Former Florida head coach Billy Napier has reportedly been hired as the new head coach at James Madison University, per Pete Nakos and Chris Low. He reportedly will be signing a five-year contract.
Napier, 46, coached the Gators for three and a half seasons, going 22-23 during his tenure. He was fired Oct. 19 following a 3-4 start to the 2025 season. His overall record marked the worst total of any Florida head coach through 30 games since Raymond Wolf, who went 13-24-2 from 1946-49.
However, Napier now returns to a conference where he had success prior to taking the Gators' job: the Sun Belt Conference.
In four seasons at Louisiana, Napier amassed a 40–12 record, including 10-plus win seasons and two seasons where his Ragin' Cajuns finished ranked in the AP Top 25 poll. Both achievements were firsts for the program.
He now assumes the position at the conference's top team, No. 25 JMU, who hold a 11-1 record and can secure its first SBC title against Troy Friday,
James Madison head coaches have also parlayed their success at the school into power conference jobs, something Napier will look to do as well.
Former head coach Curt Cignetti, who coached the Dukes from 2019-23, went 52-9 overall with the team over three seasons in the FCS and two seasons in FBS play. He parlayed that success into a hire at Indiana, at which he has been wildly successful, leading the current No. 2-ranked Hoosiers to a 23-2 record during his tenure.
His successor, Bob Chesney, has led JMU to a 20-5 record in his two seasons at the helm. He was reportedly hired by UCLA on a five-year deal Dec. 1.
Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X @maxbernstein23.
Max is in his sixth semester at The Alligator and now serves as The Alligator's Football Reporter and is a junior sports journalism student. He previously served as The Alligator's Sports Editor, and served as reporter for women's tennis, volleyball and lacrosse. He also has made multiple appearances on the Paul Finebaum Show. He wants to shoutout his cats, Scooter and Zoe, and niche former Florida Panthers players (shoutout Tomas Kopecky).
