{"id":318150,"date":"2025-10-20T08:51:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T08:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/318150\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T08:51:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T08:51:14","slug":"florida-coaching-search-usa-today-names-eight-candidates-to-replace-billy-napier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/318150\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida coaching search: USA Today names eight candidates to replace Billy Napier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida<\/a><\/strong> fired Billy Napier<\/a> on Sunday<\/a> after another disappointing record of 3-4 overall to bring him to a mark of 22-23 (.489)<\/a> through three and a half seasons in Gainesville. Now, with their head coaching job, one of the better ones in all of college football, finally open, there are several hot boards already out as to who could be next for the Gators<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USA Today posted a hot board this afternoon with eight candidates on it. It\u2019s a list with some big-time names on it for them to possibly consider during their upcoming search in The Swamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Again, with Napier officially out, several boards of candidates have been posted just in the past few hours. GatorsOnline<\/a> and On3\u2019s Andy Staples<\/a> each had one respectively, as did those at ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the eight-name hot list<\/a> shared this afternoon at USA Today:<\/p>\n

After an average first three years both in CoMo and in the SEC, Drinkwitz is 27-6 (.818) over the past two and a half seasons at Mizzou. Now, nearly at seven years of head coaching experience with an overall record of 56-26 (.683), USA Today had him as one safer possible hires on the list for a school like Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrinkwitz has the swagger to embrace the pressures in Gainesville and the track record in the SEC to warrant a deep look as the Gators\u2019 next coach\u2026(Missouri) should at least be in the mix for the College Football Playoff late into November and could even take advantage of an unsettled SEC to reach the conference championship game,\u201d they wrote at USA Today. \u201cDrinkwitz would represent a very safe, high-floor hire for the Gators, though he wouldn\u2019t move the needle in the same way as his coaching peer at Mississippi.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ole(Brett Davis | Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Kiffin is the one who continues to come up<\/a> for the Gators, with an overall record as a head coach of 112-53 (.679) and at 50-19 (.725), having a chance this season at four out of six campaigns at double-digit wins with the Rebels, at Ole Miss. It\u2019s just a matter of if he would, at this point, leave what he has accomplished in The \u2018Sip.<\/p>\n

\u201cKiffin would be a home-run hire for Florida with the added benefit of hurting the Rebels, who have been one of a few teams to fill the SEC power vacuum left by the Gators\u2019 recent decline. But the landscape of college football<\/a> has changed so dramatically in the past half-decade that it\u2019s not longer a sure thing a coach would leave Oxford for Gainesville; that\u2019s doubly true given how Kiffin not only seems very comfortable at Mississippi but has put in tremendous sweat equity to turn the program into a top playoff contender,\u201d they wrote at USA Today. \u201cWould Kiffin throw that away to start over again with the Gators?\u201d<\/p>\n

While he could want to take time away from coaching, Franklin didn\u2019t sound like someone<\/a> who\u2019s done on the sidelines in his exclusive appearance on \u2018College GameDay\u2019<\/a> on Saturday morning<\/a>. That should make him one of the top candidates in the country over the next two and a half months, with a proven record at 128-60 (.681) overall after being 104-45 (.698) over a dozen years in Happy Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if he\u2019s leaning toward a year or more<\/a> off the sidelines, the opportunity presented by Florida could be impossible to turn down,\u201d USA Today wrote. \u201cWhile things ran aground with the\u00a0Nittany Lions\u00a0this season, his 128-60 record at Vanderbilt<\/a><\/strong> and (Penn State)<\/a><\/strong> should make him a legitimate candidate. Wouldn\u2019t the Gators have been ecstatic about bringing Franklin aboard had the school fired Napier last season? (Or even just three games ago?)\u201d<\/p>\n

This one was the courtesy call on the list by USA Today, as Lanning has continued to stand on staying in Eugene with a mark of 41-7 (.854) through three and a half years of a tenure at Oregon. Still, with the Gators having one of the best jobs in the sport, a call to at least consider him couldn\u2019t hurt. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be a kick-the-tires phone call with no downside for Florida,\u201d USA Today wrote. \u201cLanning would very likely turn down the opportunity, given he\u2019s already established himself at a Big Ten school with tremendous financial advantages and an intensely strong support system. But (he) might also be intrigued by the challenge and the chance to return to the SEC. The Gators have to ask, basically, and they\u2019d better be ready to make him the highest-paid coach in college football.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Arizona(Jacob Reiner | Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Dillingham is one of the hottest young coaches in the sport, being 19-14 (.576) through his full tenure back in Tempe but at 16-5 (.762) the past season and a half at ASU. That said, with him coaching his alma mater, he may just not want to leave the Sun Devils, at least not yet for the Gators\u2019 job.<\/p>\n

