Callahan Adds High Football IQ and Recruiting Prowess
Sunday, January 18, 2015 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When Gators head coach Jim McElwain announced earlier this month that Kirk Callahan was returning to UF to be the Gators' secondary coach, there was a buzz on social media.
Former Gators such as Trey Burton, Josh Evans and Caleb Sturgis tweeted messages of support. Multiple media members praised the move because of Callahan's success as a recruiter in Florida. Callahan offered up his own tweet.
Heeeerrrree come the #Gators 🐊!
— Kirk Callahan (@CoachKCal) January 5, 2015 Callahan doesn't turn 30 until April but has proven in his short coaching career to be a rising star.
McElwain had heard of Callahan long before taking the Florida job. He wanted to hire the Tampa native for a position on Alabama's staff during his four-year stint there. That never came to fruition but Callahan's career took off just fine elsewhere after he finished his playing career at UCF.
He worked as a student assistant at his alma mater for a season, then served as a graduate assistant at North Carolina for two seasons followed by two seasons at Florida as a defensive graduate assistant in 2010-11. He returned to UCF as a full-time assistant under George O'Leary and that's where Callahan has been the past three seasons until snatched away by McElwain.
“This guy's done an outstanding job at a very hard position at UCF,'' McElwain said. “There's certain coaches in this profession that you can learn a lot from in a hurry and Coach O'Leary speaks volumes of this guy and entrusted him with a group that has performed at a high level.”
At UCF Callahan helped recruit and develop defensive backs Jacoby Glenn, Clayton Geathers and Brandon Alexander. Glenn was the most accomplished, earning second-team All-American honors last season with seven interceptions, third in the country. Overall, the Knights intercepted 18 passes, two more than Florida's total in 2014.
Former UCF defensive coordinator Jim Fleming, who left after last season to become head coach at Rhode Island, saw what others saw in Callahan: a young, energetic, passionate and intelligent football coach. He told UCF's website last season that Callahan was a climber.
“He's still a young guy but his knowledge is well-advanced for his years,'' Fleming said. “His future is really bright because someone may come up and snatch him. He's way ahead of me at this point.”
Callahan's background has prepared him for high-profile roles such as his new one at Florida, where he inherits a young secondary that is arguable as talented as any in the country with a cast of Vernon Hargreaves III, Keanu Neal, Brian Poole, Marcus Maye, Duke Dawson, Quincy Wilson and Jalen Tabor returning.
Callahan was born the year after Armwood High outside Tampa opened in 1984. A young coach named Sean Callahan began working at the school that year and eventually took over the football program. Sean Callahan recently completed his 25th season as Armwood's head coach and is considered one of the country's top prep coaches with seven appearances in the state championship game.
Over the last quarter century two of Sean Callahan's sons – Kirk and younger brother Casey – played for him. His daughter Kristin was a Hawks cheerleader during Kirk's career.
Growing up Kirk spent most of his free time around the football program, often watching film with his dad in the office and at home. He called the defensive signals as Armwood's starting strong safety in the early 2000s.
“That's where it all started,'' Callahan said. “I grew up as a water boy, a ball boy in that environment. My whole life I wanted to be a coach.”
Kirk's return to UF reunited him with Casey, 24, who recently finished his career at Stony Brook and joined Florida's recruiting office, and defensive coordinator Geoff Collins, who crossed paths briefly with Callahan at UCF.
With such deep ties to the Tampa Bay area and recruiting Florida during his time at UCF, Callahan understands the importance of helping McElwain on the recruiting trail as much as on Saturdays next fall.
“You have the best players in the country right in your backyard,'' Callahan said. “That's part of the reason why I'm here.”
Callahan said he hasn't had a lot of time to evaluate Florida's current secondary, but he knows the foundation is strong on the back end of Florida's defense thanks to former head coach Will Muschamp and former UF secondary coach Travaris Robinson.
As the son of a successful head coach, Callahan wants to help his players understand the game from every angle imaginable. That is a lesson his father taught him.
“I want them to be smart football players,'' he said. “I like DBs that are smart. I don't like dumb DBs. If you can sit there and make them a little bit smarter and understand, 'alright, in this certain look, you can probably expect two or three plays,' that's going to make a good player even better.
“We like to be aggressive, we want to play fast … the ball is the issue. The ball's ours. When the ball is in the air, it should be ours.”
