The Florida Gators will look to replace offensive line coach Darnell Stapleton after he recently accepted a job with the Washington Commanders. With Stapleton transitioning into the National Football League, Head Coach Billy Napier is left with another coaching vacancy that he must fill quickly with Spring football just a few weeks away.
Stapleton was one of Napier’s original additions to the staff, and his departure from the Gators marks the 8th assistant to leave Florida’s program in the two years Napier has been Head Coach of the Gators.
Gator Country takes a look at Florida’s options for filling out their coaching vacancy.
HIRE ANOTHER OFFENSIVE LINE COACH
Florida already has one offensive line coach (Rob Sale), but Napier has had two offensive line coaches on his staff in five of his six seasons as a Head Coach, dating back to his days at Louisiana. The Gators had two offensive line coaches in 2022 and 2023 under Napier.
“Certainly when you’re coaching offensive line, you’ve got to coach five players,” Napier said during his introductory press conference in 2021. “Nobody’s got one coach coaching five DBs. I don’t know why you wouldn’t have two guys coaching the offensive line.”
Hiring another offensive line coach does not mean that Florida won’t have a new player caller in 2024 as they could still promote from within. Russ Callaway would be the leading candidate for that role shall Florida go in that direction.
While Napier has preferred a two offensive line coach system, he did shy away from it in 2020 as Louisiana had just one offensive line coach and a special teams coordinator that season.
HIRE AN OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR
Florida could go hire an offensive coordinator and play caller for the 2024 season. However, I view this as unlikely based on Napier’s comments during the signing day press conference.
“I don’t see any major overhauls outside of just how we organize that group and now we operate in house,” Napier told the media on February 7th.
These comments were made before Stapleton accepted a job in the NFL, leaving the Florida program. So, there’s a possibility that Napier views this as an opportunity to go make a splash hire and bring on an offensive coordinator, leaving the offensive line in the hands of Rob Sale.
PROMOTE JOE HOUSTON (ST COACH)
Florida recently hired Joe Houston of the New England Patriots to serve as an analyst for the Special Teams unit.
“I think Joe Houston is an outstanding coach,” Napier said on Houston. “I think we’re not only acquiring an expert in the special-teams space, but we’re getting a guy who has four years of Coach Belichick and that organization. All those meetings and all those things observed, and things that he brings to our staff. I do think we did well statistically in some areas, but there was no doubt there were some organizational things that could have been done better. I think we added a layer of expertise and another set of eyes, another set of hands there in ultimately a big picture viewpoint. The situational football piece, too, will be put under that umbrella as well with he and Chris working together, so it’s good for the Gators, I hired Joe Houston for one day at Louisiana and then Bill hired him. We’re fortunate to get him back.”
Napier had an on-field special teams coordinator in his first three seasons as Louisiana before leaving the role in the hands of analyst Chris Couch, who followed Napier to Florida and remained in a similar role.
If Napier decides not to hire an offensive coordinator or another offensive line coach, he could promote Joe Houston to an on-field special teams coordinator role. This option would also give Florida the opportunity to promote from within regarding offensive coordinator / play calling duties.