Florida's Top HC Targets After Billy Napier Reportedly Fired amid $21M Contract Buyout

Penn State is no longer the only major program looking for a head coach.

Florida fired head coach Billy Napier on Sunday, per Chris Vannini of The Athletic. ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Napier's contract buyout is for more than $21 million. What's more, $9.7 million of that is due within the next 30 days with the rest to be paid out into 2028.

While the Gators still have five games remaining this season, three of which come against rivals Georgia, Tennessee and Florida State, attention now turns to the long-term future and finding the right answer at coach.

After all, this program has fallen from the days when it was an annual national title contender under Urban Meyer and needs to find the correct leader to turn things around in the daunting SEC.

With that in mind, here is a look at some top targets.

Lane Kiffin

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Perhaps Lane Kiffin decides he wants to continue building things at Ole Miss after leading the program to double-digit wins in three of his first five seasons. The Rebels are also once again in position to win double-digit games this year with a 6-1 start even with Saturday's loss to Georgia.

But Florida needs to at least gauge his interest.

He would be a home-run hire for the Gators given his familiarity with the conference, success and ability to maximize quarterback-driven offenses. He also arrived at Ole Miss after the program went 20-28 the previous four years and quickly turned things around to put the team in College Football Playoff contention.

Florida hasn't won double-digit games since 2019 and would expect a similarly quick turnaround given its overall history and program prestige.

Kiffin already did it at Ole Miss. There's no reason to think he couldn't do it at Florida as well.

Eli Drinkwitz

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Kiffin isn't the only coach who engineered a turnaround at an SEC program and should catch the eye of the Gators.

Eli Drinkwitz got off to a slow start during his first three seasons at Missouri but led the Tigers to an 11-2 campaign in 2023 and 10-3 effort in 2024. That 2023 season included a high-profile Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State.

The Tigers are in the middle of the CFP discussion this season as well with a 5-1 record with the only loss coming by just three points against powerhouse Alabama. There are still challenges ahead with games against Vanderbilt, Texas A&M and Oklahoma, but they control their own destiny in the race for the CFP.

To be in such discussions after Missouri was a combined 77-63 in its first 11 years in the SEC is a testament to Drinkwitz's ability to build a program through recruiting and impressive coaching against high-level competition.

Like Kiffin at Ole Miss, hiring Drinkwitz would be a win-win for Florida because it would add a successful coach who can turn things around all while hurting a conference rival that would then need to scramble to find a replacement all while focusing on things such as the transfer portal and recruiting.

James Franklin

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Florida fans might not want to hear James Franklin as a candidate after the former Penn State coach went 4-21 against top-10 teams during his tenure with the Nittany Lions.

But he would still be an excellent hire.

After all, you don't go 104-45 in 12 years at Penn State if you are not a talented program builder. He found plenty of success on the recruiting trail and won double-digit games in each of the last three seasons before he was fired.

The Nittany Lions reached the CFP semifinals last season before losing by three points to Notre Dame in a game that could have gone either way. Yes, it was another high-profile loss against a top-10 team. But it was also a destination the Gators have been nowhere close to reaching in recent years.

Franklin even reached three straight bowl games during his three seasons at Vanderbilt, so he is familiar with coaching in the SEC. That the Commodores made one bowl game in the previous 28 years before he arrived underscores how quickly he established a winning team during that stop.

He is accustomed to coaching under the bright lights of a major program from his time at Penn State and may be even more motivated to prove doubters wrong after his firing.

The Gators could do far worse than Franklin.