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Even if you want Billy Napier fired, you should want Florida Football to beat UCF

By Benjamin Henderson

Sep 14, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier looks on against the Texas A&M Aggies during the first half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images
Sep 14, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier looks on against the Texas A&M Aggies during the first half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images
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As we here at Hail Florida Hail have opined over the past five weeks, everyday is a great day to tell Billy Napier he is no longer the head coach of Florida Football. Despite the bulk of Gator Nation making a wish lists of changes for Florida after last season, Napier did almost none of them and instead has given Gator fans a giant lump of coal to begin the 2024 season.

But even if you want Napier gone and feel the only way to heal is to get rid of what made Florida sick in the first place, you should still want Florida to emerge victorious today, even if a loss might be what finally delivers the pink slip.

Florida Football: The Emperor Has No Clothes

At 7:45, the University of Florida Gators will take on the University of Central Florida Golden Knights in a spirited game of football.

Well, officially, Florida is taking on UCF Knights. Don't ask them what the name stands for.

This insistence that UCF has to be called by its initials is on brand for them. As they have morphed from a Division 3 program to a Power 4 program, they have also morphed into a program that is constantly desperate for the spotlight.

They have morphed their aluminum erector set of a stadium into an identity. They have morphed a random guy saying he thought they won the national title into an identity. They have morphed the fact that Cape Canaveral is an hour away into an identity.

And if they beat Florida today, they too will morph that into an identity.

Make no mistake either: even if you want Billy Napier fired, a loss today to UCF will be brought up until the end of time. And unlike the Gasparilla Bowl, Gator fans won't get to play the card of it happening in a meaningless game.

The fact that Florida is even considered the underdog in this game is indicative of the depths the Gators have sunk to in the Napier Era.

Kansas beat UCF last year by 29 points. West Virginia beat them by 13 points. Texas Tech and Georgia Tech beat them too last year. Colorado just beat them by 27 points.

But the University of Florida, with the alleged 12th-best roster in the country according to 247 Sports, is a 1.5-point underdog.

A win today will ultimately be forgotten about to time as Florida will roll into Knoxville next week with the prospect of a 20+ point beatdown looming. Hopefully that becomes the tipping point that gets Napier fired.

But a loss today will join the ranks of losses to Georgia Southern as games that will forever be memed.

Cheer wisely.

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