Andy & Ari On3 - Florida FIRES Billy Napier | What's next for the Gators?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to a special breaking news edition of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Ben NGM. Florida has fired Billy Napier. We were pretty sure it was coming last night. I was at the game when Florida beat Mississippi State. It seemed like the end. Billy Napier sounded like a guy who knew it was probably over. It is over now. They have told Billy Napier, they have told the staff.

Starting point is 00:00:26 We're still waiting on some finer details as. such as who is the interim coach, but it is, it is over. Yeah, I mean, the way that you were describing on the show last night with the scene that you saw, taking pictures with the family and, you know, getting emotional in the news conference, I think that, you know, he knew whether someone told him or whether, you know, he put two and two together that this was the end of the road. And Andy, it's so interesting to finally be here because, like, it feels like we've been speculating about when this is going to happen.

Starting point is 00:00:56 Like, Billy Napier might be the, I don't know, at least from a perception standpoint, from my end, the longest hot, tenured hot seat coach in my recent memory, at least in terms of how long we were talking about when it could happen or what needs to do to avoid it. Like, it just seems like it took forever to get here. And he had ample opportunity to win his way out of it. It, you know, looked pretty good at times last year, second half of the year. Like, he might be able to find something. But, you know, with as much time as he had at Florida and being below 500, it just wasn't going to continue. So, It makes sense for Florida to do it.

Starting point is 00:01:32 The timing, you know, you can tell me what you think about that, but this is a change that had to be made. It is. And look, it probably should have been made last year. And they did pretty much make the decision to do it, and then they backed off of it. And they had a whole off season where, you know, you had the wins against LSU and Ole Miss.

Starting point is 00:01:54 They got everybody excited. And all of a sudden, You know, you had this excitement for an off, you know, through an off season, excitement for DJ Lagway, what he could be, excitement for this roster. And then it was just more of the same once they started playing. And I think the USF game was the one where you knew this is never going to work. When they lost the USF, when they're that disorganized, when they're that not ready to play, like you knew, this guy is a 500 coach. He's never going to be anything more than a 500 coach. And that is what he is.

Starting point is 00:02:27 So, there you know, and I wonder if that could have been avoided or he could have been a different type of coach had he done a better job of delegating responsibilities and not feeling like he had to be the one calling the plays. I do think that you do see coaches at times give up a pretty important and time consuming and just overall consuming responsibility on game day. And then it frees them up to think more level-headedly and to, you know, view the game from a higher vantage point, which maybe then, allows you to avoid 12 men on the field when you need to get a two-point conversion or any of the other countless mistakes that mirrored that one during his tenure. But, you know, Florida, as we know, is going to be an interesting cross-section because it is a program that demands and expects their head coach to make a team competitive enough to at least compete for a national title. We're also in the middle of a time in which the sport is changing dramatically and where

Starting point is 00:03:26 it finds itself on the pecking order of, you know, job sexiness, I think might be changing. Should those expectations be there? I don't know. That's going to be a philosophical discussion that's ongoing as this coaching search continues for the next week, months, whatever, how long or long it takes. But one thing is for sure. There's no question about it. You don't get four years at Florida now in the future and the past ever to be 500 or below 500. No, and that's the thing.

Starting point is 00:03:56 You've got plenty of time. This was, and the way this hire went. So he's hired to replace Dan Mullen. Dan Mullen was fired because he did not want to recruit at the level required to recruit to win national titles, which is interesting because it was right before the world change. And it's hard to say whether it would have been different had Mullen stuck, you know, had Mullen been able to stick around in the end.

Starting point is 00:04:25 NIL era. I don't know that it would have been that different. Because remember, Florida was really slow to react to the NIL era and Billy didn't do a great job with it at first either because you had the Jaden Rashada mess. Like Florida wasn't great at that. They got better at it as time went on and the roster got better. Like Billy made the roster that he was hired to make. He just couldn't coach it very well. Like Dan Mullen coached the team on the field the way that you need to to coach the team on the field, Billy Napier assembled the team the way you needed to assemble the team. The problem is Florida needs someone who can do both. And they haven't had that. Yeah. And like, too, you have said this a lot, and I think I agree with you about how he put

