SEC Coaching Chaos

Florida Coach Billy Napier and LSU Coach Brian Kelly Fired

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

The College Football world has been shocked after two of the top football programs in the SEC have fired their coaches in back to back weeks. The Florida Gators let go of head coach Billy Napier, while the LSU Tigers relieved head coach Brian Kelly of his duties.

On Sunday, Oct. 19, the Gators finally pulled the plug by firing Napier, even after they had secured a 23-21 win against the Mississippi State Bulldogs the night before. Napier was brought in four years prior in 2021 in hopes to turn the Gators back into the powerhouse that they once were. However, that was not the case as Napier and the Gators managed to struggle all four years. Napier went 22-23 in his four seasons with the Gators, which included a 12-16 record in SEC play. He also led the Gators to an embarrassing 5-17 record against ranked opponents. His losing record with the Gators is a first by a Florida coach in almost a century. Napier was also the offensive play caller for the Gators, despite him calling many questionable plays in his tenure. However, even when told by Florida Athletic Director, Scott Stricklin, to hire an offensive playcaller, Napier declined believing he was doing just fine. These reasons led to Napier being let go. Now, Florida owes Napier around 21 million dollars for his buyout and the Gators wide receivers coach, Billy Gonzalez, will step in as the interim head coach for the rest of the season.

Just a week later, on Sunday, Oct. 26, Kelly of the Tigers was let go. This came after an embarrassing 49-24 loss at home to the Texas A&M Aggies. Just like Napier, Kelly was in the midst of his fourth season with the Tigers. Expectations were very high coming into this season for Kelly and his Tigers as they had +1500 odds to win the national championship and were ranked number nine in the nation. However, with back to back losses to the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Aggies, Kelly has been fired and the Tigers now have +40000 odds to win the title and are now unranked. Kelly left his previous head coaching job at Notre Dame in hopes to win his first national title. Though, he never even managed to lead the Tigers to a playoff appearance, as his only accomplishment was an SEC conference title win back in 2022. Kelly had minor success, as he finished with a 34-12 record with the Tigers. However, he could never win the big games and make it to the big stage, which is why the Tigers decided to let him go. 

The most surprising part about Kelly’s firing is the massive amount of money that the Tigers have to pay him. Kelly’s buyout was an expensive 53.8 million dollars, which is the second highest buyout in College Football history. This decision by the Tigers despite this massive buyout shows the standard at LSU is not just to compete, but it is to win championships. 

Right now, both schools are now tasked to find and hire new coaches who will hopefully finish the job that Napier or Kelly could not seem to even get started. For Florida, some top candidates are Ole Miss head coach, Lane Kiffin, Missouri head coach, Eli Drinkwitz and previous Penn State head coach, James Franklin. As for LSU, their top candidates also include Kiffin and Franklin as well as Notre Dame head coach, Marcus Freeman. There are common candidates between both schools, which shows that both teams want proven coaches, who know how to win and that can make an immediate impact if hired. 

The future of these programs are unknown, as both still have the rest of the season to finish. Only time will tell who the new face of the Gators and Tigers will be in the coming seasons.