TAMPA, Fla. – What would you have thought, say, in the preseason, if someone told you that Billy Napier would be coaching a playoff team?
You may have thought that, after completing the 2024 season on a four-game win streak that included victories over No. 22 LSU in Baton Rouge and No. 9 Ole Miss in the Swamp in consecutive weeks, that the Gators rode D.J. Lagway to at least an at-large bid.
Instead, Napier returns to the conference from which he arrived in Gainesville. The 46-year-old, who was fired at Florida in mid-October and hired in Harrisonburg on December 4, spent four seasons as the head coach of the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns of the Sun Belt before taking over at UF in 2022. With JMU coach Bob Chesney leaving for UCLA, Napier will inherit a playoff team. Chesney remains on board through the playoff to lead the No. 12 Dukes and SBC champs, who will play at No. 5 Oregon on December 20.
READ: Observations From The First 2025 College Football Playoff Ranking
The thing that seems remarkable is that James Madison is only in its fourth season as an FBS member. The Dukes won FCS national titles in 2004 as a member of the Atlantic-10 and 2016 as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association.
They played in the national championship game in 2017 and 2019, the latter under Curt Cignetti, who led the program in its transition to the FBS. Cignetti left for Indiana, which won the Big Ten title and is the No. 1 team in the playoff.
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox.
