5 teams doing cartwheels in the streets after Florida took Billy Napier off hot seat

Up to this point, no Power Four job has opened up just yet in college football. One job many people thought would become available was the one in Gainesville. But after losing the Cocktail Party to bitter rival Georgia last week for the fourth year in a row, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin promptly removed embattled head coach Billy Napier from the hot seat. It was a controversial decision to make, but it was clearly the right call.

Napier has Florida at 4-4 with an outside shot at a bowl game. More importantly, he has his team playing hard amid a myriad of injuries, and despite going up against one of the hardest regular-season schedules I have ever seen covering this great sport of ours. To me, it would have been cruel to fire him after this season. He may not be the best head coach for them long-term, but this year was an impossible ask, and freshman QB DJ Lagway gives reason for hope in the future.

But enough about Florida. Every potential opening is another team's potential threat, so instead, let's turn our attention to five marquee college football programs that should be over the moon that the Gators job did not open up. Because had it become available, all of their head coaches would have been interesting candidates for the gig. Now that the Florida job is not coming open, we have to wonder if any other marquee jobs could get them to leave, or if their ADs can breathe easy for another year.

Let's start with the best offseason candidate we thought was surely going to replace Napier in 2025.

5. Washington Huskies

Jedd Fisch was arguably the most popular candidate to replace Napier heading into this season. Fisch may have just taken a job at Washington after having had great success at Arizona previously, but keep in mind that he was not hired by Huskies AD Pat Chun. Washington has run through athletic directors like the late Larry King did wives in the wake of Jennifer Cohen having left for USC to replace Mike Bohn.

You don't even know how much I thought Fisch to Florida was a foregone conclusion. I wondered if he was even going to unpack his suitcase. It does rain in Seattle quite a bit, and nothing cramps the vibes of a Florida man than a rain-soaked visor. Unfortunately for Fisch, he has had a slew of difficulties at U-Dub this season. Replacing Kalen DeBoer has been hard, and their Big 10 debut has been up and down so far.

At 5-4, Washington needs one more win to achieve bowl eligibility. The only problem is two of their final three games are vs. likely College Football Playoff teams in one-loss Penn State and undefeated bitter rival Oregon. Washington probably needs to beat UCLA in its other game to get to six wins. Fisch is a good head coach, but the timing of it all might delay him a bit from coming home.

Regardless, keep an eye on Fisch being a real candidate to replace Napier in 2026, 2027 or beyond.

4. South Florida Bulls

This one is a bit of a reach, but hear me out. I see what Alex Golesh is doing in Tampa leading the South Florida Bulls. We may have overstated them as a serious Group of Five contender out of the AAC this year, but he is already doing something that was impossible for his predecessor Jeff Scott, which is actually winning games at USF. Golesh is the greatest Josh Heupel disciple after all!

Regardless of whether USF ends up getting back to a bowl game again, I would venture to guess that he is the ideal target for a program like Florida to conceivably poach out of the Group of Five. He is an Ohio State alum who has worked all over the southeast, from UCF to Tennessee to now at South Florida. He knows how to recruit the area, and the Heupel system has proven to be successful in the SEC already.

The good news for South Florida fans is we still may be a year away from being a year away for Golesh to get a Power Four job. I do not know when it is going to be, but it is inevitably going to happen. What makes Napier returning to Florida so great for USF is it is infinitely more likely now that if Golesh leaves for a Power Four job in-state, it would be for teams like UCF or even Florida State.

South Florida has a good one, but it will be interesting to see how long they can retain their key asset.

3. Missouri Tigers

Low-key, this is incredibly massive for the Missouri Tigers' chances of retaining Eliah Drinkwitz. I am sure that he would probably like to stay at Mizzou for as long as they will have him, but he is the ideal head coach to conceivably be poached. Florida was one of two jobs in the SEC I thought could seriously be in the running for him. The other is now the one to watch, and that would be Auburn.

It may only be year two of the Hugh Freeze era on the Plains, but it is not working out so far. He has a very navigable buyout. Plus, the other big factor to consider is that Drinkwitz was on the same 2010 national championship staff as Gus Malzahn was serving under Gene Chizik. To me, Auburn was always going to be the job in the SEC Drinkwitz was going to leave Missouri for, but now we can safely rule out Florida.

Overall, Missouri stands a far better chance of retaining Drinkwitz beyond this year because one of the two SEC jobs I think he would at least consider is not going to open up. Missouri has not had the season the Tigers were expecting to have, but we cannot overlook the fine program he has built up in recent years. Although they should have taken advantage of a soft schedule, the future is still bright.

While I do have a feeling that Drinkwitz does have a villain arc in him, it will not be at Florida.

2. Penn State Nittany Lions

There were two big names potentially on the market to replace Napier at Florida throughout the better part of this season. The first was Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin. While Franklin is probably going to lead Penn State into the playoff for the first time in program history, I am not entirely sure that is the case should the Nittany Lions drop one more game the rest of the season.

At some point, Penn State is going to need to ask itself if the football team can do better than Franklin at head coach. It has become increasingly hard to ignore just how many times he loses games to Ohio State, particularly ones where the Buckeyes are just begging for the Nittany Lions to take it from them. There could be a mutual parting of ways if Penn State somehow does not end up making the playoff.

As far as where Franklin could go if he is not long for Penn State, now that Florida is out of the question, keep your eyes on USC. Lincoln Riley seems to be doing everything in his power to destroy two blue-chip programs in the matter of an Olympiad. If that job opens up, I would venture to guess Franklin would be a candidate for it, or at the very least do what he always does for leverage.

The good news with Florida not opening up is that Penn State will not have multiple suitors to hold off.

1. Ole Miss Rebels

Ahead of their biggest game of the season, the Ole Miss Rebels have already gotten a huge victory this week well before Georgia comes to town. Yes, Ole Miss needs to beat the Dawgs at Vaught-Hemingway to stay alive in the College Football Playoff picture. However, the fact that the Florida job is not going to be coming available helps the Rebels' chances of retaining their head coach Lane Kiffin.

The Lane Train has been in the Oxford station since 2020. Kiffin has helped transform Ole Miss from a college football afterthought into being a top-tier program in the best league in the sport, seemingly overnight. He is the king of the transfer portal, but has also made great strides on the high school recruiting trail. Kiffin may always have one eye on a bigger job, but Ole Miss needs to do whatever it can to never let him leave.

Because Kiffin has had success in the SEC, as well as in the state of Florida at Florida Atlantic prior to taking over at Ole Miss, Kiffin is going to remain one of the biggest candidates to potentially move in the next few coaching carousel cycles. Ole Miss is lucky to have him, and given the support the program has offered in NIL and otherwise in recent years, he is lucky to be there. We can only hope they can continue to build something special together. It has been so cool to watch.

Kiffin could conceivably leave one day, but I don't know how many jobs are better than the one he has.