Clock nears midnight on Billy Napier's coaching tenure at Florida after embarrassing loss to Texas A&M

Billy Napier's time in Gainesville, Florida, is nearing its end. The story is written, the book is closed.

The fans cast their vote at The Swamp late Saturday. They booed Napier in the first half, and then they funneled to the exits in the third quarter, leaving maybe 60% of the stands occupied as the Gators fell behind 33-7 to a Texas A&M team led by a backup quarterback. 

"I have no excuse, no negative comment about that," Napier said after the game. "Ultimately, you play a certain way in this arena, you're going to be criticized. This is one of those places where there is history, tradition and expectations."

The Gators lost 33-20, but the score was not indicative of how listless they looked most of the day. We've seen this scene before at other SEC stadiums over the years — Auburn and Arkansas come to mind — and it's usually the precursor to the inevitable firing of a coach.

Humiliating. Debilitating. The scene in Gainesville was enough to tell the story. Then, with more than five minutes remaining in the game, ABC pulled the plug on the national broadcast to move ahead with coverage of No. 1 Georgia at Kentucky. 

The Gators have flopped and they're not getting up any time soon. Napier might not get the chance to try as Florida decides whether to pay his $28.3 million buyout.

No program should be in a worse position three years after firing a coach, but that's where the Gators stand today after moving on from Dan Mullen. Napier, pusher of "The Process," has seemingly pushed every wrong button since his arrival in Gainesville. On Saturday, only a 47-minute lightning delay could save him from embarrassment, but that only stretched the suffering in the afternoon heat into the evening — and now one wonders if the sun has set on his Florida career after only three games in his third season.

Two home blowouts in three weeks — 33-20 on Saturday; 41-17 to Miami in Week 1 —is no way to sell a program, and you can bet the big wigs and money-rich boosters who remained in the posh suites were not enthused. If anything, they're invigorated and motivated to make a change.

It's never easy calling for a coach to be fired, particularly one as respected as Napier, who took Louisiana to the top of the mountain in the Sun Belt by replicating and polishing "The Process" he gleaned from his days working under Nick Saban. Three years later, it seems, he copied the wrong answers from Saban's test.

Florida fans want a change. The question is whether that happens Sunday, Monday or at the end of the season, when a potentially demoralizing five-game stretch awaits with three teams currently ranked in the AP top five and another in the top 20.

Napier's future didn't so much hinge on Saturday against Texas A&M, but the uninspired performance hammered the nail. With a first-year regime, the Aggies had better coaches, players and preparation. In a season of firsts at Florida, Texas A&M snapped a 10-game road losing streak, the second-longest in the country behind Temple.  Florida lost its fourth straight game at The Swamp against a power-conference opponent and enters next week on a five-game skid against the SEC.

Ouch.

This is what happens when nearly every decision you make blows up in your face.

From confusion this year about who is calling defensive plays — co-defensive coordinator Ron Roberts, who was hired in the offseason, took over those duties early in the year — to the mass exodus of staffers last offseason, the mess has been on display for all to see.

There were issues with Florida's NIL collectives early in his tenure. Napier's even being sued by Jaden Rashada, the high-profile recruit who felt he was defrauded out of millions of dollars when Florida supporters backed out of a $13.85 million NIL deal. 

Lead running back Trevor Etienne left Florida in the offseason to transfer to rival Georgia after his role was mishandled by coaches, and there's an ongoing inability to scheme around quarterbacks' strengths.

"I can stay Running Back 2 on a losing team or go somewhere and possibly be Running Back 1 and win a natty," Etienne said on a podcast in March.

On the field, there is a litany of in-game coaching mistakes, ranging from haphazard substitutions and penalties to pulling and inserting quarterbacks without much rhyme or reason. On Saturday, the defense was misaligned and out of sorts. There is no excuse for such mistakes, particularly at home and in Year 3 of a regime.

Florida is 1-2 for the first time in 34 years. Napier is an inexcusable 12-16 with a 6-11 record in the SEC.

Nothing seems to make sense. Napier filled the athletics department with one of the largest support staffs in the country, but numbers don't translate to strength. He has two defensive coordinators, two offensive coordinators and two offensive line coaches. 

The on-paper confusion is only a symptom of an underlying problem. Friends of the Florida program repeated to CBS Sports on Saturday that it's a "mess" behind the scenes and a clean slate is required to move forward.

The roster also isn't up to the challenge in the SEC, and that lands at the feet of Napier, who struggled to pursue superstars in the transfer portal after his top-tier recruiting class peeled away in last offseason. The result Saturday, allowing 310 yards rushing to Texas A&M, was inexcusable 

"It's disgusting," Napier admitted after the defense failed to plug the holes.

It's incredibly troubling, especially when weighing the promise Napier made two months ago.

"We live in a society that wants it now," Napier said at SEC Media Days in July. "It doesn't happen that way, in anything, much less football. So when you've got hundreds and hundreds of people to coordinate in the same direction in today's climate, it's even more difficult to establish trust. We're over the hump. Kids that are on our team now, they picked the University of Florida, and our staff picked them. The makeup of our team is different, and it will be very obvious when we start playing this fall."

One thing is obvious: Napier's process is not working, not in this timeline at least.

Complicating matters is the administration at Florida. Athletics director Scott Stricklin hired and fired Mullen, and he brought Napier on board to clean up the mess; Napier has only made it worse. Remember, Florida also has an interim school president. Make no mistake, Stricklin's job is on the line, and it remains to be seen whether he will make the final decision in the near future. He hitched his future to Napier's wheelless wagon before the season opener against Miami.

"I really believe Billy Napier is going to be the coach at Florida for a long, long time," he said on The Paul Finebaum Show.

Like Napier, Stricklin might believe in "The Process," but the reality is much different.