Billy Napier’s fear just got real. Last season, the Florida Gators head coach stopped the thread from snapping off last moment. His last season’s savior was DJ Lagway. However, not every time does your luck favor. The Gators pulled the trigger after four years of his Florida tenure. Speaking at a news conference in Gainesville, Scott Stricklin said parting ways with Billy Napier after a 3-4 start came down to one thing –“we just weren’t winning at the level we needed to.” Now that Florida land in a sticky spot, here comes a national champion to take the Gators out of the crisis. 

Steve Spurrier is open to offering his opinion to help Stricklin find a new coach for Florida. And what better assurance for Stricklin and the Gators at the moment? Spurrier became the head coach at his alma mater, Florida, in 1990, compiling a 122-27-1 record over 12 seasons in “The Swamp.” He is the winningest coach in Florida’s history.

On the October 20th episode of the Another Dooley Noted Podcast, Pat Dooley said, “I will say this, your buddy Rick Neuheisel today, I was just listening to him coming in, he was saying what Scott Stricklin needs to do is bring Steve Spurrier in and ask him, ‘What should I do? What should I get?’”  And Spurrier gladly accepted but did not reveal his choice,  “If asked to help out a little bit, certainly I would try. But I don’t have any one particular guy, I say, ‘Go hire.’”

Maybe Spurrier was expecting Gators to show Napier the exit door. In the meantime, Florida must have arranged the fat check, worth $21 million, which is also the amount they owe Napier for firing him. Half is due within 30 days. But has Spurrier come up with his final list of probable coaches to take Florida out of this rabbit hole?

Not yet, since the screening process is going to be long. “There’s a lot of good ones out there, and whether or not some of these guys, I got it made right here, when I take a chance in Florida, all the rest of them are four-year jobs,” the former Florida coach said. “So I don’t know, but if asked to help out or make a suggestion, certainly to our AD, yeah, I would certainly do that.” 

Well, Florida is yet to pay off their last debt. They are still footing the bill for Dan Mullen, and once they hire a new head coach, they’ll again be paying three coaches at once, for the second time in seven years. Florida’s been here before with Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain, and Mullen. Maybe that’s what Florida AD meant when he said it was “not an easy decision” about getting rid of Napier. 

While the fans are yet to settle in with this setback, Lane Kiffin’s name has already been buzzing as the new Florida head coach. But an analyst does not seem to be okay with Kiffin switching programs. But why?

Risk factor for Lane Kiffin if he takes the path that leads to the Florida Gators

Sources told CBS Sports that Florida’s AD had already been checking in on Ole Miss coach Kiffin this season, well before Napier’s firing. However, it won’t be easy for the Gators to woo Kiffin. The reason?  At $9 million a year, Kiffin ranks as the 10th-highest-paid coach in the nation, and his next paycheck is only getting bigger, stay or go. 

“Of course I’ve been talking with Jimmy (Sexton) and I’m going to be proactive with working out a deal with Lane and Jimmy,” Ole Miss AD Keith Carter assured. Given that Florida is already bogged down by the Napier buyout burden, it might be a big roadblock to the Gators hiring Kiffin. And guess who stirred their pot more? CFB analyst Tom Luginbill. 

The analyst made an appearance on The Next Round podcast, that’s when he made things worse about Florida’s plan to woo Kiffin. “I wouldn’t want the job. I think when you look at this job, you look at it over the course of the last 15 years,” the analyst dropped a reality check. He added, “Don’t you have to start asking yourself what is wrong internally? Like, Dan Mullen, after one of the greatest program-building efforts in college football history, didn’t just go to Florida and take stupid pills. Billy Napier didn’t become a bad coach overnight. Urban Meyer goes 8-5 in his last year, and they fire him.” So, what’s the moral of the story?

If Lane Kiffin considers stepping into the Florida Gators, he will be getting a broken program with sharp edges and, in turn, will be bleeding out. However, here came contradictory advice from Paul Finebaum. Given that Penn State also has an empty seat to fill after firing James Franklin, Kiffin might be in a dilemma.  The analyst shared, “I like Florida, Matt, and it’s not because of the region of the country I’m from. It’s just that I have seen the development there. It’s not even the recruiting base anymore because that’s a misnomer. But I think the commitment there, maybe not dollar for dollar, because Penn State is very mighty, but you’re just playing in a better area of the country to me.” But all the chatter means nothing if Kiffin’s simply content right where he is.