Former Florida coach Billy Napier isn’t taking the 2026 season off.
Sources told Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger that Napier is finalizing a deal to be the new head coach at James Madison. He replaces Bob Chesney after Chesney will become UCLA’s head coach at the end of the season. No. 25 JMU (11-1), plays Troy in the Sun Belt championship game on Friday night and could make the College Football Playoff if Duke beats No. 17 Virginia in the ACC title game on Saturday.
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Napier was fired at Florida seven games into the 2025 season with the Gators at 3-4. He was 22-23 in 45 games with the Gators dating back to the start of the 2022 season. After a pursuit of Lane Kiffin following Napier’s dismissal, the Gators announced Tulane coach Jon Sumrall as their next coach after a 1-4 finish to the season under interim coach Billy Gonzales.
He got the Florida job after a strong run at Louisiana, a fellow Sun Belt school. Napier was the head coach of the Ragin’ Cajuns for four seasons and the team took off after a 7-7 campaign in 2018. Over Napier’s final three seasons in Lafayette, Louisiana went 33-5 and lost just two games over the 2020 and 2021 seasons combined.
JMU is clearly betting on that type of success again. And it’s hard to dispute the school’s track record with coaches in recent years. After moving to the top level of college football in 2022, the Dukes are 39-10 across four seasons. James Madison was 19-4 with Curt Cignetti in 2022 and 2023 before Cignetti became the coach at Indiana and has led the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff in back-to-back seasons. Chesney is 20-5 as James Madison’s coach over 2024 and 2025 and also landed a job in the Big Ten.
