There’s a new name floating around out there as a possibility for becoming the new defensive coordinator at Florida: Charlie Harbison, the co-defensive coordinator at Clemson.
Before going to Clemson after the 2008 season, Harbison was the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State for one year. Before that, he spent four years as the wide receivers coach at Alabama.
He’s a relatively young guy and he has a reputation for being a strong recruiter (and strong family man), qualities Urban Meyer always seems to be looking for when hiring assistant coaches.
The word is that the Gators will name a new co-defensive coordinator in the next day or two. Harbison has been under the radar up until now. But he’s a guy to definitely keep an eye on.
And Clemson’s defense is supposed to be an endorsement to the quality of his defensive coaching abilities?????????
I trust our coach to make the right decision here. The guy we bring in will be able to get the most out of our talent and our D will continue to be strong.
I’d guess there would be several candidates itching to work with the Gator’s defense for the next few years. Hell, hire me.
How do you go from being a wide receivers coach for four years to defensive coordinator?
Shouldn’t we get someone that has experience with linebackers? This guys sounds a lot like Chuck Heater, not that that’s a bad thing, but we don’t need two defensive coordinators with no experience coaching linebackers.
Let’s get the best guy available. If that’s someone from within then so be it
There’s a reason why Urban’s crew moves onto bigger (but definitely not better) things, and I have complete faith they will pick a coach that moves on to a head coaching position in 4 years ;). And that’s a good thing…. for the next 4 years :).
Robbie did not list his entire resume.
http://clemsontigers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/harbison_charlie00.html
In short, he has extensive defensive backs coaching experience and he coached on some good SEC defenses (Bama, LSU, Mississippi State). He was part of SEC championship winning Bama and LSU defenses, and Mississippi state was pretty good on defense while he was there.
I think that we would have all like to have seen a big name hire. But we are spoiled from winning so many championships and recruiting wars and we think that we are entitled to the top ranking everything. Everybody who has a big name had to start somewhere, and then they move on. If Harbison does get hired at UF and does well, he will have a big name and eventually move on too. I think that Meyer is looking for a guy who will have good chemistry with the team and the staff and not be in a big hurry to find the next job.
We have a Linebackers coach, DJ Durkin.
Why has every single candidtate mentioned been a minority except for the in house candidates? It is obvious that you have to be a minority to be considered. Urban is so deperate to hire a minority that we are now considering a guy who was a WR coach recently. I know for a fact several prominent coaches have inquired about this job but they are the wrong ethnicity. I was hoping we had moved past all of that.
I wish that they would look at Bill Clark the DC and assistant Head Coach at upstart program – Univ of South Alabama. Clark who is relatively young is already a legeend in Alabama where he was the DC for many years at High School powerhouse Hoover High outside B’Ham in the 90’s before getting the Head job at Prattville High where he was an amazing 107-11 this past decade with a couple of state titles and twice runner-ups.
http://www.usajaguars.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8300&ATCLID=1419881
The guys is a winner and a class act!!!
Hey Sam August, the same way one goes from offensive line coach to offensive coordinator?
My guess is that Urban and Steve will do the right thing based upon what the Gator’s staff needs. They have all my trust.
I really don’t think working one year as DC at MSU and one year as co-DC at Clemson qualifies you for any position at Florida. Both MSU and Clemson defenses have sucked for years.
Charlie wasnt great inder Zook. Better players, better coaches
Jeremy Rowell, Troy. Florida guy. New blood. Solid Rep. They had us scrambling for 30plus minutes with less talent than what just committed.
Urban needs a good mix of ethnicities on the staff. Besides being the right thing to do, it helps our young black athletes to have black male role models on staff. It’s also an issue in recruiting, as black parents prefer to see those role models available for their child.
The problem is that most of the coaches who moved up and out were black. So Urban has been concentrating on bringing in another good black coach as a replacement. I’m sure there’s no “quota”, but he IS looking to keep a good mix.
Personally, considering the number of years being black kept good coaches from being hired, I don’t mind seeing a good coach getting a leg up because of his ethnicity. Heck, I like for us to have an Hispanic coach or two, for the same reason.