Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Gators continue to pump out defensive backs to the NFL with Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, coming off arguably the best game of his career in Florida's win over Michigan in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, set to be the next talent from DBU to get drafted.

The Gators continue to pump out defensive backs coaches, too. In the latest coaching transaction to involve Florida, cornerbacks coach Charlton Warren has accepted an offer from Georgia coach Kirby Smart to become Georgia's defensive backs coach.

Georgia announced the addition of Warren on Saturday evening.

"Charlton is from Atlanta and has a wide range of experience coaching defensive football at several universities and conferences around the country,'' Smart said in a press release. "His entire coaching career has been on the defensive side of the ball and especially defensive backs. He has developed an outstanding record and reputation in the coaching profession and he'll bring great knowledge and energy to our staff."

In his only season at Florida, Warren split coaching the secondary with veteran Ron English, who instructed the safeties in Dan Mullen's first season as UF's head coach.

This marks the fifth consecutive year Florida's defensive backs coach either was fired or left for another opportunity, a trend that started following the 2014 season when Travaris Robinson's four-year under Will Muschamp ended. In Jim McElwain's two-plus seasons, Kirk Callahan (2015), Torrian Gray (2016) and Corey Bell (2017) filled the role.
 
Warren's departure came a day after news broke that defensive line coach Sal Sunseri is leaving UF after one season to return to Alabama, where he served as linebackers/assistant head coach from 2009-11. The Crimson Tide have yet to make an official announcement.

His son, former Alabama safety Vinnie Sunseri, joined Alabama's staff as a graduate assistant last week, meaning Sunseri will get to coach alongside the youngest of his two sons.

While neither move was expected, neither is surprising. Since his final season at Alabama in 2011, Sunseri has made stops at Tennessee (2012), Florida State (2013-14), the Oakland Raiders (2015-17) and Florida (2018). Meanwhile, Warren is making his fourth stop in four years after stints at North Carolina (2015-16), Tennessee (2017) and Florida (2018).

In today's college football landscape, when coaches are on the recruiting trail, they appear to be recruiting new staff members as much as players.

Mullen now has a pair of defensive openings to fill before National Signing Day on Feb. 6.

Quiz time: What do Sunseri and Warren now have in common with former Gators assistants Stan Drayton, Teryl Austin, Charlie Weis, Frank Verducci, Aubrey Hill, Bush Hamdan, Joker Phillips, Jeff Choate, Kurt Roper, Chris Leak, Coleman Hutzler, Brad Davis and Ja'Juan Seider?

Answer: All have served one-year stints on Florida's coaching staff this decade, joining Callahan, Gray and Bell.