With conference championship weekend approaching, James Madison football has been one of the quiet stories of the college football season. The Dukes have raced out to an 11-1 record and will play for a Sun Belt Championship, and possibly a College Football Playoff berth, on Friday against Troy.
JMU is also a victim of its own success in a way, as head coach Bob Chesney was recently hired by UCLA to become its next head coach. Now, just before the conference title game, it has hired the next face of its program. Former Florida head coach Billy Napier is coming to Harrisonburg on a five-year contract, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.
“Sources: Billy Napier is finalizing a five-year deal to become the next head coach at James Madison,” Thamel reported on X, formerly Twitter. “A formal announcement is expected on Saturday. Napier is the former coach at Louisiana and Florida.”
Chesney is still going to coach James Madison in the conference title game and in the CFP if it makes the 12-team field, while Napier will focus on building the roster out for next season to maintain this level of success.
Napier's reputation took a bit of a hit after a long, drawn-out fallout at Florida that could be seen coming since the end of the 2024 season. He was fired after seven games in 2025 with the Gators sitting at 3-4, and he finished with a 22-23 record in the better part of four seasons there.
However, Napier has proven that he can win at the Group of Five level in the Sun Belt before. He spent four seasons as the head coach at Louisiana from 2018-21, reaching the Sun Belt title game in all four seasons and winning the championship in 2020 and 2021. He finished with a 40-12 record, including a 27-5 mark in conference play, during his time with the Rajin' Cajuns.
James Madison has been through this situation before, as the Dukes lost former head coach Curt Cignetti after an 11-win 2023 season. They landed on their feet after that big change and are hoping to do so once again by bringing Napier in.
