UPDATE: Florida has officially announced Jules Montinar as the newest member of the Gator football staff.
Welcome to The Swamp, @CoachJules_UF. 🐊https://t.co/ZrLeJXZoDe pic.twitter.com/FNsxctjUko
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) January 25, 2021
(Initial story begins below.)
With linebackers coach Christian Robinson presumably staying at Florida, Dan Mullen has filled the final vacancy on his coaching staff with ex South Florida CB coach and recruiting coordinator, Jules Montinar, according to a report by Football Scoop.
Though the report did just come out a couple of hours ago, which means that UF hasn’t had time to confirm or announce the hire, logic says that Montinar’s on field assignment will see him joining forces with former Auburn assistant Wesley McGriff and working with the Florida secondary in some capacity- a role in which he has seen success in previous stops. But the real weapon he brings to the Gator staff is his recruiting ability. His deep ties in the state of Florida has brought him results in his recruiting efforts at his previous stops, which include graduate assistant roles at Purdue and Alabama, and a one year stop at Georgia in 2019 as the Bulldogs’ defensive quality control assistant.
Montinar also has some experience as a position coach. He spent three years as the defensive backs coach at Lake Erie College from 2008-2010, two more years as James Madison’s defensive backs coach in 2014 and 2015 and two years as Texas State’s cornerbacks coach in 2016 and 2017 before serving as the USF cornerbacks coach in 2020 (where his pass defense performed quite admirably). He also served as the Texas State special teams coordinator in 2018 and 2019.
In Jules Montinar, the Gators are gaining a promising, up and coming assistant coach who has delivered some results on the field in his limited big time college football experience. And they’re gaining a bona fide ace on the recruiting trail, one with a particularly strong rapport in the Gators’ own backyard and surrounding strongholds. So if Dan Mullen were to make any combination of staff changes that didn’t include relieving Todd Grantham of his duties, adding McGriff and Montinar was up there with the best tandem of new faces he could have brought along.
