Todd Golden has reportedly added a member to his coaching staff with the hire of John Andrzejek who comes to Florida after spending his last three seasons at Washington State, as first reported by Jeff Goodman.
The NCAA recently moved to expand the benches at the division one level, going from three available assistant spots to five (with the added two spots being non-recruiting roles). This move allows Golden to bring on Andrzejek, while also having the ability to add another coach should he so choose.
Andrzejek is one of the many members of the Columbia-San Francisco-Washington State connection that spans from Washington State head coach Kyle Smith to Florida’s Todd Golden, with assistant Kevin Hovde and director of strategy and analytics Jonathan Safir also in the tree. Golden and Andrzejek spent multiple years together in the early years of both of their coaching careers and will now be reunited in Gainesville.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Andrzejek’s resume is the fact that he has coached at a lot of different levels. After spending time on the Columbia staff as a director of basketball operations, Andrzejek went to San Francisco to serve in the same role. Following that stint he went to be an assistant coach at Johns Hopkins, a perenial D3 powerhouse. After a successful season there, Andrzejek went to Dartmouth where he was an assistant coach who was said to have the offensive coordinator role. With Dartmouth having a successful season, Andrzejek moved to Washington State where he spent the last three seasons.
In addition to his focus on the offensive side of the ball, Andrzejek is known to be an analytically-minded coach who embraces the progressive side of the game. Given how much the other coaches in the similar tree such as Golden who feel the same way, this will come as no surprise.
At Florida, Andrzejek will be used as another analytics mind to help the Gators try to get every possible advantage on the margins. He’s also going to bring a fresh offensive outlook, something the Gators could certainly use following a season where they ranked 139th nationally in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency metric.
It’s unknown if the Gators will hire another assistant with the available open spot, and it would also be possible that they could promote a member of the staff that’s not currently in an assistant position.