Welcome to Gainesville, Gerald Chatman! (Photo credit: Davis Zalubowski, Associated Press)
Nearly four weeks after firing defensive line coach Sean Spencer, Billy Napier has named his replacement at last.
Gerald Chatman, formerly the defensive line coach of the Tulane Green Wave, steps into the role at Florida after a whirlwind of a past 24 months. In 2023 at Tulane, Chatman oversaw a defensive front that rated eighth in the FBS against the run, forced 25 turnovers, and racked up 34 sacks and 82 tackles for loss. More specifically, his defensive line unit accounted for 27 sacks and 52.5 tackles for loss, along with 15 QB hurries and five forced fumbles. His defensive line also batted away four passes on the season.
The highlight of the year for Gerald Chatman was coaching Green Wave defensive linemen Patrick Jenkins and Darius Hodges. Jenkins was the American Athletic Conference defensive lineman of the year, and both Jenkins and Hodges were voted First-Team All-AAC selections.
The season his defensive line had is made more impressive by the fact that Gerald Chatman wasn’t even there for the spring. Chatman served as the defensive line coach at LSU under Brian Kelly on an interim basis before Tulane took him away. He also served as the defensive line coach at Colorado in 2022, and was promoted to the interim defensive coordinator role midway through the 2022 season.
Prior to his time at Colorado, Chatman was an analyst for the defensive line at LSU, in Ed Orgeron’s final year in Baton Rouge. Before that, he served as an assistant on the Cincinnati Bengals staff, working primarily with the defensive ends– including, coincidentally enough, former Florida All-American Carlos Dunlap. His work as an assistant with the Bengals helped guide them to the Super Bowl, which they narrowly lost.
His early stops include a year at Tennessee State, Elon, and a grad assistant role with Texas A&M under Kevin Summon in 2015.
