Darnell Stapleton, the offensive line coach, has accepted a position with the Washington Commanders, so the Florida Gators will be looking to replace him. With Spring football just a few weeks away, Head Coach Billy Napier must rapidly fill another coaching position following Stapleton’s move into the National Football League.
Stapleton was one of Napier’s first hires, and in the two years that Napier has been the Gators’ head coach, his departure from the team makes him the eighth assistant to leave the programme.
Gator Country examines Florida’s possibilities for their next coaching hire.
HIRE ANOTHER OFFENSIVE LINE COACH
Since his time at Louisiana, Napier has been a head coach for six seasons. Florida now employs one offensive line coach (Rob Sale), but in five of those seasons, he has had two offensive line coaches on his staff. Under Napier, the Gators had two offensive line coaches in 2022 and 2023.
During his inaugural press conference in 2021, Napier stated, “You’ve got to coach five players when you’re coaching offensive line.” “Nobody has five DBs being coached by one coach. Why you wouldn’t have two individuals coaching the offensive line is beyond me.
It’s still possible for Florida to promote someone from within in 2024 even if they hire a new offensive line coach. Russ Callaway would be the front-runner for that position.
While Napier has preferred a two offensive line coach system, he did shy away from it in 2020 as Louisiana had just one offensive line coach and a special teams coordinator that season.
HIRE AN OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR
Florida could go hire an offensive coordinator and play caller for the 2024 season. However, I view this as unlikely based on Napier’s comments during the signing day press conference.
“I don’t see any major overhauls outside of just how we organize that group and now we operate in house,” Napier told the media on February 7th.
These comments were made before Stapleton accepted a job in the NFL, leaving the Florida program. So, there’s a possibility that Napier views this as an opportunity to go make a splash hire and bring on an offensive coordinator, leaving the offensive line in the hands of Rob Sale.
PROMOTE JOE HOUSTON (ST COACH)
Florida recently hired Joe Houston of the New England Patriots to serve as an analyst for the Special Teams unit.
“I think Joe Houston is an outstanding coach,” Napier said on Houston. “I think we’re not only acquiring an expert in the special-teams space, but we’re getting a guy who has four years of Coach Belichick and that organization. All those meetings and all those things observed, and things that he brings to our staff. I do think we did well statistically in some areas, but there was no doubt there were some organizational things that could have been done better. I think we added a layer of expertise and another set of eyes, another set of hands there in ultimately a big picture viewpoint. The situational football piece, too, will be put under that umbrella as well with he and Chris working together, so it’s good for the Gators, I hired Joe Houston for one day at Louisiana and then Bill hiredIn his first three seasons as a Louisiana player, Napier served as an on-field special teams coordinator. He then turned the position up to analyst Chris Couch, who accompanied Napier to Florida and continued in a comparable capacity.
Napier may elevate Joe Houston to the position of on-field special teams coordinator if he chooses not to appoint an offensive coordinator or another offensive line coach. By choosing this option, Florida would also have the chance to elevate someone from inside for the position of offensive coordinator and play calling. him. We’re fortunate to get him back.”
