Torrian Gray is coming home. Again.
Two years after the Lakeland native left Florida to become the defensive backs coach with the Washington Redskins, he is back with the Gators, hired Monday by coach Dan Mullen to coach Florida’s cornerbacks.
Gray, 44, replaces Charlton Warren, the cornerbacks coach who left UF Saturday to become the secondary coach at Georgia.
In Gray, the Gators are getting a proven coach who has strong recruiting ties in the state.
“Obviously, Torrian brings a high level of familiarity with our program and the Southeastern Conference,” Mullen said. “His track record of preparing players for the NFL and his success coaching at that level speaks for itself. Meanwhile, with his strong recruiting ties to the state of Florida and the fact that he played for Coach Grantham in college will make this transition seamless.”
Gray is certainly familiar with the Florida defense. At Virginia Tech, he played for four years under Grantham, who is now the UF defensive coordinator.
Gray grew up in Lakeland, played for Lakeland Kathleen High School and played college ball at Virginia Tech, where he was the secondary coach from 2006-15 before Jim McElwain hired him at Florida in 2016.
In his one-year stay with the Gators, the UF secondary was one of the best in the nation, led by standout cornerbacks (and future high draft picks) Quincy Wilson and Jalen Tabor.
In his two years with the Redskins, his secondary finished ninth and 15th in the NFL in passing yards allowed.
Gray has other NFL coaching experience. Before returning to his alma mater (Virginia Tech) in 2006, he coached two years with the Chicago Bears.
In all, he has 19 years of coaching experience.
this guy was outstanding before, really good. glad hes back. hope he stays. marquand manuel was exciting, but this is a really good coach that will keep us as DBU IMO!
Great hire. Mullen continues to hit homeruns. Go Gators!!
Hey Sparky with this new hire 2 out of my 3 cats are predicting we land Elam, the other one is taking a nap, what do your labs say?
Unless something drastic changes, and with teenagers anything is possible, Elam will be a Gator. My Labs are saying 90% Gators, 10% mutts still. His family thinks highly of Gray. 👍👍
You mean Elam’s family thinks highly of Grey, good to know.
My cats say the same thing.
Willis the Bloodhound woke up long enough to ask, “What’s an Elam?”.
Go get’em & coach ’em up, coach Gray!
Great hire. Welcome back coach.
Great hire the secondary play under Coach Gray was superb. Definitely a coaching upgrade. Also his secondaries at Va Tech played at high levels with very sound technique. Also he already knows Grantham’s defense I like a lot.
Thanks Kirby Dumb!!!
Thank you, Kirby. We appreciate it.
Definitely an upgrade. Hopefully, he sticks around for more than a year this time.
Go Gators!!!
This guy can do a lot with the talent available. Having coachable talent is a big upside for any college team.
Thank you Kirby dumb.
Gray is a professor emeritus of DBU. Just what our recruiting needs to keep some teeth in the Gator chomp! He will also bring some fresh ideas and perspective to recruiting for the Mullen coaching staff.
Great get!
Kirby’s reaction after overpaying for Warren and finding out UF hired gray:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gd9ltJGykYc
Hilarious!
CDM does it again — wish we knew the entire back story on this episode, but then again, what does it really matter? We come out making ice cream out of horse dookey, so Go Gators, cry havoc, and let slip the surly dogs of war!
Looks like we traded up with another Lakelander Gray, and Kirby (4th and Dumb) traded down again!
Go Gators!
Everyone was apoplectic about that other guy leaving for UGA just moments ago and now it’s all a big party. Coaching assistants are dispensable and get shown the door all the time. Had Warren gone to Austin Peay NOBODY would have cared. SO WHAT that he went to the smell dawgs, NOBODY will remember his name a year from now. Florida is in a better place now. It’s never ending the way CFB fans will jerk their knee at anything. It’s pathetic. Good luck to Warren in his CAREER, his stop at UGA notwithstanding.
We get all that, Art — but you’re taking all our fun away if we can’t jerk our knees, knash our hands and grind out teeth about something! Oy Vey…..
Now I don’t care who are right there, now that’s funny!
I think you are a bit too harsh. Most people here were concerned about the timing of the deal and the fact that Warren was recruiting our main remaining target and there was fear it would prompt Elam to choose the leg humpers. Besides that nobody would care less.
And the “party” is warranted since Gray is a huge upgrade over Warren.
Here’s to less jerking and more partying and Go Gators!
CO – this is Kirby asking “who’s leg do I have to hump to get a new DB coach?” LMAO. Yes he took ours and we admonished him for it, although Jaws was a bit rough on his well wishing’s…lol. I agree CO that it was the timing that was so disturbing. As the other coach plundering was. But we got a great one and we didn’t look like D-bags by taking him from another roster. It is awesome to have a coach that seems to have higher standards. It may have looked black and white to us, but now there is a Gray area in our coaching staff. GO GATORS!!!
I like the Gray area. I don’t mind taking coaches from competing teams, that’s part of the deal and it doesn’t make you a D bag for doing it. I have to go back to the timing just before NSD and the recruiting conflict of interest with Elam, Kirby thought he pulled a fast one on us but not so fast.
Regarding Sunseri, he wanted to be on staff with his son that’s OK, besides remember you ran him off, so that one’s on you.
For the last time, it does make “them” a D-bag when they do it to us, but the reverse is not true. “We” are not D-bags when we do it to them. Now one more time: We are never D-bags, only them. O-Kay?
Jeesh, CO, I buy you books, I send you to school……….
Warren or Sunseri weren’t “bad” coaches, but you can upgrade over them, and in the case of former DB coach Warren, we did, in spades. A lot of people don’t realize that Gray left under McElwain because he saw the writing on the wall and wanted no part of McElwain’s “good ‘ole boys club” coaching staff he was building at UF. It was a good choice for him actually.
But Gray is finally back and we have seriously upgraded to not only a quality coach, but a MUCH better recuiter than Warren was.
I expect the same from whoever our new DL coach will be too, but for now, lets get Gray on the recruiting trail and in the living rooms of Charles Moore, Kris Bogle, and Kaiir Elam.
Don’t know about the “good ole boys” deal but he probably realized Mac was incompetent and I agree he is a huge upgrade both in coaching and recruiting. He may be visiting Elam as we speak.
I sense a backhanded bashing of the Redskins coaching staff as well.
Welcome back, Coach Gray. We’re looking forward to having you coaching the best cornerbacks in America again.
Not to rain on anyone’s parade but wonder if we are being objective. My memory is worse than Urban Meyer’s but I vaguely remember a few comments from the time of his prior departure from Gainesville that fans felt while he was a very good coach, he was not a very good recruiter. Now I am hearing what a great recruiter he is. Am I imagining things?
Don’t recall that but if you do then your memory is better than mine
You are absolutely correct Sly. Supposedly he made some HS coaches mad his last time here. Hopefully he has learned and will become a better recruiter with a better head coach now in charge.
Thanks Sparky. Hopefully he stays long enough to build/rebuild good relationships.
W E L C O M E back CTG! I knew CDM would be successful. GO GATORS!!!
Welcome back, Coach Gray – the Gator Nation needs your expertise to keep UF as the top DBU – let’s land our remaining verbal commit and complete this most excellent DB recruiting class – GO GATORS!!!
I Love this hire….It is always GREAT when the new Hire outshines his predecessor!