Florida football: Billy Napier contract details carry big expectations
By Ethan Lee
The Florida football program has decided to pay its brand new head coach a large sum of money. Will Billy Napier live up to expectations?
With the way college football coaches are paid these days, it shouldn’t be a shocker that the new Florida football coach would receive a fairly ridiculous sum of money. According to a report from Mark Long of The Associated Press, Billy Napier has agreed to a deal that will pay the new Florida head coach $51.8 million across seven years.
Napier will make well over $7 million a season with his new job. That’s a pretty good deal for him, all things considered.
AP source: New Gators coach Billy Napier got a 7-year, $51.8M contract that makes him the 5th- highest-paid coach in the SEC. Napier will make $7.1M in his first season and will get a $100K raise annually before each of the remaining six years
— Mark Long (@APMarkLong) December 5, 2021
But something Napier should consider is the expectations that come with a contract like this at a job like Florida.
Florida football: Billy Napier is reportedly the fifth-highest paid coach in the SEC
The Gators head coaching vacancy appeared because Napier’s predecessor, Dan Mullen, wasn’t able to bring a championship trophy to Gainesville.
Mullen was generally successful (outside of this season) and wasn’t really having any major issues that hindered his program (outside of his own inability to really recruit at a high level), but Florida wanted championships.
Mullen couldn’t deliver them. At least not in the four seasons he was there. He did get Florida to the SEC Championship Game in 2020 and the Gators provided the Crimson Tide a tough test. The Gators were also close to being in the College Football Playoff discussion.
But close to beating Alabama and being close to making the College Football Playoff wasn’t good enough.
Florida fans want more than that.
The Gators paid Mullen as if he was a championship coach and he never won anything. Now, Napier is also being paid like a championship coach. He will need to deliver on that. That might be tricky with Alabama and Georgia also contending for titles.
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