After ‘Canes thrash Gators, Billy Napier’s hot seat is now flaming chair of condemnation | Commentary

The Florida Gators haven’t lost a season-opening game at home since 1989 when, coincidentally, the coach back then – Galen Hall – was fired four games later.

This is not to say Billy Napier will be fired as UF’s coach anytime soon, but Saturday’s humiliating 41-17 season-opening blowout loss to the 19th-ranked Miami Hurricanes at the Swamp certainly didn’t instill much confidence that Napier’s team will be any better this year than it’s been in his first two losing seasons at UF.

“Miami outplayed us and they outcoached us,” a disappointed Napier said afterward. “It’s embarrassing to be quite honest. That’s how I feel and that’s how our kids feel. There are no excuses. We need to keep our mouths shut and show up, go to work and get better. We’ve got to get it fixed. We’ve still got a lot of football ahead of us. The sun will come up tomorrow.”

Yes, the sun will definitely come up in Gainesville,  but unfortunately it will just increase the temperature under Napier’s already-simmering hot seat. Personally, I thought all of the “hot seat” speculation about Napier was premature coming into the season, but now I’m starting to think he needs to invest in some fire-retardant coaching britches.

This game was essentially a referendum on the two coaches – Napier and Miami’s Mario Cristobal – who were hired within eight days of each other in December of 2021 to revive catatonic programs.

With both coaches beginning their third season Saturday, it appears the Hurricanes have finally risen from the dead under Cristobal while the Gators are still comatose under Napier.

After the cringe-worthy skull-buffing the Gators suffered at the hands of the the Canes, there is no other way to say it: Cristobal’s program is light years ahead of Napier’s at this point. If both programs were cars, Cristobal has transformed the Canes into sleek and powerful Lamborghini. Napier puttered and sputtered out onto the field Saturday in the Beverly Hillbillies’ old jalopy of a truck.

Miami’s offense line was better than Florida’s. Miami’s defensive line was better than Florida’s. And, oh my, Miami’s quarterback was much more dynamic than Florida’s.

Miami’s Cam Ward looked like the second coming of Charlie Ward. Florida’s Graham Mertz looked like the second coming of Fred Mertz.

Mertz, who is entering his second season in Napier’s system, dinked and dunked his way to 11 completions in 20 attempts for 91 yards and no touchdowns before leaving late in the third quarter with a concussion. Meanwhile, Ward, the marquee transfer from Washington State, was spreading and shredding UF’s defense by completing 25-of-33 passes for 385 yards and three touchdowns.

Ward was tossing 35-yard downfield darts to his wide receivers while Florida’s best receiver Tre Wilson was catching bubble screens behind the line of scrimmage, trying to dodge a minefield of Miami defenders in hopes of gaining 5 yards.

On one play in the third quarter, Ward escaped pressure, rolled left and rifled a perfect strike across the field to Jacolby George in the back of the end zone for a 23-yard touchdown. Escapability, accuracy and arm strength all on display in one amazing play.

By the time, the traditional playing of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” blared throughout the Swamp at the outset of the fourth quarter, the Gators trailed 38-10 and another Tom Petty song seemed more appropriate: “Even the Losers.”

Petty also sang a song called, “Making Some Noise” and you better believe there will now be – as embattled former Gators coach Ron Zook used to call it – a cacophony of “noise in the system” moving forward.

This was the one outcome Napier could not afford. A victory over the Canes in the home opener would have been awesome. A close loss would have been acceptable. But suffering the worst season-opening home loss in history and getting embarrassed in front of a sellout home crowd of 90,554 turns Napier’s hot seat into a flaming chair of condemnation.

Not only does Napier once again have to deal with the noxious negativity of angry fans, he’s also having to deal with the passive-aggressive sniping of his UF predecessor, Dan Mullen.

After Florida’s loss on Saturday, Mullen retweeted a social media post from a fan who wrote: “The Florida coach who got fired went to three consecutive New Year’s Six games in his first three seasons. And was let go in his fourth season.”

It’s looking more and more like Napier is a great coach Sunday through Friday; a good man who has instilled discipline and structure in a program that was bereft of talent and character when he took over from Mullen. But, eventually, there has to be some progress on the scoreboard.

This is Napier’s sixth straight loss dating back to last season and he is now 2-10 against ranked teams at UF. Even more troublesome is that this performance came after Napier overhauled his program during the offseason, hiring a new defensive coordinator, a new special teams coordinator, a new head nutritionist and a new strength and conditioning coach.

Granted, this is only the first game of the season, but the problem is that Miami was supposed to be one of the more winnable games on a brutal UF schedule filled with eight ranked teams, a demanding conference slate and non-conference itinerary that includes UM, UCF and FSU.

Opening the season with such an embarrassing loss is the absolute worst-case scenario for a man who is fighting for his coaching survival.

Can the Gators pick up the pieces and put them back together for a thrilling comeback or is Billy Napier’s career about to make a crash landing?

Email me at moc.lenitnesodnalro@ihcnaibm. Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen