New Florida Gators assistants making an impact in spring camp

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Change isn’t easy but is inevitable, especially in the current landscape of college football. After a 5-7 season, Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier did something he had never done in six seasons as a head coach — he fired two assistants just days after the 2023 season.

Florida’s defense finished 11th in scoring (27.6 points per game) and total defense (382.3 yards per game) last season. After a season like that, Napier felt it was in the program’s best interest to make a change and that meant parting ways with Sean Spencer, who was one of the first outside hires that Napier targeted when he got the Florida job in 2021, and Corey Raymond. Linebackers coach Jay Bateman left to be the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M and offensive line coach Darnell Stapleton went back to the NFL for a job with the Washington Commanders.

That left Napier to replace 40 percent of his on-field coaching staff. He was able to do that by adding secondary coach Will Harris, defensive line coach Gerald Chatman, offensive line coach Jonathan Decoster, and veteran defensive coach Ron Roberts.

The quartet of new coaches has brought new energy into the program and into their individual rooms.

“I think one of the things that has become very evident is the new staff members are making an impact. I got a ton of conviction about the new people that we’ve added to our team,” Napier said after Florida’s fifth practice of spring. “I’ll tell you, it’s given me a little bit of energy. I can’t compliment enough that group as a whole.”

Florida Gators players sound off on new staff

It isn’t just Billy Napier who is seeing the change. New secondary coach Will Harris is young. He comes to practice in cleats and isn’t afraid to get into the middle of tackling drills with his players. Junior cornerback Devin Moore spent two years working with Corey Raymond but has seen a difference with the younger Harris.

“Just a lot of energy. From day one he showed up, we had a meeting as a group, talked about real personal stuff to really develop that bond,” Moore said of Harris. “You know just from that day, he just brought energy every day after that, he’s preaching a lot of togetherness, cause if we all aren’t on the same page then it’s going to be a challenge.”

And, of course, there’s Ron Roberts who was a defenisve coordinator for Napier at Louisiana — where current Florida defenisve coordinator Austin Armstrong served as his graduate assistant — has brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the group.

“Oh, he’s a great coach. He’s very high enthusiasm. He’s a coach that’s not very analytic but he’s going to show you how to get it done and he’s gonna you different ideas to wait to where your job can be done because he’s a good smart coach and he’s a great addition to the style to where he gives us a different type of analytical standpoint other than Coach Armstrong,” redshirt junior defensive lineman Tyreak Sapp said of Roberts. “He kind of gives us that edge to where you know you can play like this but we want you to play it this way. If  doing it like makes you comfortable doing it like this, then hey, you go ahead, you rock out play football and make a play.”

At the end of the day players have to make the plays but the early returns from the head coach and the players in the positon rooms with the new coaches is positive.

“I know there’s a lot to be said about a bigger staff and the infrastructure and those things, but it does allow you to absorb attrition. So, new leadership but the people underneath those people help get them up to speed. I think that’s the theory behind it,” Napier said. “Third year doing this and I think the practice format and approach as stayed relatively the same, and I think there’s some familiarity with guys like Ron, who has been with me in the past, and then some new ideas from the new coaches that worked for some really accomplished coaches – (Willie) Fritz, (Chris) Petersen, (Jimmy) Lake, (Bill) Belichick, NFL backgrounds. So I think all of that has been for our team.”