Florida expected to hire new offensive line coach

Agree. He's probably right where he needs to be now... at a lower level defensive position at his alma mater (with pressure relieved by the luxury of having plenty of offensive talent controlled by someone else).

 

So happy, worked so well before.

 

I think we all recognize that our O-line could have been better last year, and the year before, and the year before, etc.

But in spite of that, our offense was not bad at all, a thing very few on this board want to admit.

I don't pay much attention to all the offensive coaching yap, because it is pretty clear that we really, really, need to fix our defense. Not our offense.

 

I think you're making the correct point: this staff doesn't (didn't) need another coach for the offense. So why are you down on those who don't like this OL hire? To me, it just seems logically inconsistent.

 

The “they get paid for this” argument is so ineffective. Lots of people make lots of money for doing their job poorly. I’ve been a huge fan of most of CBN off field moves… I’ll compliment him when it’s smart and I’ll criticize when it’s not. Not ONE championship level coach is calling his own plays. We have mountains of evidence- some in recent history (mizzou) of coaches relinquishing that duty and winning. Yet, he will not. And he’s not even an innovator like Kiffen or Reilly. It makes zero sense
Not 1 coach in the country is using a 2 OL, 3 partial OC, 1.5 DC weird ass model like this and yet he’s doing it. saying “welp, I trust the guy who gets paid” is a red herring.

 

Then why not hire 1 more D assistant?

 

Most people trust their surgeon, until they get killed when they try to using a new technique. I mean using 2 scalpels should be faster than 1, right?

 

Where did Meyer use the extra coach?

 

How does one decide if it works or not?

 

In 2006, teams were allowed 1 less on field coach than we have now ….but here was the on field staff…

• 
  
• Steve Addazio – Tackles/Tight ends
• Stan Drayton – Running backs
• Billy Gonzales – Wide receivers
• Chuck Heater – Recruiting coordinator/cornerbacks
• John Hevesy – Centers/guards
• John "Doc" Holliday – Associate head coach/safeties
• Greg Mattison – Co-Defensive coordinator/defensive line
• Dan Mullen – Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks
• Charlie Strong – Assistant head coach/co-Defensive coordinator/linebackers

In this set up, every position has an on field coach. I guess that the difference between this staff and current staff….the QB coach (Mullen) is an on field coach unlike now, where he is an off field analyst.

current staff also has technically either 2 d line coaches (Warren and Peterson who coaches edge rushers) or two linebacker coaches (Roberts and Peterson OLB/Edge). Meyer had just one of each.

 

You are not the only person who has said the two O-line coaches has nor worked out.

I would agree with you but, you have to look at the last two season under Napier's HBC job at Florida.

In the first season, the Gator O-line was an emergency rebuild due to portal loses after Mullen got fired. To a degree, that line held up enough to have 6-6 regular season record and a defeat in the bowl game. Unfortunately, the Gator O-Line took a hit in losing players to the portal.

In the second season, the Gator O-line required another emergency rebuild. Fortunately, the Gator O-line did not take a deep hit with portal loses.

For this season, the Gator O-line has some veteran players returning to the team. The prior three or four season, the Gator O-line has lacked having a veteran team. Especially with guys sharing two or more season together.

The key to this coming season is continuity not just with the Gator O-line but with the other parts of the team too.

One omen to look for will the the O&B Spring Game. If the Gator O-line looks better, than we give credit to the recruiting, coaching, and to the players buying into the system.

 

Let’s hope the new OL coach has a dynamic personality and relates well to recruits. Scott Peters praise from Pats is great. No doubt a good OL tactician or coach. I’m hopeful kids develop strong rapport and want to play for him

 

I don’t put as much fault on the two o line coaches for the on field since they didn’t inherit a lot - maybe I should. But… while many recruits say they love the two o line coach set up, not one top 100 o linemen has committed over 3 classes (hard to expect one in the transition class)…


Here is the composite rankings of all the o linemen signed….

2022
Herman- JC not ranked
Farmer- ranked 690
Williams - ranked 1232
Conner - ranked 1023

2023
Kearny - 147
Jones - 368
Harris -456
Lovett- 648

2024
Westphal - 128
Williams - 1300
Portnjagin - 1050
Mascoll - 451


I am not making the argument that you can’t find diamonds in the rough with high school o linmen. But…with TWO on field coaches costing a combined amount more than any one position coach - should we have to rely on being the most superior scouting department in all of college football in order to have a good offensive line? Two blue chip o linemen signed in 3 classes is really bad- (it arguably could be the worst recruiting result in the country for any blue blood program) especially for having dedicated more on field resoruces than any other power 6 team in the country.


