Florida football hires former NFL special teams coach

The Florida football program made the move to hire a new special teams coach ahead of spring practices.

Former New England assistant coach Joe Houston was hired by Florida on Sunday afternoon to take over the special teams unit for the 2024 season. Dubbed as the “game-changers” by head coach Billy Napier, the unit didn’t quite meet expectations during the team’s 2023 campaign. Punts often went wayward and field goal attempts were often met with hopes and prayers from the UF fanbase.

The Gators are hoping that Houston’s professional experience and past success with the New England Patriots to translate into the team’s placekicker and punter.

Florida kickers Trey Smack and Alex Mihalek converted 18-of-24 (75%) field goal attempts in 2023, and in three years Houston coached Patriots placekickers to an 85% conversion rate.

Houston also worked four seasons as the special teams coach for the Iowa State Cyclones, when the team was No. 21 in punt defense, No. 27 in kickoff returns and No. 35 in the net punting category.

The Gators are rebuilding the coaching staff one member at a time, and Joe Houston is just a small piece of the puzzle that is the UF football program. The Florida faithful is just hoping the game-changers will change the game for the better.

Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

Story originally appeared on Gators Wire

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/florida-football-hires-former-nfl-132534870.html

Author : Gators Wire

Publish date : 2024-01-29 13:25:34

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.