The Florida Gators finally pulled the trigger on firing Billy Napier on Sunday, opening up another SEC head coaching job after the Arkansas Razorbacks dismissed Sam Pittman at the end of September.
Saturday Blitz's Patrick Weider projects the Ole Miss Rebels' Lane Kiffin and Missouri Tigers' Eli Drinkwitz to be UF's top-two options to replace Napier this offseason. Ole Miss and Mizzou are both 6-1 and ranked in the top 15 through Week 8.
"Lane Kiffin has done a fantastic job turning around the Ole Miss program. He is a respected quarterbacks coach and one of the best offensive minds in College Football. He has also navigated the transfer portal at a high level. He might be working on a contract extension to stay at Ole Miss, but I'll give him a call and talk to him before he signs the deal," Weider wrote.
"Eli Drinkwitz has done a fantastic job turning around Missouri. He has an overall record of 44-25, and he won 11 games in 2023 and 10 in 2024. He is a good coach with a proven track record of recruiting players and developing a program. He also has navigated the transfer portal well; an example is the current quarterback from Beau Pribula. He also might be choosy and might not be interested, like Kiffin."
A wild hiring cycle got much crazier with the long expected Napier firing. Even though it was thought to be imminent for a while, it was still jarring to see Napier removed after his team defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday.
Then again, the band-aid may as well be ripped off, just as the Penn State Nittany Lions did with James Franklin last week. Funnily enough, Kiffin was linked to the Penn State job, too, along with the Texas A&M Aggies' Mike Elko and the Vanderbilt Commodores' Clark Lea.
We'll see how this hiring cycle shakes out, and if Curt Cignetti's wild, fully guaranteed $93 million extension with the Indiana Hoosiers helps shape the market.
If it does, there's no better time for Kiffin, or Drinkwitz, or really any coach, to jump ship; or at least renegotiate his current contract.