Florida Gators fire Billy Napier: Top prospects, transfers and rookies to watch

Even after Florida’s late-season surge in 2024, Billy Napier needed a strong booster, while navigating another brutal schedule, to secure his long-term future as the Gators’ coach.

After another slow start to the season, marked by losses to South Florida, LSU and Miami, Napier couldn’t find its way out of the canyon this time around. He was fired Sunday with a final record of 22-23 in Gainesville.

For the fifth time since Urban Meyer retired in December 2010, Florida is searching for a new head football coach. The position has obvious advantages – proximity to recruits, fan and financial support as well as the opportunity to compete for national championships – but the coaching churn rate in Gainesville is undeniable. Meyer won big, but only for a relatively short period of time. Florida finished in the AP top 6 three straight times under Charley Pell and Galen Hall in the mid-1980s. Otherwise, Steve Spurrier is the only coach to build a sustainable winner with the Gators.

Florida has given Napier the support needed to elevate the program and has made obvious progress in recruiting. Coaches who have faced the Gators over the past two seasons have repeatedly praised the team’s talent. But things never went their way for long stretches under Napier, as Florida didn’t make the 12-team College Football Playoff last season and wouldn’t make it this season.

Athletic director Scott Stricklin received a contract extension this summer and will select his third football coach. The question of how much power he actually has in hiring is a question that hangs over this research. Florida has not yet adopted CFP and really needs to get this one right. There will be no shortage of interest for one of the best jobs on the market.

Candidates | Transfers | Recruits

Five candidates for the position

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin: He’s the closest thing to Spurrier — without all the championships, of course — in college football today: a brash, supremely confident coach whose gifts for the game and quarterback development are undeniable. Kiffin, 50, has started winning more notable games in the SEC, beating Georgia, South Carolina and others last season. He is 27-6 since the start of the 2023 season. Although his greatest accomplishments have come as an assistant coach (he won national titles as coordinator at USC and Alabama), he led Florida Atlantic to Conference USA titles in 2017 and 2019, and knows the state and the league well. Kiffin indicated he could stay at Ole Miss long-term — or at least for a slightly longer ride — but Florida would be foolish not to seriously evaluate his level of interest.

Eliah Drinkwitz, Missouri coach: Kiffin should be Florida’s top target in the SEC, but Drinkwitz also deserves attention. Like Spurrier, he is an offensive-minded coach who delivers the goods behind a mic and will bring a confident style of play to Gainesville. After a slow start in Columbia, Drinkwitz, 42, guided Missouri to a Cotton Bowl title and an 8th-place finish in 2023 and is also 27-6 since the start of the 2023 season. The Arkansas native could position Missouri for its third straight winning season in SEC play. Drinkwitz likes Missouri, which has shown him a stronger commitment over time, but if he wants to win a national championship, he could look to move on to a program like Florida.

Rhett Lashlee, SMU coach: After guiding the Mustangs to the CFP in their first season as a member of the ACC, Lashlee is a top coaching candidate. His next stop would likely take him to the SEC, where he coached twice with Auburn alongside Gus Malzahn and was the Tigers’ offensive coordinator from 2013 to 2016. Lashlee, 42, would also bring experience from Florida State, as he served as Miami’s offensive coordinator in 2020 and 2021. He won 11 games in each of the last two seasons at SMU.

Jedd Fisch, Washington coach: Few coaches have traveled the college and NFL map like Fisch, who, at 49, has worked for seven NFL teams and six college teams since the 2002 season. He views Washington as a long-term play after reviving the Arizona program with a 10-win season in 2023, but if there was a destination job that existed for Fisch, it would be Florida. his alma mater. He spent time as a student assistant and graduate assistant at Spurrier and worked in-state as an offensive coordinator for Miami and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Washington certainly doesn’t want to lose another talented coach so soon, but if Fisch has a big season, Florida could come calling. Fisch is 11-8 in Washington.

Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame coach: Every coaching search, especially for a coveted position like Florida’s, requires one or two talented candidates. Freeman seems very happy at Notre Dame, which has rewarded him financially and will likely continue to do so this offseason, especially if he returns to the CFP. Notre Dame certainly doesn’t want to lose a second straight coach to an SEC team, but Freeman, 39, is one of the hottest coaches on the market and would boost Florida with his on-field track record and recruiting approach. The Dayton, Ohio native has spent his entire playing and coaching career in two states – Ohio and Indiana – and is expected to adjust to life in the SEC. But he recruited nationally and showed he could win consistently, including in last year’s playoffs. Florida would be foolish not to at least gauge interest. — Adam Rittenberg

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Five important players to remember

QB DJ Lagway: Can the next head coach keep Lagway in Gainesville? The second-year QB has been extremely loyal to Napier and invested in building this program with him. Retaining Lagway will likely be a major priority for whoever takes the job. Lagway struggled this season, ranking last among SEC starters in QBR (56.7) and 15th in yards per attempt (6.82), and dealt with injuries throughout his two seasons at Florida. He’ll likely still have the opportunity to be one of the highest-paid QBs in the country next year, regardless of how his sophomore season goes.

If the Texas native wants to play closer to home, he will have several options. Texas A&M scrambled to reverse Lagway’s recruitment at the last minute after Mike Elko took over in December 2023. His father, Derek Lagway, played at Baylor in the late 1990s. Lagway will enter his junior season and be eligible for the draft next year, putting himself in the best position for his development and the NFL — whether with a new regime in Florida or elsewhere – will undoubtedly influence this decision.

RB Jadan Baugh: As a freshman, Baugh became the Gators’ leading rusher with 916 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 5.4 yards per carry. Entering Week 8, Baugh ranked third among all FBS backs in forced missed tackles (47), according to ESPN Research, and more than 750 of his 1,284 career rushing yards came after first contact. On Saturday, he rushed for a career-high 150 yards to help power the Gators’ victory over Mississippi State. Baugh will have two seasons of eligibility remaining and should draw significant interest from the SEC and the country.

LB Myles Graham: Graham joined the starting lineup as a sophomore and leads Florida with 40 tackles, 3.5 TFL and three assists. The son of former Gators and NFL running back Earnest Graham arrived as the 2024 ESPN 300’s fourth-ranked outside linebacker and proved he was ready to play with a productive season in a reserve role, earning SEC All-Freshman recognition. It will likely be difficult to pry him away from Gainesville given his family ties, but he is a talented playmaker.

WR Vernell Brown III: The true freshman, ESPN’s No. 41 rookie for 2025, immediately earned a starting role and had a team-high 32 catches for 463 yards in seven games. He’s the son and grandson of former Gators, so there’s a lot of loyalty there, but there will be major interest in Brown. You could also put several other Gators receivers on this list, between Dallas Wilson, Eugene Wilson III and Aidan Mizell. All four will be seriously coveted if they consider transfers.

DT Caleb Banks: Banks turning down the NFL for one more season with the Gators was a huge deal for Napier and his team. He’s one of ESPN’s top three defensive prospects for the 2026 draft and will almost certainly turn pro after this season, but Banks could return for an additional season if he needs a medical redshirt. The 6-foot-5, 330-pound senior missed the first two games with a foot injury, was injured again against LSU and is now expected to be out indefinitely. – Max Olson

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Three key recruits

DE JaReylan McCoy, No. 9 in the ESPN 300: McCoy committed to the Gators over LSU and Texas in June, and the five-star edge rusher remains the highest-ranked member of Florida’s 2026 class. McCoy and his family have often spoken of his comfort with the Gators, emphasizing that his commitment is as much, if not more, to the program as it is to Napier and his team. Florida’s decision to leave Napier mid-season will surely test that resolve. McCoy spent a month committed to LSU earlier this year, and the Tigers continued their efforts with him this fall, as did Ole Miss and Texas, among others.

QB Will Griffin, No. 69 in the ESPN 300: A Gainesville native whose family moved to UF, Griffin has been committed to the Gators since June 2024, and his recruitment has effectively been on hold for more than a year. As things stand, there’s no indication that Griffin will be on the move anytime soon. But Napier’s departure at least opens the door for any program in need of a QB to check in on ESPN’s No. 6 pocket passer. If other elite commits start to come out of Florida’s class, it will be imperative for the Gators to figure out how to keep Griffin in the fold.

RB Davian Groce, No. 36 overall: An August commitment, Groce would represent the Gators’ highest-ranked running back since Kelvin Taylor in the 2013 cycle. Florida emerged late in Groce’s recruiting process to beat out runners-up Baylor, Houston and Oklahoma for ESPN’s No. 4 running back. Those schools will likely return with Groce, whose Gators commitment is especially important if fellow Florida native Carsyn Baker — a target of Auburn, Florida State and South Carolina earlier this fall — reopens her recruitment and heads elsewhere. — Elie Lederman