Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Corey Bell was walking down the stairs at home on a recent morning when his phone rang. Brad Davis was in a dentist's chair when he got a call. Ja'Juan Seider didn't say exactly where he was when his phone rang, but unlike the other times, Seider said yes this time.

Gators head coach Jim McElwain was the caller each time. His question: Did Bell, Davis and Seider have an interest in joining his revamped coaching staff in 2017?

You know their answers.

The newest Florida assistant coaches joined McElwain on Thursday afternoon for an introductory press conference at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

"First and foremost, I want to say how excited I am that they chose to join this family and be part of something great,'' McElwain said. "In each of their cases we went through the process looking for the right fit. That's something we hit a home run on. They're natural fits."

The former director of football operations for Gators defensive coordinator Randy Shannon during Shannon's four seasons as head coach at Miami, Bell accepted McElwain's offer after less than a month on Charlie Strong's staff at USF. He is the defensive backs coach.
 

The opportunity to return to the Southeastern Conference played a part in Bell's decision. He played at South Carolina and was a teammate of UF defensive line coach Chris Rumph with the Gamecocks 20 years ago.

"Long story short, when Coach Strong was here during his first stint, he recruited me,'' Bell said. "I actually committed here. That was a long time ago, of course, but I always wanted to be a Gator. Now I have the opportunity to be that, so I took advantage of it."

Bell replaces Torrian Gray, who left to become defensive backs coach of the Washington Redskins.

Meanwhile, Davis replaces Mike Summers as offensive line coach. Davis spent last season at North Texas and has been on the opposing sideline for a game in each of McElwain's first two seasons at UF. He was an assistant at East Carolina in 2015 when the Pirates visited The Swamp and North Texas lost 32-0 to the Gators last season.

Davis was an undersized offensive lineman at Oklahoma as a player and started his coaching career after college. He made stops at places like Southern University, Wayne State, Doane (Neb.) College, Portland State and James Madison.

Davis was excused from the dentist's chair momentarily when McElwain called.

"I was getting my teeth cleaned and I'm very fortunate my dentist was very understanding,'' said Davis, who through mutual acquaintances attracted McElwain's attention. "In a million years, did I expect to be here? Absolutely not. But am I fired up and thrilled? Absolutely, highlight of my coaching career.

"Ten years ago to the day, I was stapling papers, fixing coffee, getting cars washed, sleeping in my office, typing up scouting reports, breaking down film. So it's amazing, it truly is."

As for Seider, a former assistant at Marshall and West Virginia, he was on McElwain's radar when he took over the program two years ago.

However, Seider's son was battling lymphoma and the family felt they needed to stay in West Virginia.

He turned down the job then. Not this time.

Seider will coach the running backs and former running backs coach Tim Skipper has moved to the defense as linebackers coach, a position he has coached in previous stops.

"First of all with Florida, this is one of those universities that you don't get these opportunities in life,'' Seider said. "To have the opportunity to work for Florida, there's the standard and prestige of the university. So saying no at that time was tough., but my son was the most important thing in my life at that time."

Seider's son is now healthy and ready to return to where his father has deep roots. Seider was a high school teammate of former UF players Fred Taylor, Reidel Anthony and Johnny Rutledge at Glades Central High in Belle Glade, Fla., and finished his college career at Florida A&M.

Seider has a reputation as a strong recruiter in South Florida, along with Bell.

"The one thing we got right now with some of the guys I've been around and some of the guys that came in is they do a great job developing relationships,'' he said. "They're relentless."

The Gators closed fast on the recruiting trail in 2017 to finish with a class ranked from ninth to 13th by the four major recruiting services.

Coming off back-to-back SEC East titles, McElwain is ready to take the program to the next level. Recruiting is the lifeblood of that mission.

"Obviously the recruiting is a piece of it as is the coaching piece,'' McElwain said. "These guys all come with great recommendations as coaches. And obviously they're comfortable in the areas that they need to recruit where they can be productive and keep moving our recruiting stuff forward."