At the top of its special teams division, Florida is allegedly appointing an NFL assistant to manage the group in addition to analyst Chris Couch.
All Gators can confirm that Florida has hired Joe Houston to serve as a senior analyst overseeing the team’s special teams.
After four seasons as the New England Patriots’ assistant special teams coach, Houston, 37, will join the Gators off the field.
It was Jacob Rudner of Swamp247 who originally revealed that Houston would be hired soon.
Houston brings to the Gators eight years of collegiate special teams coaching expertise in addition to four from his professional career. Prior to being given the chance to join the Patriots, he was scheduled to coach special teams for Nick Saban at Alabama in 2020.
While in New England, Houston collaborated with special teams coordinator Cam Achord and associate head coach Joe Judge to prepare and organize the Pats’ special teams units and support the growth of the team’s kickers.
Houston played four seasons at Iowa State before joining the NFL, serving as the team’s special teams coordinator in 2018. Cole Netten and Garrett Owens, two kickers he coached, were named All Big-12 in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
Houston, a native of Redondo Beach, California, entered the coaching ranks following a brief semi-professional career and a 2007–10 kicker career at the University of Southern California. In 2010, he was named to the Trojans starting lineup, and he made 10-of-16 field goals and all 43 of his extra-point attempts.
After graduating, he played in the Arena Football League for the Chicago Rush and Nebraska Danger. He is most remembered for tying an AFL record with 11 extra-point conversions in a single game when playing for the Rush in 2012.
Houston will be in charge of Florida’s special teams and situational football division alongside analyst Chris Couch.
Since being hired in 2022, Couch has served as Florida’s “GameChanger Coordinator,” an analyst position that has given him control over the Gators’ special teams off the field for the previous two seasons.
Throughout that period, the unit’s performance was far from satisfactory.
Florida nearly averaged one special teams penalty per game between 2022 and 2023, with 24 in total. The most egregious of these included the deployment of two players with the same jersey number on the same play against Utah in 2023. Despite this, the kicking and returning teams improved slightly year over year with personnel changes. Less than 11 players on the pitch was also regularly recorded in individual units.
See the complete coaching history of Houston below.
020-23: New England Patriots (NFL): Assistant Special Teams Coach
2019: Iowa State, Associate for Quality Control
2018: Iowa State, Special Teams Coordinator
2016-17: Iowa State – Associate in Quality Control
2015: Toledo, Quality Control Assistant
