Five losses for Florida from 2022 and 2023 that were red flags for Billy Napier

30-3 defeat to Oregon State

As a rule of thumb, it is usually best not to put too much stock into a bowl game. Teams are playing with depleted rosters that don't reflect what the team was that season.

One of the things we are also told as to why bowl games matter are the extra practices teams get and the chance to work in some guys that are going to be needed the following season.

But Napier took advantage of none of that in his trip to the Las Vegas Bowl as the Gators looked lifeless and would have been better served just turning down the invite rather than making fans sit through three hours of whatever that game was.

The only drama from the game was whether or not Florida was going to score to extend their streak of not getting shut out. Thankfully, a last-minute field goal spared the Gators of that embarrassment, but looking back, the whole thing was poor showing from someone who claims to follow a process that is supposed to lead to consistency.

33-14 defeat to Kentucky

The common defense for why Napier is being retained into 2025 is "Well, the team played hard against Georgia."

Sure, that was one game.

The problem is that Florida has had games like last year's defeat to Kentucky where it was very clear they weren't playing hard.

We had written in our post-game write-up that:

"So, even if one wants to factor in the experience on Kentucky's roster relative to the youth movement at Florida, these rosters were at worst even when it came to talent.

But only one of the two teams on the field in Lexington looked like they wanted to be there, and it wasn't the Florida Gators."

As time has marched on, this Kentucky defeat highlights the core problem with Napier, that if everything goes correct, the ceiling for Florida is a close loss against a ranked opponent.

You get games like the beatdown in Lexington last season when everything doesn't go correctly.