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Florida Gators assistant coach Jamar Chaney is set to join Mike Leach's staff at Mississippi State as a defensive analyst, Sports Illustrated - AllGators has confirmed. The news was initially reported by 247Sports.

Chaney spent one year on Florida's staff as a director of player personnel and assistant linebackers coach. The 33-year old former Mississippi State linebacker makes his way back to Starkville after four years of coaching with Florida and as the head coach for his high school alma mater, St. Lucie West Centennial High School (Fla.).

During his five years at Mississippi State from 2005-09, Chaney tallied 286 total tackles, 4.5 sacks, 15.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions, four defended passes, and one forced fumble. Chaney went on to be selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the seventh round of the 2010 NFL Draft, spending three seasons with the Eagles before hopping around the Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos, and Oakland Raiders' rosters for the remainder of his six-year career.

A report from Yahoo Sports emerged on Monday that the Gators had added former NFL assistant and college head coach Paul Pasqualoni as an off-field assistant. However, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin contradicted the timing in the report in a Zoom conference call with media on Tuesday.

"Don't believe everything you read as far as timing on stuff," said Stricklin. "We’ve not really had very many, I don’t know other than backfilling positions that we need, we’ve been pretty restrained during this time. We want to conserve our resources as much as we can to make sure we continue to provide for our athletes."