Florida Gators

Chris Couch enters his fourth season with the Gators after being named GameChanger coordinator ahead of the 2022 season. As an analyst, his role focuses on the special teams unit.
 
A native of Milledgeville, Ga., Couch spent the 2021 season with Billy Napier at Louisiana as UL’s special teams coordinator and the director of quality control & analytics.

In 2024, Couch helped guide Florida to a late-season charge, winning the last four games of the season to finish with an 8-5 record overall, with victories over No. 21 LSU, No. 9 Ole Miss, Florida State and Tulane in the 16^th Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl. The Gators were one of just unranked six teams in the nation to post multiple top-25 wins on the year.
 
It was a tremendous season on special teams for Florida, as the unit ranked second in the nation in both the ESPN SP+ and FEI Special Teams rankings. The Gators also tied for the national lead in fewest blocked kicks and blocked punts allowed, ranked 11^th in net punting (42.37) and 18^th in punt returns (13.36).
 
Individually, Rocco Underwood won the Mannelly Award for the best long snapper in the nation and earned Second-Team All-America accolades from the AFCA and Second-Team All-SEC honors, while punter Jeremy Crawshaw was named a Reese’s Senior Bowl All-American after finishing fifth in the nation in punting (45.7). Kicker Trey Smack ended the season ranked 24^th in the country in field goal percentage (.857). hitting 18-of-21 field goals, with a long of 55.
 
Crawshaw ended his career as the program’s all-time leader in career punt average at 46.4. On the return side, Jadan Baugh was one of eight SEC players to own two 30-yard plus kick returns and one of 11 freshmen in the FBS to do so. Out of Chimere Dike’s 14 returns, four of them went for 20-plus yards, making him one of 23 players in the FBS to accomplish the feat.
 
The Ragin’ Cajuns ranked 15th nationally in punting average and fourth in the Sun Belt Conference in kick return yardage during Couch’s lone season in Lafayette.
 
Prior to joining the Ragin’ Cajuns, Couch spent five seasons at Tulane (2016-20), where he worked as the special teams analyst and recruiting coordinator. During his last three seasons at Tulane, the Green Wave ranked in the top half of the American Athletic Conference and top-50 nationally in both kick and punt returns.
 
Prior to Tulane, Couch served as a special teams coordinator and linebackers coach at Point University during the 2015 season, helping the Skyhawks to a 9-3 overall record, a perfect 5-0 conference record and their first-ever NAIA playoff appearance.
 
Among the NAIA national leaders, the Skyhawks ranked third in net punting, 20th in punt return yardage and 30th in kickoff return yardage.
 
Before joining Point University, Couch worked as a defensive graduate assistant at Georgia Southern. He assisted with linebackers in 2014 and defensive tackles in 2013. During his stint at Georgia Southern, he was part of a perfect 8-0 Sun Belt Conference record in 2014, while assisting in the coaching of future NFL players Edwin Jackson, Antwoine Williams and Ironhead Gallon.
 
Couch was the slot backs coach at Missouri Southern State University in 2012. With a 6-5 record, the Lions recorded their first winning season in a number of years, highlighted by an overtime win over second-ranked Missouri Western.
 
Couch earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Georgia Southern in 2011 and his master’s degree in high education administration from Georgia Southern in 2015.