\u201cDillingham checks many of the boxes you\u2019d want in a future coaching superstar. He\u2019s just 35 but has three years of experience as a Power Four head coach. He\u2019s already won in a big way by taking Arizona State from three wins in 2023 to the Big 12 championship and a playoff berth last season\u2026But Dillingham\u2019s lack of experience makes him a bit of a roll of the dice for a program that can\u2019t afford any miss. There\u2019s also the question of whether the Florida opening would entice him leave Arizona State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sumrall is, pending who you ask, the top candidate from the mid-major level, with a 38-10 (.792) record over the past four years as a head coach at Troy<\/a><\/strong> (23-4 (.852) out of the Sun Belt) and Tulane<\/a><\/strong> (15-6 (.714) out of the American). That, along with ties to several programs around the league, has had him long predicted to eventually get a chance in the SEC, but it just being a matter of where, whether it be here in this coaching search specifically, in the Southeastern Conference. <\/p>\n

\u201cSumrall is the top Group of Five candidate,\u201d USA Today wrote. \u201cHe\u2019s guaranteed to land back in the SEC at some point, potentially as soon as this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, Lashlee is already being pre-predicted to be the top candidate in the current coaching search ongoing at<\/a> Arkansas<\/a><\/strong>. But, he, with a 34-14 (.708) record, including being 16-5 (.762) the past season and a half since transitioning to the ACC, through his tenure at SMU, would make a quality candidate for a lot of schools if he were on the market this offseason to leave the Mustangs.<\/p>\n

\u201cLashlee seems likely\u00a0to land at Arkansas as the replacement for Sam Pittman<\/a>\u00a0after taking the Mustangs to the College Football Playoff last year in his third season at the school. That\u2019s a difficult challenge, though, and despite deep links to the state, Lashlee could see the Gators\u2019 opening as a much cleaner situation with a clearer path to the playoff,\u201d USA Today wrote. \u201cBut the two hiring pools aren\u2019t the same: Lashlee, who played at Arkansas, is near the top of the Razorbacks\u2019 list but would be farther down Florida\u2019s board, meaning a few more proven Power Four coaches would have to decline for him to become a more concrete option.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Urban(David Banks | Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

This one is a fascinating inclusion, with Meyer having not coached at all in nearly four years and not in college since 2018. However, with a career record of 187-32 (.854), including being 65-15 (.813) in winning two of the school\u2019s three national titles in 2006 and 2008, could the Gators bring him back to coaching, after having been in broadcasting at FOX Sports, namely on \u2018Big Noon Kickoff\u2019, since 2022?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gators could always try to lure Meyer back onto the sidelines and ignore the scrutiny that would come with hiring a coach with some major baggage,\u201d they wrote at USA Today. \u201cHis two national championships and sterling record on the field in Gainesville might mitigate some of the downside. It\u2019s not like this wouldn\u2019t work: Meyer has won everywhere and on every level he\u2019s been as a coach, and would quickly clean up the sloppiness and self-inflicted errors that largely defined Napier\u2019s failed tenure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida fired Billy Napier on Sunday after another disappointing record of 3-4 overall to bring him to a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":318151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[159733,159734,159735,1318,154417,159736,159737,151573,1317,1315,1316,19503,62,67,132,51697,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-318150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-billy-napier-99-murray-county","9":"tag-dan-lanning-04-richmond","10":"tag-eli-drinkwitz-01-alma","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-james-franklin-91-neshaminy","13":"tag-jon-sumrall","14":"tag-kenny-dillingham-07-chaparral","15":"tag-lane-kiffin-94-jefferson","16":"tag-ncaa","17":"tag-ncaa-football","18":"tag-ncaafootball","19":"tag-rhett-lashlee","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-urban-meyer-82-ss-john-paul","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115405644775301316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}