10 college football coaches who were better off as big fish in little ponds

4. Billy Napier

The absolute hottest name in college football's Group of Five after the 2021 season was Billy Napier.

The Louisiana head coach had just wrapped up his third straight 10-plus-win season and he was 33-5 in his final three years with the Ragin' Cajuns and 22-2 in conference play. There were plenty of major programs showing interest in the former Nick Saban assistant coach and he decided to take his chances on Florida, joining the Gators ahead of the 2022 season.

Success wasn't a given right away and everyone gave him a bit of grace because the program fell slightly behind after Dan Mullen, but he went 6-7 in year one and made a bowl. Not too bad.

Year two was even worse, however. Napier went just 5-7 and missed out on a bowl game and had a 3-5 mark in conference action for a second straight season. That's unacceptable at Florida.

Entering year three, he needs to win 8-9 games to really prove that he's the right coach for the job and it's not looking great because the Gators' schedule is a gauntlet.