Starting point is 00:05:10 the roster in a position to be where it needed to be to be successful. And it's like, well, Dallas Wilson, you know, hasn't played much this year and certainly wasn't on the field when they were losing. DJ Lagway hasn't formed the level of what you thought he would. They've had injuries on the defensive line. You know, in terms of that, like they've gotten the right players on the roster, and I don't know if this falls under the coaching umbrella. I think game day decision-making and offensive play calling certainly are the biggest red exes on his resume right now. But in terms of development and getting the production from the players that you brought in,

Starting point is 00:05:47 I'm not sure he did that well at that either. So, yeah, these are out of his control. Like DJ getting hurt is out of his control. Ellis Wilson being hurt is out of his control. Caleb Banks getting hurt. Like, those, it's just bad luck. But the players on the field never play commensurate with their talent level. And I go, correct.

Starting point is 00:06:03 And that's the problem. Or if that's a during the week thing or a game day thing, I don't know what it is. But what I do know is that when Florida's on the field, even when they're playing teams that they have more talent then, they never seem to be dictating the tempo, the pace, the physicality, anything that's going on in the game. That's exactly right. And so Florida will go find a new coach. I know who everybody in Gainesville wants.

Starting point is 00:06:29 Well, we'll just say that right now. Everybody in Gainesville wants Lane Kiffin. The people in Gainesville think Lane Kiffin is going to get the job. I imagine Florida will offer the job to Lane Kiffin. I have no idea if Lane Kiffin will take the job because Lane Kiffin is coaching a team that is in the mix of the playoff hunt right now. Yeah. And that, I mean, like also timeline. Like when do you think Florida would want?

Starting point is 00:06:53 to have this done in a perfect well there's a season going on so after that no i understand that i didn't mean like next week but like do you think that they could do it after the regular season while other coaches are in the playoff or if they're in the playoff they're just completely out of the discussion point i don't know and that's the thing all of this is new because the the transfer portal rules have changed the portal doesn't open until january second now so you could wait and if you've if you've got a target who's in the playoff and you think they're going to lose in round one you could still have that coach in the office working for 10 days or 11 days before the transfer portal opens right so i don't think you have to have it done on thanksgiving weekend to get it done so it does free up and and look

Starting point is 00:07:51 This is not just a Florida discussion. This is a Penn State discussion. Right. We'll see what other jobs open. We don't know if Auburn's going to open. We don't know if Florida State's going to open, which is another conversation entirely. But it's going to be an interesting one. And obviously there are other names.

Starting point is 00:08:09 And we'll talk about other names that might want the job. Eli Drinkwitz, I think, would love to have the job. He's at Missouri now. He's also in the thick of a playoff race. Also, Jeff Brom at Louisville. is somebody I think they might be interested in talking to. I think if you are a responsible athletic director, whether you're Pat Kraft at Penn State or Scott Strickland at Florida,

Starting point is 00:08:31 you need to call Marcus Freeman and make him tell you know, which I think he will. I think he will tell you know, but you call him anyway, and you ask because that's the guy almost anybody would want. But Lane Kiffin is the one that I think Florida fans would want. Look, all Florida fans want is a spiritual success. to Steve Spurrier. They want a coach who wears a visor, scores points, and talks shit.

Starting point is 00:08:57 Now, I realize I am also talking about Eli Drenkowitz there, but Kiffin is the one that they've identified as their Holy Grail. Will McLean in the chat asked this question. Who's Lagway playing for next year? I have a little intel on this. DJ Lagway is willing to wait and find out who Florida's bringing in. I can tell you right now, DJ Lagway would play for Lane Kiffin. Can I ask a semi-offensive question? Sure. Has he played well enough for that to even be a thing? Well, that would be the question.

Starting point is 00:09:29 I mean, because if you hire Lane Kiffin or you hire Elyledger and Quitzer, you hire any of these names that we're mentioning, they're going to decide what quarterback they want to play for them. They're going to have their pick. They might bring somebody. So you understand that that's part of the drill, that when you hire this coach, that person is going to decide this stuff.

Starting point is 00:09:52 And so they may or may not decide they want DJ Laguer as their quarterback. Like there's no, it's not going to be Scott Strickland goes and talks to these coaches and says, you have to keep DJ Lagway. They don't care. They want to win football games. So they're going to hire somebody who they think will win them games. I know I just did it, Ari. I know I just called them football games.

