Florida to hire Washington's Robert Bala as co-defensive coordinator, linebackers coach

Florida is set to hire Robert Bala as its co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, according to a report from CBS Sports. On3’s Gators Online confirmed the hire. He was Washington’s linebackers coach this past season after holding the same role at Alabama.

Bala will replace Austin Armstrong, who held the role for the last two years before taking over at Houston. He was part of Saban’s final staff at Alabama and ultimately wasn’t retained under new coach Kalen DeBoer, which led him to Seattle under Jedd Fisch.

Bala got his coaching career started in 2009 at the JUCO level at Snow community college. He then worked his way up and had a stint as an intern with the Oakland Raiders in 2014, and landed his first defensive coordinator job at Southern Utah from 2018-21.

As co-defensive coordinator, Robert Bala will work closely with Ron Roberts, who joined the staff last year and will keep his same role, Gators Online reported. Billy Napier hinted at the possibility of adding another coach to the defensive staff during his National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday, as well.

“We potentially here could hire another coach on defense, you know, and let Ron kind of walk around, much like we did the last two-thirds of the year,” Napier said. “I think that’s kind of when we started making progress.

“So, I think just the expertise and the feedback and having eyes on each position from a meeting, individual, I think that part was healthy for us. So, yeah, I think we’re in the inside linebacker coach world, that (hire) could happen.”

Bala isn’t the only high-profile addition for Napier and Florida. The Gators are also bringing Ben Elsner aboard as the program’s Director of Football Strategy, Gators Online reported.

Elsner currently works as chief of staff for The 33rd Team, founded by former NFL general manager and current ESPN analyst Mike Tannenbaum. He will be the No. 2 in Florida’s front office behind the Vice President of Football, which is still vacant. Napier said the Director of Football Strategy position is another important one as UF keeps pace in the ever-changing landscape.

“The most recent hire is Director of Football Strategy,” Napier said. “I think it’s a little more contracts, caps, and analytics. We’re getting this front office built out to be more strategic about the salary cap, the contracts, rev share, marketing, endorsement, that pool of money that could come available. And then, how you allocate the money becomes part of the evaluation process.”