Paul Pasqualoni Leaves Florida Gators for Carolina Panthers
Photo: Paul Pasqualoni; Credit: Alex Shepherd
The Florida Gators are losing an off-field staff member to the NFL, as director of advanced scouting and self-scout Paul Pasqualoni has been named the new defensive line coach for the Carolina Panthers, the team announced on Tuesday.
Pasqualoni, 72, spent the last two seasons on Florida's off-field staff as a special assistant to the head coach, Dan Mullen. He was promoted to the on-field staff as the Gators' outside linebackers coach following defensive coordinator Todd Grantham's firing in November, and was retained by new head coach Billy Napier in a new role after Mullen was let go weeks later.
Napier spoke very highly of Pasqualoni in January, not long after the announcement of his retention in late December.
"Coach P, he’s a legend, right. I mean this guy, I’ve heard his name my entire coaching career," Napier said. "I knew pretty quickly when I sat down with him, his wisdom, experience, knowledge, in a lot of different areas, to have the opportunity to have a guy like that around – and didn’t anticipate that happening, right – but the more conversations we had, the more it became apparent to me that this guy could help us win. He could help us improve our team and our organization."
To expand upon his legend, Pasqualoni was the head coach at Syracuse for 14 years from 1991-2004, re-establishing the program's national relevance by joining the Big East in Pasqualoni's first year on the job — as a previously independent school — and immediately winning big games. He led the Orange to four conference championship titles and a 6-2 record in bowl games in his first 11 seasons.
Pasqualoni also served as the head coach at Connecticut from 2011-13 and has served as either the defensive coordinator or a position coach for five NFL teams: The Dallas Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Chicago Bears, Houston Texans and Detroit Lions.
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