Scott Stricklin confirms his commitment to Billy Napier as Gators HC

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Amid outside calls for the Florida Gators To become head coach Billy Napier’s successor, UF athletic director Scott Stricklin confirmed his commitment to the third-year head coach in a letter to Gator Nation on Thursday.

You can read Stricklin’s full statement below:

“Gator Nation,

I wanted to let you know that Billy Napier will continue as head football coach of the Florida Gators.

As we have seen in recent weeks, the young men on this team represent what it means to be a Gator. Their determination, effort and execution are evident in their performance and growth each week – building a foundation that promises greater success next season and beyond.

UF’s commitment to excellence and a championship-caliber program is unwavering. During these times of change in college athletics, we are committed to a disciplined, steady approach focused on long-term success for Gator athletes, recruits and fans.

I am confident that Billy will meet the challenges and opportunities ahead. We will work with him to support any changes necessary to take Gator football to the next level. As college athletics evolve, UF is committed to embracing innovation and strategy to ensure the Gators thrive in today’s competitive landscape.

Gator Nation has stayed strong and showed up game after game to support our team. This loyalty creates an incredible environment that inspires our players to compete with heart and determination. Now I call on all of Gator Nation to continue to stand behind Billy and his dedicated team as we work together to build a championship program.

Go Gators!

Scott Stricklin”

Stricklin’s message comes as Florida sits at 4-4 in Napier’s third season following a 34-20 loss to rival Georgia. Napier is now 15-18 as head coach of the Gators. After a 1-2 start to the season with big losses to Miami and Texas A&M at home, fans seemingly turned against the program’s leadership due to a lack of competitiveness.

If Florida had fired Napier, UF would have owed him nearly $26 million in buyout money, which was reportedly ready after the Texas A&M game. Reports following the loss indicated that an informal meeting of the Board of Directors would take place that Sunday.

Napier remained, however, and on the Monday after the loss to the Aggies he said he had not had any conversations with university leadership about his future as head coach and that his focus was on improving week to week.

“Those are all hypothetical scenarios,” he said at the time. “I think for me, I’m going to try to model what I would expect from our players, okay? Some of those things that I just talked about, I think that’s the whole key. As a staff and throughout the organization, we have us to do our part in modeling what we would expect from the players and want from the players.

“And that for me is a total focus on the next opportunity to improve. We’re going to put the game to bed today from Saturday, and then it’s about doing my very best to prepare the team to play next Saturday .”

Since then, Florida has turned a corner with a 3-2 record, and the two losses were against top-10 teams in the Gators’ clutches. In overtime against Tennessee, Florida had plenty of chances to score in the first half, but red zone blunders and a special teams foul required points on the board.

Last week against Georgia, Florida led 10-3 in the second quarter with a chance to go to overtime, but a hamstring injury to quarterback DJ Lagway stifled the offensive unit, which still managed to tie the game in the fourth quarter.

The return of competitiveness cooled the outside noise against Napier. However, a 2025 recruiting class currently outside the national top-50, in addition to what could be a third straight losing season under current leadership, remains at the forefront of anti-Napier minds.

The Gators travel to No. 5 Texas on Saturday before back-to-back home games against ranked opponents in LSU and Ole Miss. Florida ends the regular season in Tallahassee against bowl-ineligible FSU.