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Report: Houston hiring Florida GameChanger coordinator Chris Couch as next special teams coordinator

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•06/02/25
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Chris Couch when he was announced as a hire by the Florida Gators

Florida will lose its special teams coordinator to Houston, according to a report from 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz. Chris Couch is leaving for the same post with the Cougars.

Couch served as the “GameChanger coordinator” for Florida since 2022. That position is what head coach Billy Napier calls his special teams coordinator.

The new Houston assistant had an up-and-down stint while at Florida. He came under fire multiple times for sloppy special teams play, with a failure to get the right number of players on the field a recurring problem.

But individual specialists did seem to thrive under Couch. Punter Jeremy Crawshaw was recently selected in the 2025 NFL Draft.

In any case, Napier announced Chris Couch would join his staff as a GameChanger coordinator in his first few weeks on the job. In his role as an analyst, Couch would focus on the special teams unit.

A native of Milledgeville, Ga., Couch spent the 2021 season with Napier at Louisiana as special teams coordinator and the director of quality control & analytics. Chris Couch had considerable success with the Ragin’ Cajuns.

Nationally, the Ragin’ Cajuns ranked ninth in net punting, tied-for-10th in blocked kicks, 15th in punting average and 17th in kickoff return defense during Couch’s lone season in Lafayette. At the conference level, UL had the best kick return defense and net punting, while ranking fourth in kick return yardage.

Prior to joining the Ragin’ Cajuns, Couch spent five seasons at Tulane (2016-20), where he worked as the special teams analyst and recruiting coordinator. During his last three seasons at Tulane, the Green Wave ranked in the top half of the American Athletic Conference and top-50 nationally in both kick and punt returns.

Prior to Tulane, Couch served as a special teams coordinator and linebackers coach at Point University (2015), a defensive graduate assistant at Georgia Southern (2013-14) and the slot backs coach at Missouri Southern State University (2012).

Couch earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Georgia Southern in 2011 and his master’s degree in high education administration from Georgia Southern in 2015.

On3’s Zach Abolverdi also contributed to this report.