Russ Callaway is set to be promoted. (Photo via Florida Gators)
At long last, Billy Napier is hiring an offensive coordinator for the Florida Gators football team.
Well, sort of.
Per multiple reports last night, Napier is set to promote tight ends coach Russ Callaway to the offensive coordinator role. The contract details are still yet to be finalized, but it does seem like Callaway is going to see a larger role within the Florida offense. What that means, exactly, is still yet to be determined.
The various reports indicated that Callaway is going to be more involved in the offensive game planning with current offensive coordinator Rob Sale. Which sounds great. But that statement by itself tells us very little, if anything at all; Sale may have held that title for the past two years, but it’s common knowledge that Napier was the one pulling the levers for the offense.
Jacob Rudner of 247Sports states that, at the very least, Callaway is going to have a say in offensive decision-making. That backs up a statement made by Napier two and a half weeks ago, in which he said that “He’s a guy that obviously is going to acquire a little more responsibility. How we define that, you know, I think we’ll work our way through that.” And, well, we all kind of figured that with the title of “co-offensive coordinator” being tacked on to his name.
But that still leaves the glaring question unanswered. Will Russ Callaway be the one calling the plays? He may be able to have some additional input, but is he going to be the Gators’ primary play-caller?
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see on that front. But that’s a question that goes a long way toward determining how helpful of a move this is.
Because Billy Napier has proven to be problematic in that department, if not downright disruptive to the Gators’ offensive flow. Yes, the overall numbers with Napier calling plays are decent– not great or even good, but they are respectable– but his lack of feel for things, both in terms of play design and situations that require some urgency, crippled Florida at multiple junctures last year.
Callaway is a respected young coach, having previous success as the play-caller at Samford. In 2018, Samford led the FCS with 392.7 pass yards per game and finished fourth in the FCS with 515.9 yards per game overall. He then left for an analyst role at LSU in 2020; one year later, he took a similar job with the New York Giants. In 2022, he joined the Florida staff as an analyst, and was elevated to the tight ends coach role in 2023 after the departure of William Peagler.
And that resume is nice to have in the Florida offensive war room. Napier himself has expressed his appreciation of Callaway’s background, and it was nice to see him be rewarded for his development of tight end Arlis Boardingham last year with an increased role on this staff. Hopefully, that increased role includes handing Callaway the keys to the offense on game day– if on nothing more than a trial run, just to see what he can do.
But if that increased role is just a cosmetic one, it leaves the Florida offense susceptible to the same pitfalls that doomed them last year. And in a make-or-break year for Billy Napier, that would be less than ideal.
