Farewell, Sean Spencer and Corey Raymond. (Photo credit: Matt Pendleton, Gainesville Sun.)
The dominoes have begun falling for the Florida Gators.
Two days after an ugly 24-15 loss to rival FSU that wrapped up a 5-7 season, Billy Napier made the first two of what’s expected to be a long list of changes to Florida’s operation. Sean Spencer, the defensive line coach, and Corey Raymond, the secondary coach, are departing from the program, as first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.
Both coaches came to Gainesville with high praise and expectations. But the praise soon softened and the expectations never came to fruition. Florida’s pass defense was among the worst in the SEC in Napier’s first season, finishing 11th in the SEC; it fared little better in 2023, and Napier decided that Spencer and Raymond were the ones who had to pay for it.
For Corey Raymond, the expectations were well merited. Raymond recruited and coached a bevy of stars in the secondary at LSU, including Eric Reid, Jamal Adams, Derek Stingley, and many, many more. But five-star signee Jason Marshall clearly regressed, Georgia transfer Jalen Kimber never materialized into what many hoped he could be, and Kamari Wilson has been a ghost after a heralded recruiting process that saw him flip from Georgia at the last minute.
There was some promise with some youngsters, though. Corner Ja’Keem Jackson and safety Jordan Castell showed flashes of excellence early in 2023, but soon faded into the background as Florida’s pass defense got worse and worse with each passing week.
As for Sean Spencer- nicknamed “Coach Chaos”- a world of experience from Penn State and the New York Giants never translated into results, either. Princely Umanmielen arguably took some steps as a defensive lineman in terms of winning reps with pass rush moves, but never did figure out how to set the edge. And as a whole, other than transfers Caleb Banks and Cam Jackson and some flashes from TJ Searcy, Florida’s defensive line never really accomplished much of anything, finishing with just 22 sacks on the year- that’s 90th in the country- and that set the tone for a defense that finished 71st overall in the FBS in terms of yards per game allowed.
Personally, it feels a bit harder to justify letting go of Raymond than it is Chaos. I think it’s very possible that he lost a step as both a coach and a recruiter, but I also have a very difficult time believing that Raymond- who signed and then developed a slew of All-Americans at LSU- just suddenly forgot how to coach when he donned the orange and blue. It feels more of a “Kimber and Marshall simply weren’t very good” issue than a coaching issue, especially with the flashes we saw from Jackson and Castell early in the year.
But in any case, these are the first two moves to be made in a make-or-break offseason for Billy Napier.
And they won’t be the last.
