If Florida Football fires Billy Napier, 7 candidates to consider

2. Eliah Drinkwitz (Missouri): Drinkwitz's career is red hot. He has won 14 of his last 16 games and has deftly navigated the NIL landscape to make the Tigers a contender. He has turned Missouri into a playoff contender. His blathering personality would make for a livelier ride than the Napier experience. Best-case scenario for Florida if Drink wants it: Missouri is 10-2 but gets snubbed by the playoff committee.

3. Jedd Fish (Washington): He's a Florida University graduate who worked as an assistant for Steve Spurrier many years ago. He knows offense and reshaped Arizona's program before moving to Washington. He left a Heisman-caliber quarterback in Arizona for the Huskies, so why wouldn't he leave UW for his alma mater?

4. Alex Golesh (South Florida): Golesh, 40, is the youngest coach listed here. He's never been a Power Four coach. But that doesn't mean he's Napier 2.0. He'd come with the Josh Heupel playbook that helped Tennessee succeed. Golesh runs the fast-paced spread offense the Vols use. He was Heupel's coordinator at UCF and Tennessee.

5. Lance Leipold (Kansas): The Jayhawks won't make the playoffs, so Leipold would be available. He's a respected program developer who has won in places where success doesn't come easily (Buffalo, Kansas). The problem is that Kansas (1-2) may be headed for a losing season. That would take some of Leipold's credit away.