College football fans, Billy Napier has been fired. This firing has been considered a long time coming. The Gators have disappointed in every way possible throughout Napier’s tenure. Napier’s resume finishes as:
Overall Record: 22-23
SEC Record: 12-16
Record vs. Ranked Opponents: 5-17
Record vs. Ranked Opponents on the road: 0-14
So now that Billy Napier is out, who’s in? The list of candidates for this job is likely to be short, as Florida will be searching for proven candidates to create stability. Gator fans and boosters believe this program to be elite. Will their coaching hire reflect that belief? We’ll find out.
Top Candidates
Kiffin has the Ole Miss program rolling. He’s led the Rebels to three double-digit win seasons and is on track for a fourth in 2025. You’d have to look back over 40 years to find that many double-digit win seasons for Ole Miss. Known as one of the best play callers in college football, Kiffin would be the perfect candidate to maximize the abilities of DJ Lagway, Jadan Baugh, Dallas Wilson, and the rest of the Florida offense.
One of the questions surrounding Lane Kiffin will be his recruiting potential. Kiffin has relied heavily on the transfer portal in recent years at Ole Miss, but how has he performed at his other college football jobs? At USC, Kiffin brought in several highly ranked classes, including #3, #8, and #13. In his time as OC at Alabama, Kiffin was credited with the recruitment of several notable players, including 5-star Bo Scarbrough, 5-star Blake Barnett, and Jalen Hurts.
Drinkwitz has turned Missouri into a perennial college football playoff contender. Missouri is 27-6 since the start of 2023. His rebuild of Missouri started pre-NIL, so the process took him a few years. After three years of building a program, Drinkwitz has Missouri rolling. Before coaching Missouri, Drinkwitz coached Appalachian State for one season. The Mountaineers went 12-1. Drinkwitz’s coaching record comes to a total of 56-26.
In recruiting, Drinkwitz has landed back-to-back top-20 classes at Missouri, including the 7th-ranked transfer portal class in 2025. In 2024, Missouri landed the nation’s #1-ranked DL, Williams Nwaneri. Drinkwitz obtained 5-star transfer Damon Wilson and superstar RB Ahmad Hardy through the transfer portal in 2025. Needless to say, Drinkwitz has proven himself to be quite the recruiter, obtaining elite talent while being outclassed in NIL, facilities, and prestige.
Franklin’s connection to the Florida job stems from Florida boosters supposedly wanting a “grown up” in the building. Franklin represents a model of consistency in college football that has made him a respected head coach since 2011. In 2012 and 2013, Franklin led Vanderbilt to back-to-back 9-4 seasons. These were two of the best seasons that Vanderbilt experienced in the last 100 years. At Penn State, Franklin’s record totals to 104-45, including six double-digit win seasons. Franklin’s total coaching record is 128-60.
If you look at Penn State’s 10 highest-rated recruits of all time, Franklin is responsible for four of those recruits. Notable NFL players such as Micah Parsons, Saquon Barkley, Tyler Warren, Rasheed Walker, Jaquan Brisker, Pat Freiermuth, Chris Godwin Jr, and Odafe Oweh are products of Franklin’s Penn State tenure. The Nittany Lions claimed many top-15 classes and a few top-10 classes during Franklin’s time.
Fisch currently has the Washington Huskies sitting at 5-2. He arrived at Washington after the departure of Kalen DeBoer. A departure that saw the exodus of many great players to the portal, such as Parker Brailsford and Germie Bernard. Fisch’s overall coaching record is 28-30, though his first college football head coaching job was a considerable rebuild. Fisch took over the Arizona Wildcats after six straight seasons of 7 wins or less, plus a winless season during 2020. In Fisch’s first season, Arizona went 1-11. By his third season with the program, Fisch led the Wildcats to a record of 10-3 with 5 ranked wins.
Fisch has recruited some great players throughout his many jobs. 5-star WR Donovan Peoples-Jones, NFL QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and 1st round WR Tetairoa McMillan are a few examples. Fisch led Washington to a top-25 class in 2025 and is on track for a top-20 class in 2026. Star QB Demond Williams Jr is a player that Fisch recruited to Arizona and brought to Washington via the transfer portal.
A noteworthy thought to remember is that Fisch is a University of Florida alumni.
