7-2, lost 2 straight, on track for 9-3 in the regular season.
Bowls and playoffs: 3-2
2018Cure BowlL 24-41
2019LendingTree BowlW 27-17
2020First Responder BowlW 31-24
Florida
2022Las Vegas BowlL 3-30
2024Gasparilla BowlW 33-8Thu Nov 5, 8 pm ET 
· Southern Miss is 3-5 · Napier vs. Blake Anderson: 3-0 · James Madison’s chance to win: 82% (the site’s model)
Fox NewsJames Madison fans were warned about Billy Napier, now the chickens have come home to roostSat Oct 31
BroBibleBilly Napier Refused To Sing Alma Mater After James Madison Crowd Bailed On Football Team During LossFri Oct 30Fox NewsMaggie Sajak looks like a million bucks for Halloween, Billy Napier makes horrible history & Tim Duncan votes!Fri Oct 30It’s bad. Not sure how they turn this around at this point. App has the inside track to the East
Don’t let bad teams hang around James Madison.
At least under Chesney you got the sense that Sluka was like, a trick play/QB sneak guy which was a special kind of bad, but you didn't get the sense that Sluka was QB1 at any point. Coleman and Evans are just like QB1A/QB1B
Fan mood · last 3 weeks · more negative than 3 in 4 FBS fan bases
82%Percent: James Madison’s chance to win, from the site’s model. Records are through today. Networks as announced; the rest are set closer to kickoff.
Where James Madison stood among 138 FBS programs by stature after each game (1st is the highest; the CFB Zeitgeist ledger).
Saturday Down SouthEach week as this page showed it at the time. Weeks marked rebuilt came before this page existed: they were built afterward from only what was known by the end of that week.
Watch the biggest plays from James Madison’s games, ranked by how much each moved the chance to win.
This winter
Our poach model, on his record so far, the win chances for every game he has left, his program, his pay and his background. Ranked against the 132 FBS head coaches this season. The zone words describe the market’s interest; none of them says he is leaving.
The biggest factors in his profile, each against the typical FBS head coach today. The games he has left are priced into the number, not listed here.
Tested on every FBS head coach from 2012 through 2025, each season scored by a model fit only on the seasons before it. From three games on, given one coach who left for a head-coaching job elsewhere or an NFL coordinator job and one who stayed, it ranked the one who left ahead 79 to 82% of the time; in a season’s first two games, 78%. Its average chance came within a point of the share who actually left. It counts a move a coach makes while he still holds the job; when his school ends it, that doesn’t count, even if another school then hires him.
Honestly. Fire Napier. That’s inexcusable.James Madison fan
Napier thing. We never had issues like this under Cignetti or ChesneyJames Madison fan
Billy Napier is in his Bill Belichick bag of rulebook tricks today and I'm here for it.James Madison fan
We've had way too many of those petulant fouls this season. Napier needs to cut that out of the teamJames Madison fan
Napier finally realized that nobody voting on the polls is actually watching this game and margin mattersJames Madison fan
Napier can coach the first half, Chesney can do the second. Deal, guys?James Madison fan
The Florida fans that said we’d hate Napier’s playcalling didn’t realize we had to watch Dean Kennedy wear the headset for two yearsJames Madison fan
Thu Nov 5: Southern Miss
59th of 104 FBS head coaches · from several outlets and r/CFB
BroBible +1 Oct 30 · a few outlets
The headlines for each topic are on the News tab.
from dozens of outlets and r/CFB
Sun Belt football in 2026 headlined by Billy Napier’s return and Louisiana Tech’s arrival
AP News +11 Aug 21 · many outlets
The headlines for each topic are on the News tab.
Stories we tracked, by school.
James MadisonDozens of stories2026 to nowMost about: win, profile and feature, loss.
ABC News +3James Madison begins the coach Billy Napier era with a 20-13 victory over in-state foe Liberty - ABC NewsSep 5
Underdog Dynasty +2James Madison outduels Liberty in Napier’s debut, 20-13Sep 6
247Sports +1James Madison holds off Liberty 20-13 to open Billy Napier eraSep 5
FloridaDozens of stories2022 to 2025Most about: press conference and quotes, hot seat, game preview.
LouisianaA few stories2018 to 2021Most about: contract and pay, press conference and quotes, nil and money.
Could another school hire him? What has he said?
Stories are headlines grouped by what they are about, counted through Nov 4.
Pick a job to see its years on their own.
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
4-0 against his rivals at Louisiana. Nobody he faced three or more times there has a winning record against him.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
1-5 against his rivals at Florida. Winless in 3 tries against Kirby Smart.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
1-0 against his rivals at James Madison.
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
6-5 against his rivals. Winless in 3 tries against Kirby Smart.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
ATS is his record against the spread: did his team beat the closing betting line, winning by more than it or losing by less? Lines start in 2013; a dash means fewer than 6 of those games had one. One-score games carry no spread record: a big favorite that wins a close game has almost always failed to cover, so that number would say nothing about the coach.
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.
Five numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
None of his James Madison classes is ranked and fully his yet. Across his other stops, his own classes averaged #41 nationally.
LouisianaFloridaJames MadisonAcross every program: 7 ranked classes of his own, averaging #41 nationally.
His class — he had the full signing cycleTransition — he was hired mid-cycle
Rank is each signing class’s national recruiting rank (#1 is best). Only a class he had a full signing cycle to build counts as his; inherited and mid-transition classes still show here, faded, but stay out of the average.
Louisiana→Florida2022Florida→James Madison2026Players who transferred from his old program to his new one through the portal in the same year he made the move. Name-matching across data sources misses some, so every count is a floor, not an exact number.
of his 2026 roster arrived on his watch — 62 of 109 players. The other 47 are holdovers from before he was hired.
