New Florida football coach Dan Mullen has added a wealth of coaching experience to his staff with the hiring Wednesday of two new assistants, Sal Sunseri and Greg Knox.
The two have more than 60 years of coaching experience between them.
Knox worked under Mullen at Mississippi State, where he was the running backs coach from 2009-17 and special teams coordinator from 2014-17. He served as the Bulldogs’ interim head coach for their win over Louisville in the Taxslayer Bowl last Saturday.
At MSU, Knox had a 1,000-yard rusher five times and sent four running backs to the NFL. This past season, the Bulldogs averaged 249.6 rushing yards a game, third-best in the SEC and 14th nationally.
Before joining Mullen’s staff at MSU, Knox spent 14 years as Tommy Tuberville’s wide receivers coach at Ole Miss and Auburn. For 13 of those seasons, he also served as the recruiting coordinator.
Sunseri joins Mullen’s staff after spending the past two seasons as the linebackers coach for the Oakland Raiders. He’s had 10 years of coaching experience in the NFL and five in the SEC, where he worked under Nick Saban at Alabama (2009-11) as an assistant head coach and linebackers coach and served at Tennessee’s defensive coordinator in 2012.
Before joining the Raiders, Sunseri was the defensive ends coach at Florida State.
Sunseri’s NFL experience includes a seven-year stint as the defensive line coach for the Carolina Panthers from 2002-08.
Mullen has not announced what responsibilities Sunseri and Knox will have on the coaching staff, although Sunseri is expected to be named the defensive line coach. Knox could end up coaching running backs or tight ends and special teams.
The only assistant who has an official title at this time is defensive coordinator Todd Grantham
Mullen has still made no announcement on whether the two holdovers from Jim McElwain’s staff — running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider and linebackers coach Tim Skipper — will be retained on a full-time basis.
If they are, Mullen is close to completing his staff, with only one opening remaining.
Coach Mullens getting it done with coach hiring. Things are looking really good for near future. I’m starting to get high expectations but also I’m realistic for next year. We will see!
Glad we got Greg Knox. Was afraid after Bowl win he would be offered a OC job somewhere else. Big win for CDM. Lukewarm on Sunseri right now. Thought Kevin Patrick or Sean Cornin would be better. Time will time this time next year. Anyone hear anything else on UF reaching out to Mike Peterson or if English is also coming to G’VILLE ?
What is this going to mean for Seider? Thought he made a difference in the RBs and he’s shown to be a pretty solid recruiter. Could Knox be coming in as ST coach…he sure shows that kind of energy.
I’m happy to see that Mullens is putting together a PRETTY good staff, I was one that thought Coach Shannon should have been retained but Mullens has a pretty good handle on his staff choices to this point. I also wonder about the retention of RB coach Seider. This guy (Mullen) has a very versatile Staff, where guys can move around and satisfy coaching needs. Get the last guy in and let the good times roll.