Brian Kelly, LSU could be the final nail in Billy Napier's coffin at Florida

Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier is on thin ice in Gainesville after his No. 13-ranked team lost to previously unranked USF at home in Week 2. It was potentially the worst loss of the Napier era, and he's had a few stinkers. Credit to USF, because the Bulls are now the No. 18 college football team in the country, but the standard at Florida is the standard, and there's no way the Gators should have lost to an unranked team at The Swamp.

Billy Napier's seat is already hot

Napier's job has arguably been on the line before, but he has saved it in the past. Notably, he finished the 2024 season with wins over No. 22 LSU, No. 9 Ole Miss, Florida State and Tulane to at least earn himself the goodwill to come back in 2025.

There were hopes that perhaps Napier and the Gators had figured it out, but those hopes seem all but dashed after the loss to USF. Ironically, they can be snuffed out completely by head coach Brian Kelly and LSU, though, as the Gators play host to the No. 3 team in the nation.

Brian Kelly and LSU could get Billy Napier fired from Florida 

If the Gators can win or at least be competitive against LSU, one would think Napier will have earned himself at least another week of being the head coach in Gainesville.

LSU beat up on the Clemson Tigers to start the season, winning 17-10 against then-No. 4-ranked Clemson, so Florida beating LSU would put this back on track. Heck, even hanging tough with LSU could be a sign to the "powers that be" in Gainesville that the Gators may have a chance to fight through their absolutely brutal schedule the rest of the way.

There is a world in which the Tigers come out and put a beatdown on the Gators, though, and that's where things could get very scary for Napier. A second straight home loss would be one thing, but coming back out in front of the home crowd and getting spanked against LSU would more than likely be too much of a bridge for most Florida fans to cross at this point. There would be an uproar and plenty of backlash if Napier made it into Week 4 against No. 5 Miami, because a 1-12 record could realistically be on the table if things don't change quickly for the Gators.

Florida's remaining schedule looks like this:

• vs. No. 3 LSU
• at No. 5 Miami
• vs. No. 7 Texas
• at No. 16 Texas A&M
• vs. Mississippi State 
• vs. No. 6 Georgia
• at Kentucky
• at No. 17 Ole Miss
• vs. No. 15 Tennessee
• vs. No. 10 Florida State

That's as brutal a schedule as you'll find in college football, and if the Gators can't hang with the Tigers this weekend, Napier will have proved once and for all that he's not the type of coach who can get them through the gauntlet that has become the SEC.