Starting point is 00:10:14 But I don't interrupt you. I'm a nice guy. I appreciate that. they do not care. They don't care. Now, I think the better parts of this roster, the younger players on this roster, if you make the right higher, you're keeping them. Dallas Wilson.

Starting point is 00:10:31 Jaden Ball, Jaden Ball, by the way, the running back at Florida will be the hottest guy in a portal. That's an NFL running back. Yeah, he'll be the hottest running back in the portal if he goes in the portal. So Florida will try to keep him. so whoever gets hired he's one i can just say like because the quarterback's a little bit different that's every you know everybody wants their own flavor of quarterback every coach in his right mind wants jaden ball every coach in his right mind wants dallas wilson every coach in his right

Starting point is 00:11:01 mind wants miles graham the linebacker every coach in his right rind once vernell brown the third the the other freshman receiver who's very good like every coach in america wants a player like those guys so they will do whoever gets hired will do whatever they can to keep them Andy if you uh I'm gonna open myself up to potential ridicule because I'm not I just not very good at like remembering things like you without like researching it but what coaching change that's successful right now ever predicated on the roster talent that existed before the previous coach was fired everybody smart taking over for Mark Ricked I mean in the national championship oh well

Starting point is 00:11:42 players could just like leave. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And that's, no, it's not a stupid question at all. It's, it's, I'm glad you asked that because it's, it's kind of an audience surrogate type question, because you know the answer to it, Ari. You know exactly what's going on here. You know that it doesn't matter. Like, when fans worry about, oh, no, the whole roster's going to leave. Who cares? Like, when Tom Allen got fired at Indiana, who cared who left? Kurt Sighetti brought the people who mattered. And like, listen, Florida is a little bit different because the players that you just outlined is, all the coaches in their right mind will want them are kind of young, you know, so they have like, you know, those are like young. You notice I didn't mention any offensive linemen. Now they've got some, they've got some edge rushers like Cam James, L.J. McCrae, who's her right now, they've got a few good edge rushers that are young that I think they would love to keep if they can.

Starting point is 00:12:31 But like Caleb Banks, the defensive tackle, he's going to the NFL. Jake Slaughter, the center, he's going to the NFL. So they are going to have to, whoever comes in is going to have to really do some work on the roster. that you always say which is unequivocally true and like you know me i'm more uh romantic about holding onto and developing five star quarterbacks than you are but you always used to yell into the microphone there's always another quarterback and they can look around this year and it's like okay well the way the dj lagway's playing i don't know that this means that i think he won't ever be a great

Starting point is 00:13:00 player i still think that he could be um but are you telling me that whoever you coach if it or bring in as the new coach if it's the right guy can't go get fernando mendoza can't go get trinidad Chambliss, can't go get somebody to play the high level. It's not like Lagoe Luce Gainesville. The guy they want developed Austin Simmons and then Austin Simmons got hurt and he put in the D2 transferred Trinidad Chambliss. Who is now appearing on Heisman lists. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:13:27 Lori in the chat says, why would Lane want to go to Florida? Just more money? He seems to be enjoying himself. Lori wouldn't be more money. Florida and Ole Miss can pay exactly the same. That's the confusing part about this whole thing. If he goes, it's because he thinks the ceiling's higher. If he doesn't go, it's because the ceiling's not really higher.

Starting point is 00:13:44 Like, that's really all there is to it. And we kind of talked about this, but, like, what makes Lane Kiff and think the ceiling is higher, other than, like, what used to be the ceiling? Like, that's the thing that's so interesting. You can't get paid more. You've got it rolling pretty good at Ole Miss. Do you think that you could get better players to go to Florida that you can't get the Ole Miss?

Starting point is 00:14:01 Is it being closer to high school players? Like, I don't know. But, like, I don't know if it's an unequivocal fact that Florida has a higher ceiling than Ole Miss anymore. It was an unequivocal fact in 2020. I don't know if that's the case right now. And that's the other thing. You know, Lane Kiffin is the apple of Florida's eye.

