Billy Napier has hired Rob Sale as the Gators’ offensive coordinator/offensive line coach, UF announced on Tuesday. Sale will work alongside Darnell Stapleton, who was also tabbed as an offensive line coach last month.
Sale made his NFL coaching debut this season with the New York Giants.
Prior to that, he worked for Napier at Louisiana for three years as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.
In 2020, the Ragin’ Cajuns ranked fourth in the Sun Belt Conference in rushing. Linemen O’Cyrus Torrence, Ken Marks and Shane Vallot were voted to the all-conference teams.
Louisiana broke the school record for rushing yards (3,604) and rushing touchdowns (42) in a season in 2019. Offensive linemen Robert Hunt and Kevin Dotson were selected in the NFL Draft. Hunt became the third-highest draft pick in program history at 39th overall.
Dotson and Hunt received all-conference honors in 2018 as well.
Sale, a Monroe, Louisiana, native, played both guard spots and center at LSU from 1998-2002.
After a year of coaching a high school offensive line, he joined Nick Saban’s Alabama staff in 2007 as an assistant in the strength and conditioning program and an offensive analyst. He worked alongside Napier on the 2011 national championship team, as Napier was an analyst.
Sale, 42, received his first on-field coaching job at McNeese State in 2012. He coached there for three years and picked up co-offensive coordinator duties prior to the 2014 campaign. The Cowboys averaged 221.9 rushing yards per game in his final year.
Mark Richt hired him to be his final offensive line coach at Georgia in 2015. During his lone season in Athens, he worked with First Team All-SEC tackle John Theus.
Sale wasn’t retained when Kirby Smart took over the Bulldogs’ program, which prompted him to coach at Louisiana-Monroe and Arizona State for a year each. While he was at Arizona State, Napier was the Sun Devils’ offensive coordinator.
When Napier left to take the head coaching job at Louisiana, he took Sale with him.
And now, after a year apart, the two will reunite at Florida.