HELP WANTED ...
New coach Billy Napier begins building team’s staff, aiming to fix defense, improve Gators’ physicality
GAINESVILLE — New Florida coach Billy Napier set out on his first day of work to fix a struggling defense and toughen up a program showing signs of having grown soft.
Napier will bring four members of his staff from Louisiana, UF announced.
Patrick Toney will serve as co-defensive coordinator and Mark Hocke will oversee strength and conditioning. Running backs coach Jabbar Juluke and offensive analyst Ryan O’Hara also will leave Lafayette for Gainesville.
“I firmly believe that hiring talented people with integrity in an organization decides how far we go,” Napier said Sunday.
Toney oversaw a defense allowing 18.3 points, currently tied for ninth nationally, and spent the past four seasons with Napier. A 31-year-old rising star, Toney is tasked with rebuilding a defense largely responsible for the Gators’ collapse under Dan Mullen.
The 2020 Gators allowed their most points per game (30.8) since 1946 and this season yielded 605 yards rushing total during losses as double-digit favorites at LSU and South Carolina, leading to veteran coordinator Todd Grantham’s firing.
In 2015, he served as secondary coach at Sam Houston State under legendary coach K.C. Keeler. Three seasons at Southeastern Louisiana was the first college job for the well-traveled Toney following stints coaching high school football in Southern California.
Hocke will replace Nick Savage, who was popular among Florida players. Savage elevated the quality of the strength and conditioning program after three years of deterioration under Mike Kent, who worked for Jim McElwain.
Yet the Gators lost their edge this season and were too often pushed around at the point of attack. Miscues cost Florida repeatedly, further raising questions about players’ stamina and focus.
“Our trademark will be our physicality,” Napier said. “We’ll be in great condition. We’ll be known for how hard we play. We’ll be disciplined.
“We will eliminate careless play — turnovers, penalties, mental errors.”
Napier met Hocke at Alabama, where he served as an assistant in the strength and conditioning program from 2009-14 and helped the Crimson Tide to three national titles. He left in 2015 to head Georgia’s strength program and served at Florida State (2016) and Texas A&M (2017) before joining Napier the past four seasons.
Napier will lean heavily on Juluke and O’Hara as he pushes to continue the Gators’ offensive success established under Mullen.
Football Scoop named Juluke running backs coach of the year in 2019 when the Ragin’ Cajuns set school records in rushing yards (3,604) and touchdowns (42) while averaging 6.28 yards per carry. Juluke coached Leonard Fournette at LSU in 2016 before he left school and was drafted No. 5 in 2017.
Eli Mitchell (San Francisco 49ers) and Raymond Calais (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) also were drafted after playing in Lafayette for Juluke, who will serve as Florida’s associate head coach on offense.
O’Hara will help coach Florida’s quarterbacks, a position O’Hara played in college and helped oversee the past four seasons along with Napier.
This season. Levi Lewis became Louisiana’s first 3,000-yard passer in history and set the single-season record for touchdown passes (26).
O’Hara’s assistance will free up Napier to call plays, as Mullen did.
The setup also will allow Napier to hire two coaches for the offensive line, a position group that has struggled for years at Florida.
“It gives us an advantage, in my opinion,” Napier said. “We’re one of the only teams in the entire country to have two offensive line coaches. When you’re coaching offensive line, you’ve got to coach five players.
“Nobody’s got one coach coaching five DBs.”
Napier will continue to build his staff in the coming days, tapping into an assistant coaching salary pool of $7.5 million — $1.3 million more than the Gators budgeted in 2021.