Florida Gators Targeting Georgia Tech's Director of Scouting

The Florida Gators continue to build out its front office under general manager Dave Caldwell.

The Florida Gators continue to build out its front office under general manager Dave Caldwell. | Matt Pendleton / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida Gators continue to build out its front office for the football program, this time by targeting Georgia Tech's director of scouting Cody Collins, according to multiple reports.

CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz was first to report the expected hiring.

Florida is expected to hire Georgia Tech director of scouting Cody Collins, sources tell @CBSSports.

Before Georgia Tech, Collins worked in the personnel and recruiting department at Georgia from 2020-24. pic.twitter.com/m0shx1RUlN

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) February 1, 2026

Collins comes to Florida after two seasons at Georgia Tech, where he worked with now-Gators offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner and was with transfers Aaron Philo, Luke Harpring, Harrison Moore and Bailey Stockton, who all followed Faulkner to Gainesville.

Prior to his stint at Georgia Tech, Collins was a player personnel analyst at Georgia from 2020-24, during which he earned his degree at Georgia in 2022. Of note, Faulkner overlapped with Collins at Georgia, too, from 2020-22, when he was a quality control coach for the Bulldogs.

Collins joins an extensive front office staff for the Gators football program led by general manager Dave Caldwell, who joined the program after a long career in the NFL, which included stops as the general manager for the Jacksonville Jaguars and as a senior personnel director for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Caldwell was instrumental in Florida's recruiting, retention and portal efforts this offseason alongside new head coach Jon Sumrall. Together, Sumrall and Caldwell signed 18 of the 19 existing commitments at the time of their hirings, while adding one more in four-star safety Dylan Purter. Additionally, the Gators retained over 40 players from last year's roster, including its five most-important players in Jadan Baugh, Dallas Wilson, Vernell Brown III, Myles Graham and Jayden Woods, and signed 30 players out of the NCAA Transfer Portal.

Sumrall recently detailed how he and Caldwell work together in the recruiting area of the program.

"Dave's been a blessing for me," Sumrall said last week. "As a head football coach, there's a lot of things you're juggling. I'm still making roster decisions. So it's not like, I'm like, 'Dave, you go get the players and I'll just coach them.' I'm ridiculously involved in every player we take. And I'm not just going, 'Yeah, do whatever you want.' But what Dave does, it allows me to really maybe focus on the top guys that we're pursuing and maybe get our list whittled down for maybe 100 guys to 10 guys. So I watch 10, and then I kind of maybe from there, evaluate who we really want to prioritize.

"So Dave's been very helpful for me. He's been great to work with. He's been a pleasure to work with. He's got great insight, tremendous experience, really low-ego, high-output guy, man. So really like working with Dave every day. That's been huge."