That is my big beef. It could be had we signed one or two 5 star tackles or guards in year 2 that the outlook for this years o line would be better. Not all 5 stars work out but many do contribute earlier than most projects.

 

That’s not good recruiting and competent coaching can’t overcome talent. Let’s hope these coaches found a bunch of diamonds but I have my doubts. Seems to me, our bags are probably light in the oline department.

 

Thanks for the info/data on the linemen rankings.
You would think that a school like UF would do better in landing some top 100 linemen.

I can make a reach and say that the Two Headed O-line coach can be a factor in the recruiting woes for top ranked O-linemen.

In my opinion the biggest factor that has hurt Gator O-linemen goes back five years ago.

• The poor recruiting and portal use by Mullen.
• The aftermath of the 2021 season (Mullen's last and firing).
• The bad NIL position that UF, and other Florida Colleges were up to the end of the 2022 season.
• The rebuild of the O-line for the 2023 season.

Those four items had more of an adverse impacted recruiting and retention than having 2 O-linemen coaches.

We need to play the old game of wait and see what the real issue was.

Hopefully this coming season the 2024 Gator O-line will have a very good year.
A good enough year to keep the current linemen here and to influence the future recruits.

 

I've heard for a long time that OL are underrated and notoriously hard to project.
So to bash the current coaches for not signing a top 100 OL seems misplaced.
I thought I'd heard that Westphal was pretty highly rated so I went back to the 24 top 100...
By my count there were only 9 OLs in the top 100, even though OLs are 23% of the starting positions.

That seems to bear out the statement that there are relatively few highly rated OLs.
So I'm not concerned that our coaches couldn't get one of the 9 top OLs, but I def agree we need better OL recruiting...

 

I do agree that the rating services don't rate enough OLinemen, or rate them high enough. Perhaps that has to do with their relative inability to identify really good ones. It is especially weird because LT is one of the most coveted positions in pro football.

All that being said, UF just got a commitment from a OLineman that doesn't even appear in 247's player database.

 

Exactly! If our defense was just a little stronger we would have finished over .500.

In addition, if our QB does not get hurt we win our last two games and are also over .500.

If both happen we are a strong bowl team showing great progress.

Yes, I know about IFs and BUTs but it shows that we are not that far away from a good season.

Although we have a very difficult schedule this year.

 

The curious case of Rob Sale, Billy’s BFF:

The both were on staff together at Alabama in 2011. Billy was an offensive analyst - Sale was an assistant strength coach.

From 2012-2014 Sale was the OL coach at McNeese State.

In 2015 he was the OL coach at UGA. Only 1 year, was not retained.

In 2016 the best gig he could muster was the OL coach at Louisiana-Monroe for $100k per.

In 2017 Billy lands the OC job at Arizona State. He talks Todd Graham into hiring his buddy Rob Sale as the OL coach, for $325k per.

In 2018 Billy gets the HC job a Louisiana-Lafayette and obviously brings Sale with him. This time he gets the OC/OL title and 2nd OL coach is hired. He is paid $325k, a lot for a OL coach at a small program.

In 2021 after 2yrs at ULL he jumps to the NY Giants OL coach. I would imagine this was for more $$$, likely in the 500-600k range. This was only for one season and again he wasn’t retained.

In 2022 Billy lands the UF HC gig and guess who’s out of job. Billy rescues Sale and this time being flush with mega Gator bucks gives his buddy the OC/OL title and $1mil per on a 2yr contract. Why?? This was ridiculous, imho.

After 2yrs the OL is the weakest position group on the team. I don’t even see how this is even debatable. Recruiting is, well much of the same….and this position group has 2 coaches too.

Stapleton was given a contract extension but after on his own accord decided to make the move to the league and Washington. So another junior OL coach was recently hired to replace him, a guy that absolutely no one had ever heard of before.

Billy is supposedly big on evaluations. He jettisoned the 2 defensive coaches within 48yrs of seasons end. So why didn’t he use the same evaluation standards on the coaches of a clearly worse position group?? Yes, I contend it’s because of the buddy system.

In 2024 Rob Sale was given a 2yr contract extension paying him another $1mil per. He is the second highest paid assistant on the staff, ponder that for a bit. Did he really earn & deserve that, straight up? Now that Calloway has been promoted to Co-OC, won’t those supposed duties be split up more? Sale couldn’t go out and land another OL gig for half of what he’s being paid here, imho. Is laminating play sheets really worth an extra $500k..

UF will spend $1.35mil on 2 OL coaches this year. Billy should’ve taken that and went out and poached the best OL coach in the country, not one is making that much, if he was really serious about upgrading. The assistant staff will actually make less this year vs last year, so there was more funds available for this. Can’t do that to your BFF though, again imho.