Starting point is 00:14:17 And rightfully so, I mean, the guy is like, it feels like he is blossoming into like his peak self. You know, I know they lost on Saturday to Georgia, but like the posting of the hot yoga picture with a shirt off glistening in the, with the sick pack. And the thing that he did during the game where he was calling time out and then told the ref, you know, hey, I was just clapping like all those different things that he's doing. I understand the appeal of him, but I am so interested in this specific fact, Andy.

Starting point is 00:14:47 And maybe this will be true for whoever Florida hires because there's not a lot of options out there. But the guy that Florida is going to, you know, attempt to attach their future to has zero college football playoff appearances in his coaching tenure. And again, a large portion of that was because it was pre-NIL, Ole Miss, and it was more. difficult but like the savior of everyone's program go get lane kiffin because florida's not alone in this if florida state fires their coach they'll want lane kiffin if penn state is open auburn might open everybody wants lane kiffin and it's like i understand the appeal i certainly do i think that he has grown tremendously but i also feel like this idea that he is a slam dunk can't miss national championship level coach when the majority of his coaching tenure has not equated to that

Starting point is 00:15:38 is still kind of, and it's not like he's like a first year coach. He's been coaching for a long time. That multiple different places and different areas of the country, he's been in the SEC and granted, I know that Lane Kiffin today is not Tennessee Lane Kiffin and far from it. Like, I'm not trying to make that comparison. But when you look at it. Then who would you rather have if you're Florida?

Starting point is 00:15:55 I don't know if it's a who I would rather have. I think it is a. Okay, the job's open. You're Scott Strickland. You have to hire a human being to coach the team. Who are you hiring? I guess who would I rather have? in a in like being put on the spot maybe nobody okay like nobody nobody you'd rather have

Starting point is 00:16:15 over lane different right okay all right got you like the thing that i think is entirely possible is is that somebody who isn't going to be mentioned on this list right now will get hired by somebody else who will turn out to be the next kirby smart and like you're missing out on that because you're going after the person that is the sexiest name at the moment i do think limiting it to sitting power forehead coaches, which is probably what they will limit it to, does limit you. Because who are the best coaches in college football right now? Overall. Let's name the best coaches in college football.

Starting point is 00:16:50 Kirby Smart. Okay, he was the Alabama defensive coordinator. Who else? Ryan Day. He was the Ohio State offensive coordinator. Who else? You know, I actually think I would put maybe Eli in there. Eli Drinkwitz.

Starting point is 00:17:05 Okay. It was the Appalachian State head coach. That was a group of five head coach. Yeah. I'm trying to think of... Kaelin-Bore was a Washington head coach before this job. Was the Fresno State head coach before the Washington job. Dan Lending would be in that list.

Starting point is 00:17:16 Dan Laning was the Georgia defensive coordinator. Do you see where I'm going with this? Yeah, I do see where you're going with it, but I actually want to keep playing the game because I want to know where you would go after this. Like, go for it. Like, that's the amazing thing about this. Like, in the past,

Starting point is 00:17:29 you would have a head coaching vacancy, and there'd be like 27 names higher than or 27 sexy names out there that you can go hire and it's like when you're thinking about the best coaches in college football

Starting point is 00:17:40 I just Googled it Kirby Smart Ryan Day Davosweeney was not a hireable coach right now considering the way things are calling Dan Lanning

Starting point is 00:17:48 he was the Clemson wide receivers coach before he got the job so continue here are the ones that come up Brian Kelly he might get fired okay

Starting point is 00:17:57 Matt Campbell very interesting was the Toledo head coach before this job yeah yeah Kirk Farrant okay Okay. Needed discuss that one.

Starting point is 00:18:08 That's what you said. Okay. Brett Beelma, Josh Heipel, Jeff Brom, Kurt Signetti, Chris Kleiman, Kyle Winacham. Yeah. Yeah, I, none of those. So. Yeah. Yep. And he was the Alabama offensive coordinator. He'd been the USC head coach and the Washington head coach before that. I'm looking at the ESPN list and like three of the top 10 are like either going to get fired or could be fun.

