Florida rounding out support staff heading into spring practices
Since the end of this past season, the Gators have seen a few members of their expansive support staff leave to take new roles on college football staffs elsewhere.
But despite a few notable losses, UF has managed to reload on its support staff heading into spring camp, which starts March 9.
The most recent of these hires was made public Thursday, when Florida officially announced the addition of former New Orleans Saints offensive line coach Bret Ingalls as an offensive control quality assistant. UF has recently seen two of its more involved quality control specialists on the offensive side of the ball, John Garrett and Marquel Blackwell, leave to join new schools.
The 55-year-old Ingalls has spent the previous seven seasons with the Saints as an assistant coach, winning a Super Bowl ring in his first year with the team. He served as New Orleans' running backs coach starting in 2009 but shifted to coaching the offensive line in 2013.
Ingalls brings with him plenty of experience, having served past coaching staff roles at Northwestern, Miami (Ohio), Indiana State, Idaho, Northern Iowa, Louisville, Eastern Michigan and San Diego State.
Garrett, the older brother of Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, is now Richmond's new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach only two years removed from serving as Oregon State's offensive coordinator. Known as one of the top contributors in the recruiting realm on UF's support staff, Blackwell spent the 2015 season in Gainesville until accepting a spot on Toledo's coaching staff as its running backs coach.
Those haven't been the only losses to the support staff this offseason, though. Mike Peterson, who served as one of the Gators' strength and conditioning coordinators, recently left UF to join Will Muschamp's staff at South Carolina as its outside linebackers coach. Special teams quality control specialist Marc Nudelberg is now at Nevada as its running backs coach/special teams coordinator, while program assistant Jon Van Dam has joined Southern Illinois' staff as its offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach.
UF has already addressed the departure of Nudelberg, bringing along former Southern Illinois tight ends coach/special teams coordinator Keith Murphy as a quality control specialist. The Gators may be on the verge of filling their other offensive quality control specialist vacancy, as GridIronNow.com reports that Steve Spurrier Jr. could join UF's support staff in that capacity.
The son of the Head Ball Coach spent 11 seasons on South Carolina's staff, including as its wide receivers coach from 2005-15, passing game coordinator from 2009-15 and recruiting coordinator from 2011-15.
If anything, Florida has shown under Jim McElwain that its support staff roles are successful stepping stones for assistants looking to eventually climb the coaching ladder.
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