Ten days ago, it did not look like Florida coach Billy Napier was going to make it to Thanksgiving in his current job. Now, quite suddenly, it looks like he will be around well into Labor Day of 2025, and perhaps beyond.
Even after back-to-back losses to Georgia and Texas dropped the team to 4-5, the administration at Florida gave the go-ahead to keep Napier in place rather than exercise the enormous $26 million option on his contract. The Gators had not seen the kind of payoff they expected on Napier and star quarterback DJ Lagway, and there was considerable speculation that Napier would be out.
On Saturday, there was, at least, a glimpse of what a Napier-Lagway combo could look like, even if it is too late to compete in the SEC in 2024.
The Gators pulled off the 27-16 upset against LSU in Gainesville, led by the return of Lagway from a hamstring injury. He tallied 226 yards passing with a touchdown and no interceptions.
While the score certinaly looks like a blowout, a message from the Gators' official Twitter/X account was a good reminder that this was a 13-13 tie entering the fourth quarter.
At the end of the third quarter at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, of course, the PA system plays the Tom Petty hit song, "Won't Back Down." Even before the game kicked off, Napier had his team thinking about that moment.
In a post on Twitter/X, the official Florida Gators Football site (@GatorsFB) posted a video of Napier talking about the Petty song and imploring his team to keep the lyrics front of mind.
Said Napier: "This is where you start thinking about, 'I'm gonna remember that song, because I'm gonna sing that song in the fourth quarter. I'm gonna remember that. Because that's my confidence level. Because going into that fourth quarter, we're gonna have this team. And so, I'm gonna be thinking in terms of, I want to know the words to that song.'"
Florida absolutely did not have LSU as the two teams headed into the final quarter, but they were no doubt the better team in the final 15 minutes, outscoing the Tigers, 14-3.
And the official Florida Twitter/X account noted this five-word message: "Still remember the words, Coach?"