Florida formally announces hiring of new offensive coordinator

Rob Sale and Billy Napier are together again. Florida officially announced Sale as its new offensive coordinator and offensive line coach on Tuesday.

Welcome to Gator Nation, @CoachRobSale!

➡️: https://t.co/WEe5P0Ipp2 pic.twitter.com/XA5v1zPfuN

— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) January 11, 2022

Sale worked as the New York Giants’ offensive line coach this past season after three years at Louisiana under Napier. After starting at the high school level in 2006, Sale headed to Alabama as a strength and condition coach and offensive analyst from 2007-11. While there, he helped the Crimson Tide to two national titles in 2009 and 2011.

McNeese State brought him aboard from 2012-14 as offensive line coach and, eventually, co-offensive coordinator. After one year at Georgia in 2015, Sale worked at Louisiana-Monroe in 2016 and Arizona State in 2017 before landing at Louisiana in 2018.

When Sale and Napier worked together from 2018-20, Louisiana averaged 34.5 points per game and had a 28-11 record. The Ragin’ Cajuns recorded seasons with double-digit wins in 2019-20, the first time the mark had been achieved in school history. Additionally, they won the school’s first Sun Belt championship in 2020.

Sale has his work cut out for him in Gainesville, though. Florida went 6-7 this past year and won just two SEC games. Granted, the offense largely was not the issue in Gainesville this season, as they posted 30.7 points per game and were fourth in yards per contest in the SEC.

Regardless, morale was low at Florida at the end of Mullen’s tenure, and Napier and Sale will need to flip the script to return the Gators to the top of the nation’s best college football conference.

Sale departed for the pros this season, but Napier still had immense success, leading to his move to Gainesville. Louisiana went 12-1 before Napier left, and they notched their 13th win the New Orleans bowl.

Napier and Sale are two of the younger bright minds in the game; they both turn 43 in July.

Billy Napier hires former Alabama defensive lineman at Florida

Former Alabama defensive lineman Alex Watkins is headed back to the SEC. He’s also reuniting with Billy Napier.

Watkins is joining Florida as an assistant strength and conditioning coach, the Gators announced Friday. He spent the last two years at Mississippi State, where he worked as a strength and conditioning coach. Before he went to Mississippi State, Watkins worked at Alabama-Birmingham, Texas Southern and Stillman College.

He played at Alabama from 2007-11 and won two national championships with the Crimson Tide. Napier worked as an analyst at Alabama on that 2011 national championship team.

Watkins played a year with the Tennessee Titans in 2012 before joining the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders in 2013. That’s when he headed to Stillman as head of the strength and conditioning department in 2014.

On3’s Ashton Pollard contributed to this report.