Mullen makes another staff hire

By
Robbie Andreu
-
18
3247

New Florida football coach Dan Mullen inched closer to filling out his coaching staff with another hire Friday, his third in three days.

The latest to join the staff is 27-year-old Christian Robinson, who was a graduate assistant on Mullen’s Mississippi State staff this past season. Robinson is expected to coach the UF linebackers, although that is not official yet.

He is the ninth assistant hired by Mullen, joining defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, Billy Gonzales, John Hevesy, Brian Johnson, Greg Knox, Charlton Warren, Sal Sunseri and Ja’Juan Seider. Mullen also has already hired a strength and conditioning coordinator, Nick Savage.

UF, like every other school in the nation, can add a 10th on-field coach after Jan. 9 due to a new NCAA rule.

Robinson played linebacker at Georgia under Grantham, who also was the defensive coordinator with the Bulldogs at the time.

Before joining Mullen at MSU last year, Robinson was a defensive graduate assistant at Ole Miss for two years, mostly working with the defensive line.

Mullen is expected to announce coaching assignments for his assistants when his staff is completed after Jan. 9.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

18 COMMENTS

  1. Not that what I think matters, but this guy better turn out to be something special or I’m thinking we are going to have to look again next year for a linebackers coach. UF doesn’t have much of a track record with guys that don’t have much of a track record. This is a crucial area that we are already weak, not deep, not talented and don’t seem to be recruiting very well with. That goes double with former Georgia Bulldogs. don’t tell me the other coaches will make up for it, they have plenty to do already. I look forward to being proven wrong, or providing fuel to the young man to really leap into something better than what it looks like at the moment.

    • Mveal2006, I’m going to give Mullen the benefit of the doubt about all of his picks. He seem to know or have worked with nearly all of them at some point and time. The age and experience factor seem to be your hang up, but there must be something that these other coaches if not just Mullen know about that says this guy will be good for our coaching staff. There is plenty of experience on this staff and most of them know that they were given a chance when they were 27 or even younger. with a 10 member staff if one guy is not as experienced as the other 9, whats the big deal if they know his upside as a”DEF” coach is high, “let’em work, let’em live” to prove himself. GO GATORS!!!

    • “The age and experience factor seem to be your hang up..”

      I am not saying this dude is going to be a had coach in The League in four years, but would anyone have said when he was hired that a thirty-one year old Sean McVay would lead a team that was 4-12 last year into the NFL play-offs this year?

      In some cases age has absolutely nothing to do with it. Can we at least let him coach for a year before the slagging begins? Cripes the negativity on these boards sometimes just absolutely saps my energy. Would you nattering nabobs rather not feel at least cautiously optimistic about where we are headed? It’s A LOT more fun.

  2. Mullen hires 8 top end highly respected and experienced coaches and some Gators hang on to the youth of a rising star being young.

    Grantham coaches linebackers and Sunseri has in the past as well. Well run organizations grow young talent by bookending it with solid experience. As a Manager of a project team ($300m infrastructure), it looks like a smart move in my book.

    While we’re busy being critical Gator fans, can we stop and say nice job on the staff. Seriously, this is a good looking staff and a huge upgrade over where we were.

  3. Mveal2006 Don’t quite understand the need for such premature second guessing. The young man obviously worked with the HBC and DC at MSU and played in the DC’s system at UGA. I’m pretty sure they know exactly what they are getting with this hire and why they are doing it
    Let the HBC do his job. I’m sure he has more at stake than you do. All of your hand wringing about the success of past UGA hires and recruiting males you come off as an old wash woman. The fact that you think that your post may provide fuel to motivate this guy is truly naive.

  6. This hire could simply be the 10th on-field coach who is going to coach under the actual LBs coach who can’t be named until Jan. 9. The only coaches that are actually assigned a title is Mullen and Grantham. Everyone else is simply speculation, even though a lot of the positions that are being assumed, Hevesey, Gonzalez, and Johnson in particular are probably correct, there are others that are a guess. Just have to wait and see….hopefully the recruits know though.

    • Yeah, I think that’s probably it, Corey. Mveal2006 has a good track record when he raises concerns, never been an alarmist per se, so not discounting him in any way, don’t see his questions as second guessing but rather pending other clarifying information. Trouble is that it’s hard to know much of anything right now, other than that which is already spoken. So as you said, we just wait and see what it’s about and how the chess pieces wind up at the end. Go Gators….

  7. My guess is Robinson will coach the ILBs and Grantham will coach the OLBs. If that’s the case, I think this means Skipper is not being retained. That would leave us at nine coaches, assuming Seider is staying. So we still have room for one more asst. coach which will probably be someone to share the DBs with Warren, one taking the safeties and the other the corners. I would expect Mullen to tap Ron English, who coached safeties at MSU under him, for that tenth and final position. That would wrap up a very solid staff, all of whom would have SEC experience.

    • Yep, I hope it is either Patrick Surtain Sr. or Ron English. Surtain Sr. might get us a package deal including his five star CB son who plays for him at American Heritage HS where senior is the HC. Senior was an 11 year NFL CB who played collegiately at Southern Miss. He was a three time pro bowl DB for the Dolphins and also played for the Chiefs. English is a great defensive coach. He played safety at Cal. He’s been a head coach at Eastern Michigan where he was the MAC coach of the year. He was the DC at Michigan, Louisville, and San Jose St. He coached DBs at Mississippi St., Arizona St., San Diego St. and Northern Arizona. He was fired at EMU for a profanity laced tirade at his players that was taped. I’m sure he has learned from that costly mistake.