Florida Football: Billy Napier’s long-term fate is tied to Georgia

Being the head coach of the Florida Gators can be a cruel job. The three coaches that preceded Billy Napier all took Florida football to the SEC title game and were still asked to leave Gainesville. While this season has taken a turn south and the expectations heading into Saturday’s matchup against Georgia are not super high, the reality is that for Napier to make it long-term at Florida he will need to get the program to a place better than Georgia.

Florida Football: Not big enough for the two of us

Let’s get some things straight off the bat:

• Billy Napier is cleaning up a big mess that was left behind
• His recruiting class is demonstrating he knows how to build a program
• Progress takes time

Florida football enters Saturday as a 22.5-point underdog, and that might be a very fair line given the Gators’ inability to cover tight ends. Or the run game. Or stop teams at all on third down. Saturday by itself isn’t going to move the needle much on the long-term prospects for Napier.

As he builds his program though, Georgia will be the constant bar by which his program is measured. Is it unfair to say, “Win a national title or leave?”

Maybe.

But when you are at the helm of Florida football, knowing it is a program capable of winning a national title, it has been the norm in Gainesville since Urban Meyer left that if you are not the guy to win a title then someone else will get a chance.

And like it or not, the past three coaches at Florida have had Georgia play a massive role is sealing their fate:

• Will Muschamp: Went 2-2 against Georgia, but one of the losses was in the 2012 season that kept Florida out of the national title game
• Jim McElwain: Went 2-1 against Georgia, but the 42-7 drubbing against Georgia in 2017 led to his ousting
• Dan Mullen: Went 1-3 against Georgia. In all three loses Florida was competitive, but it was obvious Georgia was a step ahead as a program

This isn’t a commentary on whether or not it’s fair that Napier’s long-term fate is tied to Georgia, it is simply stating that he will not stick around if we do this preview three years from now and he still hasn’t gotten over the Georgia hump.