Where are those who were desperately claiming Florida Gator’s season is over? The way Billy Napier’s boys crushed LSU in a splendid 27-16 victory and the week 13’s 24-17 win over Ole Miss Rebels would be able to shut those mouths. Agree or not? Although it’s a bit late in the season, Napier is finally in the game and more than ever determined to improve to a 6-5 overall and 4-4 in SEC record. So much so that he’s getting compared to sports legends such as Michael Jordan!
College football analyst Adam Breneman recently dropped big words for Napier, given his late-season bounce back. “Billy Napier is like Michael Jordan, and he took it personally. His stock has never been higher after beating number 22 LSU with number nine Ole Miss in back-to-back weekends.”
Michael Jordan would indeed be a legend in the basketball world, but only a few would know his initial struggles. Being 5’10 was not considered a flex back in the day, and so is now, but there are always exceptions, right? Jordan was one of them. Did you know he was cut from his varsity basketball team because of his height? Little did they know the same guy would win six national championships (of course, he had grown to 6’6 by then)! Here, Breneman found a similar situation with Billy Napier, who had been facing issues even before the season started.
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Most college football fans thought Billy Napier would be fired this year.
The Gators didn’t get off to a great start this season, and things looked grim.
But after back-to-back wins against ranked opponents, Napier’s stock is soaring.
Are you buying into the Gators’ hype… pic.twitter.com/BqELJMa0SD
— Adam Breneman (@AdamBreneman81) November 28, 2024
“Before the season, Billy Napier was favored to be the first head coach fired in college football. Once the season started, people were already giving ideas for his replacements, for quote, ‘When Florida fired him’. All season, fans wanted him gone, but after a loss to Georgia, they went 4-4, and Florida announced he would be back next season. It was a great move, and since then, they’ve had those two upsets and changed everything in Gainesville.
Just recap the season that Napier has had with the Gators. Breneman is not exaggerating about anything here. Gators fans were calling out the head coach and his staff for all the losses they were taking. It helped, to an extent, that Florida State Seminoles were also struggling, but when it came to Napier, the media frenzy was crazy, to say the least.
His $51.8 million contract and his buyout amount were the headlines all over the place, bet you have been seeing them for two weeks before. Remember the headlines around Lane Kiffin and how the program is looking at him to replace Napier. Well, it’s hilarious that it was Napier who ended Ole Miss’ playoff dream in Week 13. Breneman also goes into detail about reasons why the program didn’t get rid of Napier.
Why did the Gators not fire Billy Napier even after he struggled the whole season?
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Breneman went on to highlight the issues the Gators have been facing this season as a result of their upsetting season. “Before the upsets, the recruiting class was outside the top 50, but since then, they flipped recruits from Florida State, USC, and more to move up to the 18th-best class in the country. So, I have some guesses as to why Florida decided to keep him despite the struggles. I genuinely believe that Florida believes in Billy Napier, but they decided to keep him before those upsets.”
So Billy Napier and the Florida Gators were ranked outside of the top 50 recruiting bracket in late October. The Gators have reached the sky after surging its industry-generated team recruiting ranking into the top 20. The Gators’ 2025 class raised so many eyebrows after they flipped a top 247 linebacker, Ty Jackson, from USC. But it happened after these two recent victories, and the Gators decided to keep him even before that, so what could be the one possible reason for doing so?
Brenemen answered this by saying, “Now I think the transfer portal played a huge role in that decision. You can’t go into the December transfer portal without a head coach, especially without an established one, and especially with the expanded playoff, you wouldn’t be able to poach any of those coaches before the portal closes; you’ll lose your guys, including maybe DJ Lagway, who went to Florida to play for Billy Napier. He’s a five-star who’s been falling out of the SEC and you struggle to get transfers in at that point. So instead, Florida decided to bet on their guy.”
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How’s the mood now? The fanbase loves Napier, especially the emoji he sends before the Gators are about to flip a recruit. What a turnaround. Of course, it’s still a disappointing season, but DJ Lagway has found his legs and Napier is recruiting his weapons for the next season.