Billy Napier was left for dead, but now has Florida Football feeling alive

We here at Hail Florida Hail have chronicled all season our frustrations with Billy Napier and our desire for literally anyone else to lead Florida Football. We were far from the only entity that wanted him anywhere but Gainesville, and even as recent as two weeks ago, we noted how Napier had already lost seven games by at least 17 points, whereas Ron Zook had only lost five by such a margin.

There is still a long way to go in the long run to prove these last two weeks are sustainable, but there is no debating that Florida is in a much better place than they were in September.

Florida Football: Uno reverse

The narrative that has floated around the past few weeks when dealing with Florida is that the team was still playing hard despite a subpar record. The belief was that at some point, all the bad breaks and close losses that Florida has endured in the Billy Napier Era were eventually going to pendulum swing in their favor.

Mind you, the bulk of the bad breaks Florida has endured over the last three seasons were self-inflicted, and part of the reason Florida had a subpar record in 2024 was that the team looked lifeless against Miami, Texas A&M, and Texas combined with coaching malpractice against Tennessee.

But in the world of sports, sometimes your perception is your reality, and the reality for Florida is that after back-to-back wins over LSU and Ole Miss, there is a feeling of hope heading toward the offseason.

Beat FSU and win a bowl game, and Florida finishes 8-5. That's far from the Gator standard, but in a season where almost no one in the SEC feels happy about their season, it gives Florida a pathway to enter the offseason with genuine momentum and a narrative where the Gators will be a "darkhorse" candidate to make the playoffs in 2025.

Now, what Florida will have to prove is that their momentum is real and not a mirage. Remember in 2022 when Florida smacked South Carolina, and everyone left Shane Beamer for dead? The Gamecocks then went on to humiliate Tennessee and beat Clemson to close out the regular season, and they too felt like they had real momentum going into 2023.

Except South Carolina went 5-7 in 2023.

Florida is going to need to grab a couple of high-profile wide receivers from the transfer portal, and DJ Lagway is going to need to continue to improve on intermediate throws in order to keep the offense moving forward in 2025.

There will also be members along the defensive line who need to be replaced, as well as some question marks that persist with their safeties.

Back in September, though, it felt like Florida had zero prayer to address those issues with a sunk ship. Fast forward to November, and Napier enters the offseason more than just a lame-duck coach.