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Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier gestures towards the sidelines during fall football practice at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, August 5, 2023. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]
Florida head coach Billy Napier is on top of USA TODAY Sports’ list of the most overpaid head coaches in the country.
At the midway point of Year 3 under Napier, the Gators are 14-17 overall and could be headed for a third-straight losing season. Napier is set to earn $7,370,000 this year, according to USA TODAY Sports’ annual analysis of coaches’ compensation, and the math works out to about $1 million per win so far.
Those kinds of results are not acceptable at the University of Florida and usually mean a change is coming. Many believe this will be Napier’s last season with the Gators, which shifts the focus to buyout numbers.
To fire Napier without cause — no, losing a bunch of games in the SEC is not enough to fire someone with cause — it would cost Florida $26,704,167. Keep in mind that Florida would also have to fork over some big bucks to find a suitable replacement for Napier, but that’s never stopped the boosters in the past. After all, this is the SEC — where “it just means more.”
It appears the only path for Napier to save his job is beating the two remaining unranked opponents on the schedule — Florida State and Kentucky — and pulling off an upset against Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss or Texas to reach bowl eligibility. Even then, the athletic department could decide to move on.
Other overpaid head coaches
Napier isn’t the only SEC head coach on this list. Second-year Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze is right behind him after starting off 2-4 following a losing 2023 season.
Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell is third on the list, and there’s a clear trend developing. Napier…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/usa-today-sports-deems-billy-181334319.html
Author : Gators Wire
Publish date : 2024-10-16 18:13:34
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