Florida head coach Billy Napier made coach Patrick Toney one of the youngest coordinators in the SEC when he hired him to be his defensive coordinator at 31 years old. It’s the same role he held the last two seasons at Louisana. Despite his young age, Toney isn’t intimidated by being one of the youngest coordinators in the conference.
“I always kind of begin with the end in mind,” he said. “This is where I always saw myself, to be honest with you. It means a lot to me that (Napier) promoted me and gave me an opportunity to start calling plays by being a coordinator at a young age. That experience is invaluable and I hope I’ve done my part to prove him right.”
Napier called Toney to offer him a job on Christmas Eve in 2017 even though they had never met before. Napier was assembling his first staff with Louisana and offered him the job based on an assistant’s recommendation.
“Coaching is so crazy,” Toney said, who was 27 at the time. “I was looking to make a move, so I told him I’d be there in a couple days.”
He flourished with the Ragin’ Cajuns and eventually became a defensive coordinator under Napier. Over the last two seasons, Toney’s unit gave up the fewest points and yards per play in the Sun Belt while forcing the most takeaways, going 23-2 over the past two seasons.
Toney hopes to return the Gators’ defense to their previous dominance. Florida’s unit struggled mightily under former defensive coordinator Todd Grantham due to missed tackles, alignment issues and a lack of turnovers. His unit also ranked 85th and 59th nationally in yards allowed per play.
This week marked the beginning of spring practice for Florida and it didn’t take Toney long to earn the respect of his defensive players, according to fifth-year linebacker Amari Burney.
“We’re going to be aggressive every play we’re out there — 11 guys to the ball,” he said. “If you see somebody slacking, guess what? They’re off the field. We’ll get another guy in there to go be aggressive.”
This fall Gators fans will see if their defense can return to their once fearsome form from years past.
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