Florida Gators hire former Falcons executive as football general manager

In its ongoing effort to restructure its front office as revenue sharing looms, the University of Florida announced Monday it has hired longtime Atlanta Falcons executive Nick Polk as the Gator football team’s general manager.

The school also is hiring analytics specialist Benjamin Elsner as its director of football strategy.

Polk’s duties during his 17-year tenure in Atlanta, where he served as director of football administration and director of football operations, included salary-cap management and draft negotiations, contract proposals, player and coach contracts, and football budgets.

“We are excited about moving forward with building out the front-office concept with the addition of Nick Polk,” Gators coach Billy Napier said in a statement released by the university.

“His leadership and experience will prove to be extremely valuable to the entire organization. Nick has a college football coaching background, as well as extensive NFL experience to go along with representing a number of clients that are in college football and the NFL. This is a huge step forward for the Gators.”

Before moving to pro football, which included a stint as NFL Europe senior director of football operations, Polk served on the coaching staffs of four small colleges and spent four years as head coach at Division II Lock Haven in Pennsylvania.

Elsner spent the last half-decade as chief of staff of The 33rd Team, a football-analysis platform that provides in-depth insights on NFL teams and players.

“He will be working alongside Nick in the salary cap and contract space,” Napier said. “He will also help us use analytics and A.I. to evaluate all the data relative to strategy throughout the organization. He will be working closely with me to make sure we are continuing to evolve and are using the best practices throughout our…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/florida-gators-hire-former-falcons-005400362.html

Author : Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla.

Publish date : 2025-02-11 00:54:00

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