Florida Gators hire Louisiana's Billy Napier as next head coach

Billy Napier will be the next football coach at Florida, the university announced.

Napier, 42, has been the head coach at No. 21 Louisiana (11-1) for the last four seasons, compiling a 39-12 record (32-5 since 2019). The Ragin' Cajuns finished No. 16 in the AFCA USA TODAY Coaches' Poll last season, thanks to a 10-1 campaign capitalized by a victory over UTSA in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl.

He was Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 2019 and has Louisiana in the conference championship game for the fourth consecutive time. It is unknown if he'll coach the Ragin' Cajuns on Saturday against Appalachian State.

Prior to Louisiana, his first FBS head coaching job, he was the offensive coordinator at Arizona State for one season (2017) and had been an analyst/wide receiver coach at Alabama.

Now he returns to the SEC, this time as a head coach for the Gators, which fired Dan Mullen last week after four seasons.

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Napier played quarterback in college at Furman and is a native of Georgia. He started coaching at Clemson, serving as recruiting coordinator and became the youngest offensive coordinator at age 29 in 2009.

Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Billy Napier hired by Florida Gators as football coach