Analysis of the Florida Gators Reported Next Set of Coaching Hires
Photo: Billy Napier; Credit: Alex Shepherd
Not long before the Gasparilla Bowl kicked off on Thursday night, it was reported that Billy Napier's Florida Gators are poised to hire a handful of well-qualified assistants to round out his initial UF coaching staff.
Barring any setbacks over the next two weeks and change, Florida is expected to hire New York Giants offensive line coach Rob Sale and Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach Karl Scott, according to FootballScoop.
The Athletic also reported on Thursday that Napier is also pursuing Los Angeles Rams defensive line coach Eric Henderson.
In addition, FootballScoop reported that Napier has been in discussions with Chicago Bears defensive line coach Chris Rumph about joining the staff and has targeted Auburn director of football operations Josh Thompson for an elevated off-field staff position.
Most if not all of these potential hirings are expected to be made official after the conclusion of the 2021 NFL season. FootballScoop and The Athletic reported conflicting expected positions for several coaches, so we'll try to make sense of where each coach could fit in below.
Which positions could each potential hire coach?
Sale is expected to fill an "elevated offensive assistant role" that will include an influence on schemes, per FootballScoop, seemingly the offensive coordinator position although Napier intends to call plays. This is a logical fit as Sale was the offensive coordinator/offensive line coach alongside Napier, who called plays, at Louisiana from 2018-20.
Scott, meanwhile, could earn the label of co-defensive coordinator/outside linebackers coach, via FootballScoop, although The Athletic reported that Scott will be the co-DC/inside linebackers coach. Scott has coached defensive backs for the majority of his career, but previously coached the linebacker unit as a whole at Southeastern Louisiana from 2012-13.
Patrick Toney (co-DC/safeties) and Corey Raymond (assistant head coach-defense/cornerbacks) have already been hired as defensive backs coaches, forcing Scott to work with a different position than he's coached recently should he officially join the staff. Regardless, he will work alongside Toney as co-DC.
Henderson will be Florida's next defensive line coach, according to The Athletic. This is also a logical fit, as Henderson has mentored the NFL's best defensive lineman in Aaron Donald for the last three years. Donald earned the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2020 with Henderson's coaching and is in the midst of a six-year First-Team All-Pro run.
With only one spot remaining to fill should these hires go through, and should Rumph decide to join Napier's staff, he would be left to coach whichever linebackers position Scott doesn't take. It is worth noting that Rumph has coached outside linebackers in six of his 24 years as a coach, but never worked with inside linebackers.
Or, perhaps, Napier would elect to split the defensive line coaching position in two, pairing Rumph with Henderson and awarding Scott the entire linebacker room. In this case, the positions would likely be split into defensive ends/edge rushers and interior defensive linemen, and both Henderson and Rumph are qualified to coach both units. This is in theory as Napier has been very thorough in creating job titles.
As mentioned above, Thompson is being targeted for an off-field role. Thompson has college (Auburn) and limited pro football playing experience and previously was the director of recruiting at Arkansas, as well as the director of recruiting and football logistics under Napier at Louisiana in 2018. He was also a player personnel assistant at Texas A&M in 2017.
Get to know the potential new on-field hires
Rob Sale
Sale was a three-year starting offensive lineman at LSU during his Tigers career (1998-2002) before joining the coaching ranks in 2006. He quickly made a jump to Alabama where he served as a strength and conditioning assistant and offensive analyst for the Crimson Tide from 2007-11, working with Napier under head coach Nick Saban in 2011.
Since, Sale has made his way across the country, primarily as an offensive line coach but also in the occasional coordinator role. He's spent time with McNeese State (2012-14), Georgia (2015), Louisiana-Monroe (2016), Arizona State (2017, with Napier), Louisiana (2018-20, with Napier) and the New York Giants (2021), coaching in an on-field role with each team.
Sale developed two Louisiana offensive linemen into 2020 NFL Draft picks, that being Robert Hunt (Miami Dolphins, second round) and Kevin Dotson (Pittsburgh Steelers, fourth round).
Karl Scott
Scott jumped around several smaller colleges in Louisiana before making a jump to the Power 5, first coaching defensive backs at Texas Tech from 2016-17.
