Updated: Billy Napier is Florida's new coach

See note at bottom> This deal is now official. 

Florida's search for its next head coach barely has lasted a week.

The Gators, multiple sources told FootballScoop Saturday evening and Sunday, are poised to name Billy Napier as the program's next head coach. An announcement of Napier becoming Florida's next head coach is expected to arrive no later than Monday.

Per sources, both sides have spoken multiple times across the past week.

Sources told FootballScoop that Napier desired to coach his Louisiana Cajuns team one more time in the program's SunBelt Conference championship game at home this Saturday against rival Appalachian State.

Louisiana defeated in-state foe ULM, 21-16, Saturday afternoon; the Cajuns bolted to a 14-3 lead and led 21-10 before the Warhawks' attempt to rally was stymied.

Sources told FootballScoop that Napier already had begun to speak to multiple coaches about potentially joining his staff at Florida if and once a deal was finalized. Florida, which fired Dan Mullen last Sunday on the heels of the Gators' 24-23 overtime-loss at Missouri, opted to take the program in a new direction after the program's sixth loss this season and ninth since Dec. 12, 2020.

The Gators gained bowl eligibility Saturday when they defeated rival Florida State, 24-21, at home under interim coach Greg Knox.

Mullen, Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin said, will be paid the full amount of his $12 million buyout.

Napier had emerged as a prime target in recent years for multiple Power 5 jobs, most notably within the Southeastern Conference footprint, after his work atop the Cajuns' program yielded 39 wins the past four seasons – three of those campaigns featured 10 or more wins – and due to his background throughout the Southeast. Napier had successful stints for both Alabama's Nick Saban and Clemson's Dabo Swinney, as well as coaching tight ends for Jimbo Fisher at Florida State in 2013, when the Seminoles won the national title.

A former standout player at Furman and native of Cookeville, Tennessee, the 42-year-old Napier is married to Ali, and the couple has four children.

Update> The deal is now in place.