Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The initial response on social media, which serves these days as the home of hot takes that often age quickly into cold takes, was that Florida's coaching staff was unraveling at the seams.

The 365-days-a-year diehards wanted to know what was happening inside the Heavener Football Training Center.

The reality is nothing as dramatic as many imagined. Gators assistant coaches Patrick Toney, William Peagler and Keary Colbert left in the span of a week for the NFL, departing Gainesville for gigs at the game's highest level. That left Florida head coach Billy Napier with three positions open on his coaching staff.

Was the timing ideal? Probably not, as spring camp neared. Still, Napier is no rookie when filling vacancies and experienced similar attrition when he was head coach at Louisiana.

He carried those lessons with him when he took over Florida.

"Always intentional about keeping up with people you were impressed with along the way,'' Napier said this week. "And then immediately, being a head coach and going through that process of hiring a staff, it became pretty obvious: 'hey, you've got to prepare to do this every year.' Because each year you are going to have turnover.

"But it's almost a fun part of what we do. You've got a job opening, and it's fun to go out and identify the right people for the right job. It's like putting a team together. We're very fortunate that we had pretty good resources at Louisiana relative to where we were. The administration really helped us a lot. The same thing at Florida."

Napier quickly identified a target to replace Toney as co-defensive coordinator. It didn't matter that Austin Armstrong, Southern Mississippi's defensive coordinator the past two seasons, had just been hired by Alabama's Nick Saban to coach linebackers. He then turned his attention to the tight ends, where he promoted Russ Callaway, a staff analyst with coaching experience in college and the NFL, to coach the position. Finally, Napier went to work on filling the receivers coach position vacated by Colbert, who left to join the Denver Broncos. He officially announced Thursday the hire of Billy Gonzales, a familiar face around campus and one of the most respected receivers coaches in the country. Napier's philosophy is that he wants members of his coaching staff to have opportunities to further their careers and to have a reputation as someone others want to work for when openings occur.

"There's a reason we got here," Napier said. "We had really good people. I think one of the things that you figure out pretty quickly when you get put in these leadership positions is you're really only as good as the people you surround yourself with."

Callaway and Napier crossed paths on Saban's staff in 2011 when both were analysts, Napier on offense and Callaway on defense. Both soon moved on, and while Callaway had never worked directly under Napier until last season, he had worked with UF offensive line coach Rob Sale on the New York Giants staff in 2021.

He could have stayed in New York a season ago with another year on his contract, but Callaway largely followed Sale to UF because of his respect for Napier, his relationships with others already at UF, and Napier's people-first approach.

"That was one of the things that dad always beat on," said Callaway, whose father, Neil Callaway, is a veteran college coach now in the USFL. "He always said, 'look, it doesn't matter what logo is on your chest, whether you're at the University of Georgia, Alabama, Florida, whatever. If you're not happy with the people you work around, you'll be miserable.' He was so right now that I've been in it a while. I felt comfortable, and I knew the type of person that Coach Napier was, that Rob was, that Mark Hocke was and I knew the type of people they were first, and when I decided I was going to move my family across the country, I'm going to do it with people I trust."

Since taking over the Gators in December 2021, Napier has emphasized building an organization built on integrity and treating everyone from top to bottom with respect. His philosophy has earned him a reputation as someone you want as your boss.

 

THE NAPIER TREE
A look at assistant coaches hired by Billy Napier at Louisiana and where they are now, and those he hired at Florida who have moved on for other positions.

COACH	WITH NAPIER	CURRENT POSITION
Rob Sale	Louisiana, Florida	Offensive line/0ffensive coordinator at Florida
Ron Roberts	Louisiana	Defensive coordinator at Auburn
Michael Desormeaux	Louisiana	Head coach at Louisiana
Zac Etheridge	Louisiana	Secondary/safeties at Auburn
Jabbar Juluke	Louisiana, Florida	Assistant head coach/running backs at Florida
Tim Leger	Louisiana	Offensive coordinator/recruiting head at Louisiana
Matt Powledge	Louisiana	Defensive coordinator at Baylor
Rory Segrest	Louisiana	Assistant defensive line coach Jacksonville Jaguars
Patrick Toney	Louisiana, Florida	Defensive backs coach Arizona Cardinals
William Peagler	Louisiana, Florida	Assistant defensive line coach Arizona Cardinals
Mark Hocke	Louisiana, Florida	Strength coach at Florida
Austin Armstrong	Louisiana, Florida	Defensive coordinator at Florida
Karl Scott	Louisiana*	Defensive passing game coordinator Seattle Seahawks
Keary Colbert	Florida	Receivers coach Denver Broncos
Lamar Morgan	Louisiana	Defensive coordinator at Louisiana
Robby Discher	Louisiana	Special teams coordinator/tight ends at Illinois
Jeff Burris	Louisiana	Cornerbacks coach at Louisiana
Jeff Norrid	Louisiana	Offensive line/run game coordinator at Louisiana
Galen Scott	Louisiana	Inside linebackers coach at Louisiana
Darnell Stapleton	Louisiana, Florida	Assistant offensive line coach at Florida
Wes Neighbors	Louisiana	Safeties coach at Ole Miss

*Took job as defensive coordinator but left soon thereafter for a position at Alabama.

He is also a strong advocate for his staff as they move through their careers, whether while they are with him or when they leave.

"I do aspire to be a head coach one day, and when you work for a guy like Coach Napier, he empowers you,'' the 29-year-old Armstrong said. "We have parameters set by him, but we're doing our own thing. You make many of those decisions on the run, some of them are good, and some are bad, but you're making them.

"A lot of people that have not been in decision-making roles have issues when it's time to make a decision because they have the anxiety of making a decision because there is a consequence when you make the decision. [With Coach], when you make decisions, you have confidence. 'Hey, I know this is going to work.' He builds that confidence in you."

In five seasons as a head coach, Napier's coaching tree has started to blossom across the game at the college and professional levels. While Toney, Peagler and Colbert are the most recent to land in the NFL – Colbert had been there before – Rory Segrest, his first defensive line coach at Louisiana, is now assistant defensive line coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Meanwhile, Karl Scott, originally hired at Louisiana in 2018 as defensive coordinator before bolting for a position at Alabama, is an assistant in Seattle.

Others from his staff have prominent positions in college, including Auburn defensive coordinator Ron Roberts, who served as Louisiana's defensive coordinator under Napier.

Napier was a committed pupil at Alabama, seeing how the game changed during his two stints on Saban's staff.

"I think the ability to handle attrition is a big reason why he has been able to sustain, certainly building layers in the building relative to all parts of the organization,'' Napier said. "We actually have someone assigned that responsibility throughout the year. When you run into good people, I just funnel them to that guy, and he keeps up with it. Whenever we get a job opening, we pull it out and look at it. Sometimes you got the immediate, 'yeah, that's where we're going, let's get him here,' and sometimes it's like, 'alright, who are the best candidates?' You really lean on the people in your building because you are always looking for that trust element. Someone has to put their name on it. Someone you trust stamps them.

"All I can say about it is that I really believe it's the most important thing you do as a head coach is hiring. You've got to hire well. You've got to hire the right level of character and integrity, the right level of expertise, personalities have got to mesh, the egos have got to mesh, then the recruiting dynamic is kind of the final piece of the puzzle. We would not be here today without all these people."

Napier revised that list of future candidates this spring.