Starting point is 00:18:36 Yeah. Well, the coach rankings are a tough, tough business as we learned. So, like, the people I'm talking about, like Will Stein in Oregon, the offensive coordinator, I think Will Stein is going to be a really good head coach. I could be wrong on this. But he exhibits the traits that you saw from Dan Lannning when he was a coordinator, that you saw from Kirby Smart when he was a coordinator, that you saw from Ryan Day when he was a coordinator. And so you feel like that's going to be a hit. Whoever hires him is going to be a hit.

Starting point is 00:19:08 And I can tell you right now, there's a really good chance that Will Stein is a power conference head coach next season because there are going to be so many jobs open. He's going to get one of them. He's one of those guys that if you interview him, you automatically make him a finalist because you'll very much love him. And that's the thing. Like if you were the czar of Florida football right now, would you take Lane Kipp? or would you take a shot at Will Stein? What do you think is a more prudent hire? They're talking to them both.

Starting point is 00:19:36 That's why I'm saying I would not limit my search. And I think our forehead coaches. And I think that's the point I was trying to make, which is Lane Kiffin is the layup. But I think there's probably a lot of hay to be made in taking a lot. Like that's the benefit of firing your coach on October 19th. You have at least some time to do a deeper, more well-thought-out search. I mean, like, hell, this is my work at Alabama.

Starting point is 00:20:00 but they hired Cailin DeBore in 48 hours after Nick Saban retired. That still blows my mind. Remember who the other person they were considering was? I remember very, very much so, especially today. Vance in the chat, asked North Carolina if they would prefer a deep search over hiring a huge name. Well, yeah, Vance, because North Carolina's athletic director, Bubba Cunningham, he had reached out to Matt Campbell. Now, Matt Campbell wasn't interested in the job, but John Sumral was. And John Somerall would have North Carolina competitive right now if he were their coach right now.

Starting point is 00:20:35 Right. So anyway, interesting, interesting dynamic. I know I saw some pushback, Andy, in the chat about me specifically saying that I'm not 100% sure that Florida is a better ceiling, higher ceiling job than Ole Miss. So help me out here. If Lane Kiffin were to take the Florida job outside of preconceived notions that exist in 2015, what does Florida offer? lane that Ole Miss can't. It's in Florida? Yeah, okay.

Starting point is 00:21:05 It's in Florida. Listen, I say that as someone who, are there palm trees? There's palm trees in my backyard, dude. You saw them this week. No, I say this is someone who lives here. I'm not going to pretend that it's a paradise that everybody in the world wants to move to. That's not true. But it is in Florida, and if he's always wanted to coach in Florida,

Starting point is 00:21:30 this is you know and he did coach in florida at florida but if he's always wanted to coach one of the big three in florida which a lot of coaches would like to do or have been you know desirous of doing then yeah this is also a person there it cannot be discounted by the way how many coaches idolize steve spurier lane kiffin's one of them kirby smarts one of them a lot of coaches grew up a lot of coaches of this generation, so that the ones that are in their, there are late 40s and early 50s now grew up wanting to be Steve Spurrier. So now you have a chance to go be Steve Spurier in the building where Steve Spurier works still and has a statue out front and the field is named after. You are kind of making the point that I'm making, though, because it's a past.

Starting point is 00:22:23 I know, I know. No, not the past. It's just like the things that you think are sales pitches to Lane Kiffin are specifically detailed to somebody who wants to live in the state of Florida. I'm talking about program-wide. But that person is Lane Kiffin. Yeah. If it was somebody else who didn't want to live in the state, if it's Matt Campbell,

Starting point is 00:22:42 who doesn't give a crap about living the state of Florida, that's not the pitch. Yeah. Right. Well, so pretend like it's me. I'm the next head coach of Florida. I coach at Ole Miss right now. I'm from Scottsdale, Arizona. Tell me what you can do for me that Ole can't.

Starting point is 00:22:59 You are going to be closer to more players, and I get this, no, no, you're going to push back on this. Because it doesn't matter now, because you can just pay them. Like, I can't make this argument, Ari. But I do, but I do think that that is. But no, I'm not going to push too hard back on that because I do think that proximity to talent. Like, listen, I don't care how much you pay. Because I, I'm the one, I'm the one who says it's my alma mater and I live here. And I like living here.

