It was all part of the plan. At some point during this lost season for the Florida Gators, it became apparent to athletic director Scott Stricklin and the school's big-pocketed boosters that it was time to move on from Billy Napier. His fate was already decided before Florida beat Mississippi State by two points at home last week. The date he sealed his fate may never be known, but it happened...
Yes, it seems a little cruel for Florida to move on from Napier after a win, but the process to do so was already in motion. To be quite frank, it had to have been the combination of the back-to-back losses to South Florida and LSU that did him in. It was all about finding the right date to pull the trigger. That date came on Sunday when he became the sixth Power Four head coach to be out of work this year.
So why then? Well, Florida was about to be on a bye week, right before its annual affair with Georgia in The Cocktail Party down in Jacksonville. With Georgia looking like every bit a playoff lock right now, Napier's termination was done to avoid another huge embarrassing failure for him and the Florida program. Of all the bad losses he had leading of Florida, Napier always saved his worst for Georgia.
By moving on from him, Florida can miraculously convince itself it has a snowball's chance on Nov. 1.
Florida puts forth desperate attempt to avoid fifth straight loss to UGA
With Billy Gonzales taking over in the interim, Florida now has two weeks to get ready for the Dawgs. They may have a loose construct of an advantage on the threat of a surprise, but we all know who the better team is coming in here. Georgia is the No. 5 team in the country at 6-1 overall and 4-1 in SEC. Florida has lost games to Miami, South Florida, LSU and Texas A&M. Georgia is a massive favorite...
While betting lines are still a week away, ESPN's matchup predictor has Georgia expected to win this game 80.1-percent of the time. UGA was expected to beat Ole Miss at home roughly 70-percent of the time last week. So now that we have come to the realization that the Napier era of Florida football is no more, let's now unpack just for a second why this was always the game he would be missing out.
In his first three years in charge of the Gators, Napier would far too often try something cute in the middle of The Cocktail Party before it blew up in his face like a Molotov Cocktail. One of the losses to Georgia came when he tried to do some ridiculous fourth-down run play in the backfield and Georgia ate that poor Gator alive. We all remember Brock Bowers' second greatest play in a Georgia uniform.
At the end of the day, The Cocktail Party has often been a game where two things hold true. Expect the unexpected, and prepare for the worst when your head coach's head is in the clouds. Mark Richt once started Faton Bauta in this game. There was also that crazy 2007 game where the entire team celebrated UGA's first touchdown of the day. It can go both ways for either team, but never to Napier...
Georgia may lose this rivalry once again at some point in the future, but Napier never won this one.