The Florida Gators will be entering the 2024 college football season with Billy Napier entering his third season as the head coach of this football program. Florida is unranked to start the 2024 season and the Miami Hurricanes are ranked 18th to start the 2024 season.
The Florida Gators will be facing a brutal schedule through this season. Napier finished 6-7 in his first season with the Gators and he finished 5-7 season during his second season with Florida.
Bleacher Report’s Brad Shepard Believes That Florida Gators Head Coach Billy Napier Is On the Hot Seat Entering the 2024 Season
Bleacher Report’s Brad Shepard made some SEC predictions before the start of the 2024 college football season. He thinks one of four SEC coaches is on the hot seat this season. Shepard believes that Billy Napier is on the hot seat this season. Brad Shepard said:
“At places like Gainesville, you have to win now. If not, you’re gone. It’s as simple as that.
Since the halcyon days of Urban Meyer, the Gators have wandered through the wilderness with coaches like Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, Dan Mullen and now Napier, who simply hasn’t won at all.
This is just the third year of a seven-year contract, and though his buyout would be massive, you just can’t go 11-14 at UF. Now, even though Napier believes he’s almost got the sea legs under his program, he has a brutal record, highlighted (lowlighted?) by a stretch that includes Texas, LSU, Ole Miss and Florida State.
Another losing season, and Napier is likely gone.”
To beat elite teams in the SEC, the Florida Gators need to recruit better. The transfer portal these days makes life tough for college football coaches, but it doesn’t matter. In the 2024 recruiting class, the Florida Gators were able to land 11 recruits in the ESPN Top 300. Two of those recruits were in the Top 10.
However, the class of 2025 recruiting for Florida has not been as good as the 2024. They only have six commits from the ESPN Top 300 and none of those are in the Top 50. SEC schools like the Georgia Bulldogs, the Tennessee Volunteers, the Alabama Crimson Tide, and the Texas Longhorns were able to land Top 50 recruits for the class of 2025.
Gators Schedule In November Will Not Help Napier’s Job Status
The Florida Gators’ schedule in November is going to be brutal. Florida will be facing teams that could all be in contention for the College Football Playoff this season. They will face the Georgia Bulldogs, the Texas Longhorns, the LSU Tigers, the Ole Miss Rebels, and the Florida State Seminoles.
Georgia, Texas, and Ole Miss have been picked by many analysts to represent the SEC Conference in the playoffs this year and it does not include the Alabama Crimson Tide or the Missouri Tigers. The LSU Tigers and the Tennessee Volunteers appear to be mystery teams in the conference. As for the Florida State Seminoles, many think they will win the ACC conference this season.
There is a chance that the Florida Gators and Billy Napier in that stretch finish with a 0-5 record. If that were to happen, there is no way that Napier would return to coach the Gators in the 2025 season and beyond. They have to finish over .500 this season and show major progress.
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