10 Florida Football Coaching Candidates After Billy Napier’s Dismissal

The Florida Gators beat Mississippi State in Week 8, but that hardly mattered in Gainesville. Florida’s athletic administration made the decision to move on from head coach Billy Napier, supposedly following a great deal of kicking and screaming from top donors who were begging for a change.

That’s a tough out for Napier, who seemed to be a permanent resident of college football hot seat lists. Florida was 2-4 against FBS opponents this year, but five of the six are currently ranked in the AP Top 25. 

The Gators beat Texas this year. Does the administration care about that? Apparently not. 

As long as Florida looks in the mirror and sees a top-10 program, and expects its coaches to deliver top-10 results, the job in Gainesville will continue to be a turnstile. 

But regardless of how unrealistic the expectations might be at Florida, it’s still an SEC job. That means most of the names on this list will have to take a job offer seriously, if one happens to appear. 

Lane Kiffin

The primary scuttlebutt around Gainesville even before Napier’s dismissal was that Florida boosters want Lane Kiffin and Lane Kiffin wants Florida.

I would expect that Kiffin would interview for the job, even if he’s only using it for leverage from Ole Miss.

Jon Sumrall

Sumrall won the Sun Belt at Troy and upgraded to Tulane after two seasons. Now it’s Year 2 at Tulane, and he has the Green Wave in the hunt for a College Football Playoff berth.

It wouldn’t be shocking to see him move on after another two-year stint at a top G5 program. Sumrall will be on a lot of coaching lists, so the better question is actually if he prefers Florida over the other potential jobs that could be open this cycle. 

Jamey Chadwell

Chadwell has been in a shortlisted name for a P4 job for some time now, but he’s been seemingly cooling his heels at a well-funded Liberty program while waiting for the right job to open. 

Is Florida the right program for Chadwell to cast his lot with? It would make sense regionally, at least, as Chadwell has spent his entire career in the southeast. (Lynchburg is actually the farthest north he’s ever coached.)

Jedd Fisch

Fisch earned his current job at Washington after an outstanding 2023 season at Arizona. The Huskies haven’t been bad since then, but they certainly haven’t punched anywhere near the top of the Big Ten, which has taken some of the shine off Fisch as a potential coaching candidate.

None of that will likely matter in the context of Florida. Fisch is a 1998 graduate of Florida who also worked as a GA with Steve Spurrier at the start of his coaching career. I’m not quite sure Fisch has done enough to merit consideration for a difficult SEC head coaching job like this, but his specific ties to the university should get him in the door for a serious interview. 

Joe Brady

I am convinced that no one will ever dine out on one year of great work more than Joe Brady will after his season with Joe Burrow and LSU in 2019.

Kenny Dillingham

Kenny Dillingham has to have put himself on every coaching candidate board after his breakout season last year with Arizona State. But as an alum of ASU, who clearly loves his alma mater, the position and compensation package would have to be quite large to lure Dillingham away. 

GJ Kinne

GJ Kinne is one of the young, offensively gifted up-and-comers in college football. Now in Year 3 at Texas State, with the Bobcats set to start playing in a West Coast conference in the near future, Kinne might be looking for a raise and a promotion.

The question that few will ask: Are we overrating the guy who’s never finished better than second in the Sun Belt’s top-heavy Western division?

Rhett Lashlee

Florida needs an offensive coach that can take advantage of all the great in-state Florida talent. Lashlee, who was the OC at Miami before he became the head coach at SMU, would be a better-than-average candidate to take the reins.

Of course, that would require Lashlee leaving his well-paid job at a private school where the fans have modest expectations. He might not be that stupid. 

Tyson Helton

Western Kentucky head coach Tyson Helton played quarterback for the University of Houston, but he was born and raised in Gainesville. He’s also been at WKU since 2019, which is an eternity by today’s G5 coaching standards. 

If he’s ready to cash in on his excellent work with the Hilltoppers, he’d be welcomed home as a native son. Knowing Gators fans, that’d probably buy him an extra year in troubled waters. 

Tim Tebow

They wouldn’t, right? No, they wouldn’t.

They wouldn’t. 

Right?

Florida Football Coaching Candidates

• Lane Kiffin
• Jon Sumrall
• Jamey Chadwell
• Jedd Fisch
• Joe Brady
• Kenny Dillingham
• GJ Kinne
• Rhett Lashlee
• Tyson Helton
• Tim Tebow