Starting point is 00:23:24 But I also think you can win the national title at Ole Miss. Yeah. It's not that Florida, 10 years ago, Florida, you could win a national title at Ole Miss. You couldn't. Now, Ole Miss leveled up. It's not like Florida went wrong. I think the whole sport leveled up. I mean, hell, what if Indiana wins the national title this year?

Starting point is 00:23:40 Right. Like, doesn't it completely throw every single big job that we've preconceived as huge jobs into a blender? I mean, like, Vandy is in a position to win the SEC this year. So, but I do think this, I want to put this on record, that at least being closer to the place, players in the state is still probably a 20% more likely to get that player. Like even if you pay a player a lot of money, they still care about, you know, representing their home. They still care about playing close and being close to their families, you know,

Starting point is 00:24:13 like being in the proximity to all those good players. And also Gainesville is every bit of close to Atlanta, right, is Ole Miss. I mean, maybe a little bit further away. It's a lot closer to Atlanta. It's a lot closer to Atlanta. Gainesville is a five-hour drive from Atlanta. How far is Ole Miss from Atlanta? Isn't it like six, seven hours?

Starting point is 00:24:30 I think it would be considerably more than that. Okay. Might be like eight. Join our show on Monday as Andy continues to teach me geography in the south. But Sailor Joe, I'm going to read this one. Then I'm not making fun of you, Sailor Joe. I just want you guys to understand something. So Sailor Joe says, Gus Malzahn, he's been an SEC head coach before.

Starting point is 00:24:51 He's down the road. He outschemed Alabama week one. Is that enough? Truly, who's your top prediction? My top prediction is Lane Kiffin. I'm telling you that's who they're going to go after. I don't know if he's going to take it, but that's who they're going after.

Starting point is 00:25:02 No, Gus Malzon would not be on the list. Gus Malzin was going to get fired at UCF, and he bailed them out by leaving for the Florida State OC job, which he's not doing very well at right now. Like the state staff, yeah, the Florida State staff may be getting fired here soon. So, no, don't just go with the name you know. I spent five years with everybody asking me,

Starting point is 00:25:28 how come Les Miles isn't getting a job? Because Les Miles couldn't coach anymore. And then they hired him at Kansas, and they found out, guess what? He can't coach anymore. And just like here or here for the first time or the only time you're here. Urban Meyer is in that category as well.

Starting point is 00:25:42 So you can drop that whole routine too, because that's going to be a name that pops up. He's not going to be coaching, I don't think, this year. Nor do I think he's equipped to. So, yeah. I think that we need to stop clinging to the past and the regular success stories that we remember from our past and start to envision the future because I think that North Carolina is getting a nice little lesson on what clinging to the past looks like. I think Kansas did when they got less miles. I mean, other retread hires, like Arizona didn't do great with Sumlin, like people who just like go at like Herm Edwards at Arizona State, like all these like names that were sexy or interesting when they get hired at their college places end up like ending in complete dumpster fires.

Starting point is 00:26:24 And I think that, like, you know, in the NIL era, you just need to get a coach, you know how to eye talent, a person that knows that to coordinate and spend the right amount of money on the right players. And maybe a coach that can bring some guys with them. Right. Exactly. So Florida interim, by the way, Billy Gonzalez, the receivers coach. He has worked at Florida under Urban Meyer, under Dan Mullen, and under Billy Napier,

Starting point is 00:26:46 multiple tenures at Florida, understands the place, understands the institution, does not call plays, so you're not forcing someone who would be calling plays to also assume the head coaching duties. The defensive play caller will remain Ron Roberts. The offensive play caller will be Russ Callow. Who is the offensive coordinator, but a name only when Billy Napier was the coach. Now Billy Napier is not the coach. He's not the play caller. Russ Callow. Russ Callow, will call play. So Russ Callow, now you get your Jerry Newheisel moment. So see what you can do with that. Yeah. And also wonder if Florida comes out and pops offensively that would just be a real kick on the knackers it would be but it would get these guys

Starting point is 00:27:27 some jobs that are really good down the road because yeah i'm telling you right now there's a lot of jobs opens everybody's got opportunities here so now's your opportunity the rest of the year and then we'll see what florida does to replace billy napier because that obviously is the next huge question and we'll be talking about it probably for the next couple months Thanks.

Andy & Ari On3 - Florida FIRES Billy Napier | What's next for the Gators?

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