Well, Sam Pittman is gone from Arkansas, and it feels like the shoe could drop on Luke Fickell at Wisconsin any week now. We've already said goodbye to DeShaun Foster (UCLA), Brent Pry (Virginia Tech) and once 40-year-old man Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State). So who's next to get kicked off the college football island?
It could very well be Billy Napier. Some fans wonder why he's here currently and others expect this week's anticipated loss to Texas to be the final straw. Will that happen? Who knows. But the Florida program can't keep going in this current direction.
But who's next? We've all got some names jumping around in our heads, right? Well, history has shown that who we want and who we'll get are not usually aligned. Here are three coaches that I don't think will entertain thoughts of coming to Gainesville.
3. Indiana Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti
Florida should absolutely want Cignetti, but that guy is loving life as the King of Indiana Football. Hoosier fans have been looking for a coach to love ever since Robert Montgomery Knight was asked to leave and Cignetti is their guy. Cignetti has impressively worked his way up from Indiana University...of Pennsylvania to the real IU with stops at Elon and James Madison in between. Bloomington is home for the 64-year-old coach, and he is enjoying every second of making Indiana a thorn in college football's side, and the Hoosier's NIL collective is enabling him to do it on a big budget.
Cignetti's success isn't a shock, but why it took him so long to get this opportunity still has me scratching my head. He coached Philip Rivers at N.C. State and was the recruiting coordinator for Alabama that helped them compile all the parts of that first national championship run (Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, Dont'a Hightower, Marcell Dareus, etc.). How did the guy partially responsible for that haul have to beg Indiana University of Pennsylvania for his first head coaching job? Either way, he's probably going to send Scott Stricklin's calls to voicemail because he's a Hoosier for life.
2. Tennessee Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel
Heupel has never given the impression that he's looking, but it might've taken him a while to feel embraced by the Tennessee community. However, any questions he may have had about his relationship with the Volunteers fanbase were answered when they had his back in the drama with Nico Iamaleava. Big Orange Nation was with Heupel when he said he wasn't going to re-negotiate with Iamaleava, and they were with him when Iamaleava threatened to, and eventually left. Heupel felt that love.
Truthfully, had Tennessee not come calling for Heupel in 2021, there is at least a chance he would've gotten the Gators job over Napier in 2022 after the success he had at UCF. Some fans might be concerned about Heupel's reputation of being an average recruiter, but he understands his weakness on the trail and has surrounded himself with a good recruiting staff. That sort of self awareness is greatly appreciated and Stricklin's overtures will also be appreciated, but Heupel is more concerned with figuring out how to beat Florida at the Swamp than coaching there on a regular basis.
1. Ole Miss Rebels head coach Lane Kiffin
Florida boosters have been trying to get Kiffin for a hot minute. And they might've had a shot in the past, but Kiffin is transforming his life in front of our eyes. Kiffin is no longer hunting for the next big job and, instead, he's making the most of his life in Oxford. Instead of chasing the rabbit to prove to everyone that he is a good coach, Kiffin seems to finally be comfortable in his own skin. And that is, in part, because of the support he's gotten at Ole Miss.
Kiffin might not send Stircklin's call to voice mail. He'll be appreciative and say thanks, but no thanks. He's seen what the pressure did to him and how it almost destroyed his life. He's also seen how coaches like Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen struggled to handle the pressure at Florida. It was a job that, at one time, I'm sure he dreamed about. But these days his heart and his coaching future are in Oxford.