Of his own players on this roster, 26% came through the transfer portal; the rest are non-portal arrivals (high-school signees, JUCO transfers, walk-ons).
Everyone he has brought in, 2026–2026Counting players who have since left: 26% of the 62 arrivals we can classify came through the portal.
“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.
Offensive linemen on his Florida rosters have averaged 11 lb heavier than the FBS average (2022–2025) — heavier than 97% of FBS coaching runs since 2010. In the three seasons before he arrived, Florida’s line averaged 9 lb heavier than the FBS average.
Average listed weight of every offensive lineman on each season’s roster, holdovers included, against every FBS roster that season (2010 on; a program needs 3+ seasons under him to appear). Weights are the ones programs publish, and programs list differently. This describes size only — not scheme, and not quality.
is his biggest recruiting state: 6 of 21 signees (29%) across his 2026–2026 tenure, drawn from 11 states in all. Next: VA (3).
38% of his signees come from FL and its 2 border states (GA 2).
Off this map: 1 signee to the west (NV).
The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.
Headlines, grouped by what they are about. Each is the outlet’s own.
Press conference and quotes
Locked OnWould You consider Dan Mullen or Billy Napier for NC State Football? | NC State PodcastOct 29Win
ABC News +3James Madison begins the coach Billy Napier era with a 20-13 victory over in-state foe Liberty - ABC NewsSep 5247Sports +1James Madison holds off Liberty 20-13 to open Billy Napier eraSep 5Saturday Down SouthBilly Napier leads James Madison to program-record 87 points in blowout win over WagnerSep 12Profile and feature
Underdog Dynasty +2James Madison outduels Liberty in Napier’s debut, 20-13Sep 6
Sporting News +1Billy Napier and JMU's formula for successOct 20
The Virginian-PilotJMU opens Billy Napier’s coaching era by turning back Liberty - The Virginian-PilotSep 6
Yahoo SportsJames Madison news: Billy Napier era is already rocking with 87-point masterpieceSep 12Loss
BroBible +1Billy Napier Refused To Sing Alma Mater After James Madison Crowd Bailed On Football Team During LossOct 30Saturday Down SouthFlorida fans compare Jon Sumrall to Billy Napier amid blowout loss to South CarolinaOct 10Saturday Down SouthBilly Napier’s CFP hopes take big hit as JMU falls to App StateOct 23BroBibleBilly Napier's Cowardly Decision To Kick Extra Point During Loss To App State Can Be Explained By PTSDOct 23Game preview
Press conference and quotes
Locked OnWould You consider Dan Mullen or Billy Napier for NC State Football? | NC State PodcastOct 29Conference and schedule
I’m nowhere close to being done
JMU, I can’t help but think that was a godsend to some degree
Hired into programs rated 29 to 30 (National Program III tier). Rough match, not calibrated yet — ranked on what the job inherited alone. Coaches hired into this same job aren’t used as comps.
The arc of his career is on Now.
Builder meaningfully raised a program that wasn't one · Inheritor inherited a power and neither built it higher nor let it collapse
Followed Bob Chesney (2024–2025).
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits younger transfers than most — more of a development bet.
12th-best Florida tenure of 22 by the numbers.
Followed Dan Mullen (2018–2021) · succeeded by Billy Gonzales (2025).
| Season | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 6-7 | 5-7 | 8-5 | 3-4 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | — | W bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | |||||
| OC | Rob Sale | Rob Sale | Rob Sale / Russ Callaway | Russ Callaway | |
| DC | Patrick Toney / Sean Spencer | Austin Armstrong / Sean Spencer | Austin Armstrong / Ron Roberts | Robert Bala / Ron Roberts / Vinnie Sunseri | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | 68 | 73 | 70 | 44 | |
| Defense | 31 | 32 | 86 | 39 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | 38.7 | 44.3 | 39.6 | 45.8 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 33.3 | 37.8 | 31.6 | 40.7 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 46.2 | 31.2 | 30.6 | 25.8 | |
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
21 NFL Draft picks: Anthony Richardson (2023), Gervon Dexter (2023), O'Cyrus Torrence (2023), Ventrell Miller (2023), Justin Shorter (2023), Amari Burney (2023), Ricky Pearsall (2024), Chimere Dike (2025) + 13 more
2 player-seasons honored (All-America / national award): O'Cyrus Torrence (2022), Jake Slaughter (2024)
AI Narratives — “Florida's Offseason Losses Pile Up” and 3 more on the team page.
1st-best Louisiana tenure of 9 by the numbers.
Followed Mark Hudspeth (2011–2017) · succeeded by Michael Desormeaux (2021–now).
| Season | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 7-7 | 11-3 | 10-1 | 12-1 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | W bowl | W bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | |||||
| OC | Rob Sale | Rob Sale | Rob Sale | Michael Desormeaux / Tim Leger | |
| DC | Ron Roberts | Ron Roberts | Patrick Toney | Patrick Toney | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | 83 | 95 | 83 | 57 | |
| Defense | 10 | 61 | 81 | 74 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | 26.6 | 39.7 | 41.2 | 39.7 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 32.7 | 35.4 | 33.6 | 34.9 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 24.2 | 40.0 | 46.9 | 66.7 | |
Outperforms his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
6 NFL Draft picks: Robert Hunt (2020), Kevin Dotson (2020), Raymond Calais (2020), Elijah Mitchell (2021), Max Mitchell (2022), Percy Butler (2022)
Coach of the Year: Sun Belt Coach of the Year (2021)
1 player-season honored (All-America / national award): Chris Smith (2020)
The data leans positive, where the data can separate from zero: every conclusive reading points the same way.
+12.8 pts at Louisiana · #154 of 1290 · top quarterModel fit as of 2026-09-04.
