Florida (finally) fires Billy Napier

I have a friend called Davis who’s a Florida fan.

He’s still basking in the wake of Florida’s March Madness victory, but he said yesterday was one of the best days of his life. Why? Because Florida finally fired Billy Napier.

Napier had come aboard after two bowl wins following brilliant seasons at Louisiana-Lafayette, but his 11-14 record – including zero wins against Georgia, 1-4 against Tennesee and 1-3 against Florida State.

He was also 5-17 against ranked opponents, which probably would have made him a hero at Penn State, but in the SEC (where he went 12-16 in conference play), that was never going to go down well.

But the biggest thing that proved to be Napier’s downfall was something entirely of his own doing: A refusal to hire an offensive coordinator.

I don’t know if he’ll ever regret not doing so, but his offenses never were over 50th in points per game. You couldn’t understand it as a SEC team if you tried.

Napier never got the balances of his team right. This year was particularly egregious. On one side of the ball, Florida has one of the most elite defenses in the country. On the offense, it’s awful, awful, awful. It was so bad that the fanbases were fuming about Florida beat Mississippi State last week because it might have kept him in a job. And we’re not joking.

Now comes the search. Former Penn State coach James Franklin’s name has been banded around, but the name that’s on everyone’s lips is Lane Kiffin.

We will see what happens, but if Kiffin wants to be the highest-paid coach in football, then I’m sure the Gators will have the dollars and cents to make it happen.