Florida fired Billy Napier after going 21-23 in 3 plus seasons. Napier was unable to maintain any level of success as Florida’s Head Coach. He has recruited well, but the constant mistakes by his team have hurt the team's success. He was almost fired last year, but his team rallied to win 4 straight games to finish the season. Florida is a good head coaching position, and they should have plenty of candidates who will be interested in this job. Below are 5 candidates who should be strongly considered for the job.
Lane Kiffin has done a fantastic job turning around the Ole Miss program. He is a respected quarterbacks coach and one of the best offensive minds in College Football. He has also navigated the transfer portal at a high level. He might be working on a contract extension to stay at Ole Miss, but I'll give him a call and talk to him before he signs the deal.
Eli Drinkwitz has done a fantastic job turning around Missouri. He has an overall record of 44-25, and he won 11 games in 2023 and 10 in 2024. He is a good coach with a proven track record of recruiting players and developing a program. He also has navigated the transfer portal well; an example is the current quarterback from Beau Pribula. He also might be choosy and might not be interested, like Kiffin.
Alex Golesh has done a nice job of turning around a USF program that struggled before his arrival. He won 7 games each of his 1st 2 seasons, until they are having a breakthrough season with a 5-1 start so far this season. Before his arrival, USF was not a good program, and he quickly rebuilt it. He also has experience in the SEC since he was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee. He is a good coach who could recruit and develop players in the state of Florida.
Jon Sumrall is a hot candidate for several jobs, as he has turned around a Troy program for two seasons and has done a nice job at Tulane as well. He is currently 38-10 at both stops. He also has SEC experience from coaching at Kentucky and Ole Miss before being a head coach.
Will Stein has done an excellent job as offensive coordinator and will be a hot candidate for several jobs. No doubt about it, he knows how to call plays and develop quarterbacks at a high level. The lack of head coaching experience might be tough, but look at Kirby Smart at Georgia and Dan Lanning at Oregon; both did not have head coaching experience and did fine. He might be the next great coach; we just might not know yet.
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