The Napier staff is starting to shape up

With the hire of offensive line assistant Darnell Stapleton, Billy Napier’s coaching staff at the University of Florida is taking shape. Currently, Napier has four coaches hired, two on each side of the ball. Nearly all of them have some link to Napier, whether it was during collegiate days at Furman, on the staff at Clemson or Alabama or with him at Louisiana or through another coach.

Stapleton is part of a two-coach approach to the offensive line. He played for Greg Schiano at Rutgers where he was a finalist for the Rimington Trophy in 2006. He played three years for the Pittsburgh Steelers, starting 15 games at right guard including the Super Bowl win over the Arizona Cardinals. He coached at Bucknell and Sam Houston State before spending the last two years at Louisiana where the O-line produced All-American Max Mitchell, a left tackle who will be playing in the Senior Bowl.

This is all speculation but the two names that are heard the most for the top offensive line assistant coaching job are Brent Key and Rob Sale. Key is currently the offensive line coach at Georgia Tech, his alma mater. He was the O-line coach at UCF for George O’Leary from 2008-2015. He worked for Nick Saban at Alabama from 2016-18. He was on the Bama staff with Napier in 2016.

Sale played collegiately at LSU for Nick Saban, where he was a three-year starter at both guard positions and at center. He worked for Saban on the strength staff and as an analyst at Alabama from 2007-11) and was the O-line coach for Mark Richt at Georgia in 2015. Sale and Napier worked together at Arizona State in 2017 (Napier OC, Sale OL). When Napier took the Louisiana job Sale came with him and was the offensive coordinator and O-line coach. Currently, he’s the O-line coach of the New York Giants.

The name that is being heard for tight ends coach is Ja’Juan Seider, who coached running backs for Jim McElwain at Florida in 2017. Napier was McElwain’s wide receivers coach in 2012 so that is the connection. Currently Seider is the running backs coach at Penn State. He’s from Belle Glade and played collegiately at West Virginia before transferring to Florida A&M where he played quarterback his senior year. He worked for former UF safeties coach and recruiter extraordinaire Doc Holliday at Marshall and spent four years coaching running backs at West Virginia. Seider is a super recruiter and a connection to The Muck – Belle Glade, Pahokee and Clewiston – and Palm Beach County which is loaded with talent.

Plenty of speculation is swirling about Desmond Kitchings, currently the running backs coach of the Atlanta Falcons. He was a college teammate of Napier’s at Furman where he was an All-America wide receiver and kick returner. After a brief NFL career, he coached for Bobby Johnson (collegiate coach for Napier and Kitchings) at Forman and Vanderbilt. He coached for Troy Calhoun at Air Force and spent eight years working at North Carolina State where he was Dave Doeren’s offensive coordinator in 2019 and one year working for Will Muschamp at South Carolina. If he were to join the Florida staff it’s likely he would coach wide receivers and be the special teams coordinator.

The secondary positions are set now that Corey Raymond has been hired from LSU to coach the corners with co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney coaching the safeties. Raymond is almost legendary for his development of defensive backs at LSU which earned the nickname DBU during his time there working for Les Miles and Ed Orgeron. Toney got his start working for Ron Roberts, the former head coach at Southeastern Louisiana whose “creeper” defense is being copied nationwide to handle spread offenses with lots of RPO. Roberts worked as Napier’s defensive coordinator in 2018-19 and is now the DC for Dave Aranda at Baylor. Toney is considered a rising star in the coaching profession.

We keep hearing two names for the defensive line coach – Karl Dunbar and Chris Rumph. Dunbar played at LSU and worked for Saban there in 2000-01. He has an extensive pro background, but spent 2016-17 on the Alabama staff where he was a colleague of Napier. He’s been coaching the D-line of the Pittsburgh Steelers the last four years. Rumph is connected to Napier on the staff at Clemson and Alabama. He was Florida’s D-line coach under Jim McElwain in 2015-16 and the co-defensive coordinator for the Gators in 2017. He was the co-DC at Tennessee from 2018-19 and has spent the last two years in the NFL, currently with the Chicago Bears where he is the D-line coach.

Perhaps the worst kept secret – at least if you believe all the noise in the Twitterverse and from a few who have their finger on the pulse of what Napier is putting together at UF – is that Tosh Lupoi will be leaving Urban Meyer’s staff with the Jacksonville Jaguars once the NFL season is concluded to come join old buddy Napier (they were on the Alabama staff together from 2014-16) as the co-offensive coordinator at outside linebackers coach. Lupoi was Rivals’ national recruiter of the year in 2010 when he was at California and was Alabama’s top recruiter for four years (2015-18) when he was instrumental in landing Tua Tagovailoa and Devonta Smith among others.

The inside linebackers coach is pure speculation but it does make sense – Kevin Steele. He’s been a head coach (at Baylor) and the interim head coach at Auburn when Gus Malzah was fired. He’s 63 years old and knows the Southeastern Conference like nobody else. He played for Johnny Majors at Tennessee and has coached in the SEC at Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn and LSU. Additionally, he spent four years as the linebackers coach and assistant head coach for Bobby Bowden at FSU. He was the defensive coordinator at Clemson when Napier was the offensive coordinator and was the personnel director for Nick Saban in 2013 and his linebackers coach in 2014 when Napier was on the staff coaching wide receivers.

WHAT THE STAFF COULD LOOK LIKE

OFFENSE

(Bold face already on staff; non-bold speculative)

QB: Billy Napier

RB: Jabbar Juluke

TE: Ja’Juan Seider (Currently RB Penn State)

WR/STC: Desmond Kitchings (Currently RB Atlanta Falcons)

OL: Brent Key (Currently OL Georgia Tech) or Rob Sale (Currently OL New York Giants)

OL: Darnell Stapleton

DEFENSE

DL: Chris Rumph (Currently DL Chicago Bears) or Karl Dunbar (currently DL Pittsburgh Steelers)

OLB/CO-DC: Tosh Lupoi (Currently DL Jacksonville Jaguars) ILB: Kevin Steele (former DC Auburn)

CB: Corey Raymond

S/CO-OC: Patrick Toney