Louisiana native Jacob LaFrance is settling into his new home at Florida. (Photo: Lexi Turner for UAA Communications)
LaFrance Leads Gators' Deep Dive Into The Jimmys And The Joes
Tuesday, February 1, 2022 | Football, Scott Carter
Share:
By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Long before Jacob LaFrance stopped by the LSU football offices to ask about a student position in 2009, the Baton Rouge native knew what made Tiger Stadium roar on Saturday nights.
LaFrance was born into an LSU family. His father once spent his free time taking photos for Tiger Rag Magazine, which bills itself as "The Bible of LSU Sports." If LSU was playing, LaFrance usually put the rest of the world on hold.
By the time he was in high school, LaFrance wasn't just an avid fan, he was a student of the Jimmys and the Joes in purple and gold.
LaFrance could tell you as much about potential Tigers as those on the field, a result of his deep interest in the recruiting industry that blossomed in the late 1990s via websites Rivals.com and Scout.com.
So, when he shifted his major to sports management, LaFrance wondered if there was an opportunity to combine two of his passions as a member of LSU's recruiting department.
"I fell in love with it right away,'' he said. "They trained me and I got involved in it, and I really liked it a lot, but I didn't know if I could make a career out of it."
Short answer: yes.
More than a decade later, LaFrance was one of Gators head coach Billy Napier's first hires, introduced as UF's director of player personnel on Dec. 17. He spent the previous three seasons with Napier at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in the same capacity.
Austin Thomas, LSU's director of player personnel when LaFrance showed up and who later became the football program's general manager, was impressed right away by LaFrance's knowledge and eagerness to make his mark.
Soon, LaFrance was one of his go-to student assistants.
"He just immediately stood out to me,'' Thomas said. "The passion he had for what he was doing, I think it was pretty obvious from an early stage, that if this is something that he wanted to pursue, that he was going to be successful. He worked on himself and his craft and what he was doing, and made it evident through his daily actions."
LaFrance has stormed from the gate in his brief time at Florida, helping Napier and his coaching staff build a UF recruiting board in a short span by evaluating player film, identifying targets, appraising current roster needs and various other tasks that it takes to succeed in the 24/7 recruiting world that exists today.
Despite being from Louisiana and his father living in Lafayette, LaFrance and his wife had no reservations about uprooting their life there and joining Napier at UF. LaFrance connected with Napier's philosophy while at Louisiana and has worked closely with several other members on the Gators staff Napier has assembled.
Gators Director of Player Personnel Jacob LaFrance spent the past three seasons at Louisiana. (Photo: Lexi Turner/For UAA Communications)
"In my role, you have to work with a head coach that puts an emphasis on recruiting and the processes that go into recruiting because if you don't work for somebody like that, it handicaps what you can do,'' LaFrance said. "If the message isn't brought from the top down to the assistants, then me sitting here trying to communicate that to the assistants but the head coach isn't on the same page, it's not going to work. He puts an emphasis on it and I just think the relationship that is there between us is something that I value a lot.
"When it came to this opportunity, it was a no-brainer."
LaFrance's rise in the profession coincides with the growth of player personnel departments on college campuses across the country. Many schools didn't have a director of player personnel position a decade ago. Not too long ago, one of the assistant coaches usually carried the extra title of recruiting coordinator.
Nowadays, most of the top programs have an office filled with staff members focused solely on recruiting, or those who make up the "army" of support personnel Napier alluded to at his introductory press conference last month.
Still, following his stint at LSU, first as a student assistant and then for a year as a temporary employee, LaFrance faced an uncertain future in the summer of 2014. He wanted to continue in the field, but missed out on opportunities at Tulane, Kentucky and Duke.
"I was looking for a job, looking for a job,'' he said. "I was striking out."
He worked at a restaurant to help pay the bills and relied on mentors like Thomas, former LSU running backs coach/recruiting coordinator Frank Wilson, and Sherman Morris, who served a stint as LSU's director of player personnel in LaFrance's time there, for support and direction.
Finally, with fall camp about to start, former LSU graduate assistant John Dunn, then tight ends coach at Maryland, helped LaFrance get a job as a recruiting analyst with the Terrapins. He packed his bags and spent two seasons at Maryland before rejoining Wilson, hired as head coach at the University of Texas-San Antonio, as director of player personnel for the Roadrunners. While at USTA, he developed ties to Gators co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney, who joined Napier in 2018 at Louisiana.
"I stayed committed to it,'' LaFrance said.
Thomas is thankful he did.
"I know it wasn't easy for him,'' Thomas said. "He was unsure what he wanted to do. He needed to get a job. He was sure about the career path, but not how he was going to make it work. Then he gets that opportunity at Maryland and has a chance to go up there and learn and grow. He left and did what he needed to do."
Three jobs later, LaFrance knows exactly what it's going to take for the Gators to climb back up the ladder to the top of the Southeastern Conference. He saw it firsthand early in his journey at LSU when the Tigers won the SEC championship before losing a rematch against Alabama for the national championship.
The X's and O's are important, but the Jimmys and the Joes are vital.
"Our main goal is to build a recruiting board in the database and everything that is involved with that. We facilitate the evaluation process for the staff. We identify the prospects and then we present them to the staff as guys that they need to evaluate to build our recruiting board,'' LaFrance said. "When you first get here, everybody is excited about it and telling you the guys you need to recruit. What we really tried to do was, 'OK, hold on a second, let us get in here and figure this thing out. Go through our process. Don't break our process.
"Even though we have a short window here, let's still do everything that our process entails and everything we believe in, which is being patient and very thorough. You want to be patient and thorough and make sure you do a good job, because there's always going to be good players out there. There will always be good players that you can get."
That sounds like the guy who walked into Thomas' office 12 years ago. Knowledgeable. Eager. And committed to the process.
"Jacob will be such an asset there at Florida,'' Thomas said. "He's a guy that has a lot of humility and understands the value of hard work. I have enjoyed seeing him have success."
Florida Football | Sean Kelley, Coach Sumrall, Coach Spurrier, and Coach MeyerFlorida Football | Sean Kelley, Coach Sumrall, Coach Spurrier, and Coach Meyer
Friday, December 12
Florida Football | Head Coach Jon Sumrall Sits Down with Gator Greats Steve Spurrier and Urban MeyerFlorida Football | Head Coach Jon Sumrall Sits Down with Gator Greats Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer
Friday, December 12
Florida Football | Urban Meyer & Nick Saban Interview | 2025 NFF Annual Awards DinnerFlorida Football | Urban Meyer & Nick Saban Interview | 2025 NFF Annual Awards Dinner
Wednesday, December 10
Coach Meyer and Coach Saban - Hall of Fame 12-09-25Coach Meyer and Coach Saban - Hall of Fame 12-09-25
