Gators expected to hire Patriots assistant Joe Houston to work with UF special teams
Billy Napier and the Florida Gators are expected to hire New England Patriots assistant Joe Houston to help coach their special teams, a source has confirmed to Gators Online.
Houston will be a senior analyst for the Gators.
In that role, he’ll be working closely with Chris Couch, Florida’s GameChanger Coordinator under Napier. Their department will handle special teams and situational football.
Houston has been a special teams assistant with the Patriots since 2020. Before that, Houston, who kicked at Southern California from 2007-10, made coaching stops at schools such as Iowa State and Toledo. He was at Iowa State for four seasons. There, he coached kicker returner Kene Nwangwu, who was All-Big 12.
Houston was praised by Pats Pulpit, a site that covers New England, and one of his co-workers at New England, last fall:
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Joe Houston had a successful stint in the NFL
Part of New England’s excellence on special teams is due to their staff, which is headlined by long-time assistant Joe Judge and coordinator Cam Achord. But, a third member of the staff, Joe Houston, may fly under the radar despite playing a prominent role within the unit and providing a unique perspective as a former kicker himself.
“Houston does a great job, working with all the specialists and also working with the core guys as well,” Achord told reporters Tuesday. “But I always think it’s a special opportunity when you have a guy that’s done it before, felt the ball off his foot, kicked the ball off his foot. It’s a guy that can really talk about how it’s feeling where you’re hitting the ball.
“Anything can be learned as you see coaching. But, Joe is a great resource for those guys. He does a great job with them, talking to them, keeping their minds right. And just talking about, ‘Hey, well, you know where’d it hit here, was our [operation] time, were we smooth? Were you tight? Where you crouch over? You see the ball through,’ — just all the technique things. Using those bunch of words that those guys like to hear that they know. So he does a great job.”
Special teams have been an issue for the Gators
This hire no doubt will be welcomed by many Gators fans. The Florida special teams have been much maligned in recent seasons, particularly 2023 when there were several costly miscues from those units.
Two blunders in particular stood out.
In a Week-1 loss to Utah, the Gators inexplicably had two players wearing the same jersey number at the same time on the punt return unit. That penalty gave the ball back to the Utes, who then capped the drive with a score.
Later, Florida was flagged for illegal substitution while setting up a last-second field goal with a chance to beat Arkansas. After the penalty, the kick was missed and the Gators then lost in overtime.
