It's Wednesday, and Billy Napier is still the head coach of the Florida Gators. It feels like, at this point, Scott Stricklin is waiting for Napier to pull a Mike White and leave on his own rather than give him the pink slip himself.
But one of the very real difficulties in inviting Napier to leave is the contract he originally signed with Florida and the subsequent buyout that still remains.
Former Florida coach Urban Meyer didn't hold back when highlighting the pickle that Florida finds itself in.
Urban Meyer cites Billy Napier's buyout as a hangup
Appearing on the Triple Option Podcast, the topic of Napier came up, and Meyer seems to think the only thing saving Napier at this point is his $21 million buyout:
“Billy Napier is caught in a firestorm. How’s it end? Again, I don’t see them making the change right now with $21 million (owed). And that’s going on pretty well-documented conversation with people throughout the country that there’s, once again, where does it go? Where you getting that money from?"
Mind you, Meyer didn't exactly try to defend Napier either, highlighting that "The reality is they’re 20-22."
Swing and a miss
We here at Hail Florida Hail touched on this very subject earlier in the week.
The issue at hand isn't that Florida hired Napier and he hasn't worked out, though, of all the Power Four coaches hired ahead of the 2022 season, he is trending towards being a bottom-three hire of the cycle.
The bigger issue is that Napier is a bottom-three hire while Florida gave him the 4th highest contract of all the coaches hired.
Outside of Lincoln Riley, Brian Kelly, and Mario Cristobal, all of whom had previous Power Four success prior to getting hired at their current school, Napier is the only other coach who received at least seven years on his initial contract.
And now that he has crashed and burned, that extra year, combined with an 85% buyout, is coming back to bite the Gators.