Scott's performance with the Red Raiders earned him a job on Saban's Alabama Staff as the Crimson Tide's defensive backs coach in 2018 and solely cornerbacks coach from 2019-20, before joining the pros with the Minnesota Vikings this season in the same position. Scott has never worked with Napier personally, but the two own a connection through Saban.
During his time at Alabama, in particular, Scott emerged as an ace assistant at the college level. Scott oversaw the development of eventual defensive back draft picks for the Crimson Tide in safety Deionte Thomspon (2019 fifth round, Arizona Cardinals), safety Xavier McKinney (2020 second round, New York Giants), cornerback Trevon Diggs (2020 second round, Dallas Cowboys), and cornerback Patrick Surtain (2021 first round, Denver Broncos).
Scott proved himself to be an elite recruiter for Alabama, as well. He played a part in the Crimson Tide landing four consensus five-star prospects and 12 consensus top-100 players out of high school, among many other recruits. Surtain, Tommy Brockermeyer, Jordan Battle, Kool-Aid McKinstry, Brian Branch, and Jojo Earle were recruited to Alabama in part if not fully by Scott, just to name a few prospects.
Eric Henderson
Henderson has held the position of defensive line coach for the Los Angeles Rams for three years now, working with not only the NFL's best defensive lineman in recent memory in Donald but also former Florida edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr., Michael Brockers, and other disruptive trench men.
Donald contemplated skipping organized training activities in 2019, rightfully so for a player of his caliber, but told media that he elected to attend because he had already grown to enjoy working with Henderson.
“[Henderson's] definitely a guy – once I saw the drills, after I got to talk to him and get to pick his brain a little bit – he’s a big reason why I wanted to continue to learn and I felt like what he was teaching me could benefit me and help me a whole lot as far as improving my game," Donald said in 2019. "It’s like I always say, I want to get better, and that’s what I’ve got to do. Listen to coach and work it.”
Henderson was snatched by the Rams after two years nearby with the Los Angeles Chargers, where he was the assistant defensive line coach and worked with Pro Bowl edge rusher Joey Bosa and other contributors such as Melvin Ingram and Corey Liuget.
Henderson's college coaching experience is limited to five years in the ranks, including three as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State (2013-15). But Henderson's productive college career at Georgia Tech, time playing in the pros, and experience coaching some of the NFL's most dominant defensive linemen makes him an incredible addition to Napier's staff regardless.
Chris Rumph
This wouldn't be Rumph's first Gainesville rodeo should he elect to join Napier's staff, as Rumph served as the Gators' defensive line coach from 2015-16 and was promoted to co-defensive coordinator in 2017 during Jim McElwain's final season as Florida's head coach. Disappointing as that season may have been, Rumph developed defensive tackle Taven Bryan into a 2018 first-round pick (Jacksonville Jaguars) that year while Cece Jefferson and Jabari Zuniga each had productive campaigns, too.
Rumph was Zachary Carter's primary recruiter to UF as well, and Carter is about to become an NFL Draft pick himself.
Florida isn't the only powerhouse school that Rumph worked for before jumping to the pros in 2020, spending time at Clemson (2006-10), Alabama (2011-13), Texas (2014), and Tennessee (2018-19) before one-year stints with the Houston Texans (2020) and the Chicago Bears (2021).
Working as the defensive line or outside linebackers coach at each stop, Rumph has lent his hand in developing the likes of the late Gaines Adams, Da'Quan Bowers, Courtney Upshaw, A'Shawn Robinson, Jonathan Allen, Hassan Ridgeway, Malcolm Brown, Jonathan Bullard, Caleb Brantley, Jonathan Greenard (in the NFL), and countless other players.
AllGators projected on-field Florida coaching staff
Based on the reported expected hirings paired with coaches that have already officially joined the staff in an announced role.
*denotes officially hired
HC/co-OC/QB: Billy Naper*
RB/AHC-offense: Jabaar Juluke*
WR: Keary Colbert*
TE: William Peagler*
OL/co-OC: Rob Sale
Assistant OL: Darnell Stapleton*
DL: Eric Henderson
OLB: Chris Rumph
ILB/co-DC: Karl Scott
CB/AHC-defense: Corey Raymond*
S/co-DC: Patrick Toney*
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