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- Florida’s new head football coach Billy Napier has been in the process of hiring as staff around him.
- As he has done so, he has made up random, unique titles for many of the roles that he fills.
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When William Hall Napier, better known as Billy, was officially hired to replace Dan Mullen as the head coach of the Florida Gators football team, it was set to bring a new era to Gainesville. Although it was a bit of a surprise for Mullen to be fired in the first place, Napier has been considered a top candidate for Power 5 jobs over the last few years, but held out for the right opportunity.
Florida appears to be that job. He has been with the team since December and is pushing hard to get everything in order before National Signing Day next month.
Part of that is getting his coaching staff in order and Napier has made some good hires. However, their roles are unique.
Napier is literally making up titles for his new coaches. They have never existed before. Not at one program ever.
Among the coaching staff, titles include:
- Gamechanger Coordinator
- Directors of:
- Recruiting Innovation
- Speed Improvement and Skill Development
- Player Engagement and NIL
- College Personnel
- Advanced Scouting and Self Scout
The Florida website does not give any indication what these titles mean. However, based on context clues, here are guesses for what they are to do with the Gators:
- Gamechanger Coordinator
- Head special teams coach.
- Director of Recruiting Innovation
- Serving as the creative lead and digital video coordinator. Identify and execute new, unique ways of getting recruits excited to play at Florida.
- Director of Speed Improvement and Skill Development
- Strength and conditioning coach.
- Director of Player Engagement and NIL
- This is a revolutionary title. As the new era of Name, Image and Likeness becomes a crucial component of recruiting and retaining players at Florida and around the country, this person will likely be the middle man between players and their business deals.
- Director of College Personnel
- Focusing on the evaluation of transfer portal and JUCO players.
- Director of Advanced Scouting and Self Scout
- This position is held by the legendary Paul Pasqualoni, who served as one of the winningest head coaches at Syracuse (107-59-1) and has coached at UConn, B.C., and stints in the NFL.
- It seems like he will serve as a special assistant to the head coach, working a lot with scouting and development.
Regardless of what these titles actually mean, Napier is out here going rogue. He’s just throwing new titles at the wall and seeing what sticks. Part of it likely has to do with the amount of coaches that can be on the field at one time, but that doesn’t explain the need for a complete relabeling of assistants.