, Napier walked slowly across the field. Fuchs waited under the goalposts, as he had in the previous two games this season, when he and Napier briefly and solemnly shook hands. Behind them, a few fans lingered above the tunnel to voice their displeasure.

“We work incredibly hard. We have good people. But this is a production company and ultimately we have to play better,” Napier said. “That’s my responsibility.”

After Florida’s performance on Saturday, that may not last much longer.

(Photo: James Gilbert/Getty Images)