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    • Florida’s Billy Napier is nearing the end after losing to Georgia
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    Florida’s Billy Napier is nearing the end after losing to Georgia

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    JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Don’t put this on an injured quarterback. Don’t give Billy Napier that excuse.

    What unfolded here at the world’s largest cocktail party could have happened just about any other week, in any of the three dysfunctional and chaotic seasons under Napier.

    This just included a potential season-ending injury to Florida freshman quarterback DJ Laway, the last hope to stem the error-filled train of misery.

    But it’s over now. Nothing will come back from this.

    Not because of the 34-20 loss to Georgia, a game that the nation’s No. 2 team — the king of college football since 2021 — begged to give away. Not through another loss riddled with coaching errors, including, yes, another special teams disaster.

    Not because of a bizarre and incomprehensible play call with the game on the line, not because of a season that is now headed toward another ugly end.

    Not because of Lagway’s untimely injury, and not because backup Aidan Warner found himself in an untenable situation against the Boogeyman of college football.

    “We had our team in position to win the game,” Napier said.

    Until the Gators didn’t anymore. Until the same confusing issues that plagued Napier’s teams resurfaced.

    Look, this isn’t easy. With a healthy Lagway, Florida might have had its biggest win under Napier, and the momentum could have carried the Gators to a big second half of the season — and Napier to 2025 and another season to find out.

    But coaching college football is a brutal endeavor that ends in unemployment for almost every coach. No matter how close you are to turning it around.

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    At some point, a coach is judged on the totality of his tenure, and not on a game of what-ifs, or what could have been if this player or that player (or a handful of defensive backs) didn’t get hurt. There’s nothing fair about coaching football when you make $8 million a year doing it.

    It’s over for Napier at Florida, because by the time this season ends later this month, Florida will have played a brutal number of games against Texas, LSU and Ole Miss with a third-string, walk-on quarterback. Even if the Gators beat a pathetic Florida State team, that would put Napier at 16-21 in three seasons in Gainesville.

    It’s over now, because in major college football you either do everything you can to get better or you accept your fate.

    The Gators have lost 18 of 33 games under Napier, and the majority of the previous 17 losses came with a quarterback who was a top-five pick in the NFL draft (Anthony Richardson), and a quarterback who had a career season (Graham Mertz ). ). Don’t allow that lagway excuse.

    Florida is now 1-10 in rivalry games (Georgia, Florida State, Tennessee), and 2-13 vs. ranked teams below Napier. If this game wasn’t big enough, think about last month’s Tennessee debacle.

    Late in the first half, Florida had a field goal negated because it was penalized for having too many players on the field. Those three points were the difference in a game that the Gators ultimately lost in overtime.

    Mike Leach had a sign in his office everywhere he coached, perfectly placed so that every assistant coach could see it every time they entered the room.

    You coach it, or you allow it.

    This is where we are with Florida government. You expect excellence, or you allow mediocrity.

    You either demand more, or you accept a fourth straight losing season for the first time since the 1940s.

    You either expect your head coach – whose offense had a clear run-ball advantage against Georgia, weakening the Bulldogs’ defense – to run the ball, or you allow him to put the game in Warner’s hands. with four minutes to play and trailing by seven.

    The play call, on the first play of the drive: a naked bootleg.

    The result: an interception.

    This is much more than a bad play call. Any coach in that situation, whose team has successfully run the ball against eight- and nine-man boxes all game, simply cannot put the game in the hands of a walk-on quarterback. It’s coaching malpractice.

    It’s not fair to Warner, who transferred from Yale and only started taking meaningful practice snaps this week, staring at Georgia rush ends Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams — and telling him to play at the biggest point in the game. .

    It’s not fair to a defense that was intercepted three times by Georgia quarterback Carson Beck and consistently came off the field on third down. It’s not fair to an offensive line — which has finally developed some consistency in the final month of the season and is dominating the line of scrimmage — to take the game out of their hands.

    It’s not fair to running backs Jacobi Jackson and Jaden Baugh, who combined for 138 yards rushing on 29 carries (4.8 yards per carry) while running hard against those eight- and nine-man boxes.

    There is nothing fair about coaching college football. Either you win or you end up getting fired. However you parse it.

    “For the first time since I’ve been head coach here, we showed up and we believed we could beat that team,” Napier said.

    You expect excellence, or you accept mediocrity.

    Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Network. Follow him on X @MattHayesCFB.

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