Interim coach Randy Shannon shaking things up

Shannon has been defensive coordinator for the past two-plus seasons under former coach Jim McElwain, but he will no longer be the coordinator while assuming the head coaching duties. Chris Rumph, formerly the defensive line coach and co-coordinator, will be assuming coordinator duties.

"For me, being a defensive coordinator and me just hanging around with the defense, when you take over a team, it's not the right thing to do," Shannon said. "I've got to be a part of the whole defense and offense and special teams. So promoting Chris Rumph, a guy who's done it, that's prepared for it. He's ready to do a great job. For me as a head coach, I got to be able to multitask on offense, defense, special teams."

Rumph's defensive line responsibilities will be assumed by Robb Akey, former Idaho head coach who was on Florida's staff as a defensive quality assistant.

"We're bringing up Coach Akey," Shannon said. "NFL guy that was at the Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, been around in the Pac 10 for a long time, also was a head coach. He's gonna be working with the D-line."

Akey's last on-field coaching gig was with the Redskins. He made quite an impression on Jay Gruden in his Washington interview.

“Robb Akey — he’s got some energy, man,” Gruden told the Redskins team website in 2015. “He’s an energetic, passionate guy. When we interviewed him, he knocked over garbage cans and chairs and tables, he was fired up… He was demonstrating some drills in the room, knocking things over. We were ducking and dodging flying objects. It was pretty impressive.”