24/7 Sports Grades New Coaching Staffs

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1. FLORIDA: A+
Napier built the best Group of 5 staff in the country at Louisiana, so it’s no surprise he used the same blueprint to hire the top names in the sport and tweak a few responsibilities at Florida. He brought four assistants from the Ragin’ Cajuns to Gainesville, including defensive coordinator Patrick Toney, pilfered a pair of coaches from SEC rivals (including recruiting extraordinaire Corey Raymond), raided the Big Ten for a running backs coach, dipped into the NFL for two more assistants and also hired two coaches to handle the offensive line. Why two offensive line coaches? Why not? Most programs have two coaches leading the five-man secondary, so why do teams trust one coach to lead all five positions along the offensive line? That’s Napier’s thinking. Louisiana gets the honor of the best-built new staff of the offseason with a wide variety of coaches and experience, a new hiring philosophy along the offensive line and the greatest tagline for a special teams coach in the country: gamechanger coordinator. For the health of the program, Napier power-washed the facility and rid it of Dan Mullen’s entire staff, and that might be the best development. Head coach: Billy Napier (Louisiana) New staff: Jabbar Juluke, running backs (Louisiana, running backs); Patrick Toney, co-defensive coordinator/safeties (Louisiana, defensive coordinator); Corey Raymond, assistant head coach/cornerbacks (LSU, cornerbacks); Keary Colbert, receivers (USC, receivers); William Peagler, tight ends (Michigan State, running backs); Rob Sale, offensive coordinator/offensive line (New York Giants, offensive line); Sean Spencer, co-defensive coordinator/defensive line (New York Giants, defensive line); Jay Bateman, inside linebackers (North Carolina, defensive coordinator); Chris Couch, special teams/gamechanger coordinator (Louisiana, special teams coordinator); Darnell Stapleton, offensive line (Louisiana, offensive line); Mike Peterson, outside linebackers (South Carolina, outside linebackers/defensive ends).

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4. LSU: A
Brian Kelly may have made the biggest splash when he opted to push aside legend status at Notre Dame to try to win a national title at LSU. The coach is certainly outside his comfort zone in Baton Rouge, and though he has managed to poke fun at himself for his fake Southern accent, time will tell whether he will be telling the last joke in the SEC. Kelly had the Irish in College Football Playoff contention once again in 2021 and it appeared his 2022 and 2023 units were the best equipped to finally win the program’s first title since 1989. He can probably push LSU into contention in 2023 with a couple of Top 5 signing classes and a half dozen instant-impact stars out of the transfer portal. He certainly built a tremendous staff to get those type of players on campus and develop them into superstars. Perhaps the biggest hire in assistant coaching circles was Frank Wilson, the McNeese State head coach who resigned from his post to become the Tigers’ running backs coach for a second time. Reviews among those in the industry are mixed with Cincinnati offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock as a game-day coach but, again, time will tell. This is a solid staff with SEC connections and a shared championship mentality. Head coach: Brian Kelly (Notre Dame, head coach) New staff: Frank Wilson, associate head coach/running backs (McNeese State, head coach); Brian Polian, special teams (Notre Dame, special teams); Matt House, defensive coordinator/linebackers (Kansas City Chiefs, linebackers); Jamar Cain, defensive line/run game coordinator (USC, defensive line); Mike Denbrock, offensive coordinator/tight ends (Cincinnati, offensive coordinator); Joe Sloan, quarterbacks (Louisiana Tech, offensive coordinator); Kerry Cooks, safeties (Notre Dame, analyst); Robert Steeples, cornerbacks (Minnesota Vikings, assistant special teams); Cortez Hankton, receivers (Georgia, receivers) Holdover: Brad Davis, offensive line

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