With head coach Billy Napier on the hot seat following Florida’s 1-3 start to the 2025 season, a few options stand out at the forefront for the interim head coaching position if the program bids him goodbye.

Here’s a look at potential replacements among the Gators’ coaching staff.

Executive head coach and defensive coordinator Ron Roberts

Ron Roberts joined Florida’s staff to right the defensive ship in 2024 after a successful coaching career that spanned nearly 30 years.

In Roberts’ first season at Florida in 2024, he led a defensive unit that finished the season ranked ninth in the nation in red zone defense, 11th in sacks per game and 13th in turnovers gained. The Gators also jumped from the No. 78 scoring defense in 2023 to the No. 44 unit in 2024.

“We are excited to add one of the best football minds in all of college football to our staff,” Napier said in 2024. “Ron is a great teacher and leader, and he has consistently produced and developed quality defensive players and units.”

Notably, Roberts has served as defensive coordinator for multiple FBS programs over his 30-year career. Before arriving at Florida in 2024, he served as Auburn’s defensive coordinator in 2023, Baylor’s defensive coordinator from 2020 to 2022 and Louisiana’s defensive coordinator in 2018 and 2019.

Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze, who Roberts coached with in 2023, had high praise for his ability to call a game from a “defensive perspective” while “making adjustments”

“He’s one of the best in the nation at calling a game,” Freeze said in 2023. “We all have strengths and we all have weaknesses, and you want to play to your strengths.”

Roberts has never been a head coach at the FBS level, but he served as head coach for Division II Delta State from 2007 to 2011 and FCS Southeastern Louisiana from 2012 to 2017. At Delta State, he held a 47-16 record and made four NCAA Division II playoff appearances. Later, at Southeastern Louisiana, he held a record of 42-29, leading the Lions to back-to-back conference titles in 2013 and 2014.

Offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Russ Callaway

Russ Callaway has risen through the ranks of Florida’s coaching staff since joining the program as a defensive intern in 2022. He was promoted to tight ends coach for the 2023 season before being vaulted into the co-offensive coordinator role during the 2024 season.

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Under Callaway, UF’s tight end group combined for 44 receptions for 444 yards and five touchdowns in the 2024 season, while helping the Gators rank ninth in the nation in passing yards per completion.

“I thought Russ did an exceptional job last year in a leadership role, running the unit meetings,” Napier said in 2025. “From an organizational standpoint, installation, scripting, input on the game plan. He was in every one of those meetings.”

Before joining the Florida staff, Callaway served as an offensive assistant for the New York Giants in 2021 and LSU in 2020. He also served as offensive coordinator at FCS Samford from 2016 to 2019. From 2016 to 2018, Samford’s offense ranked in the top five in the FCS in passing yards per game. The Bulldogs also led the FCS in passing yards per game in 2018.

During his time at LSU, Callaway made a large impression on then-head coach Ed Orgeron, who said he is “going to be a great coach in college football.”

“He is tremendous,” Orgeron said about Callaway in 2020. “He already proved himself at Samford and had one of the best offenses in the country. I think he is a great young coach.”

Associate head coach and running backs coach Jabbar Juluke:

When Florida moved on from former head coach Dan Mullen midway through the 2021 season, the program elected to hire then-running backs coach Greg Knox. 

Because of the Gators’ offense struggles in 2025, it’s possible that they might look toward one of the offensive coaches to take over rather than have one of their defensive coaches take on a new position. 

Jabbar Juluke has been a part of Florida’s coaching staff since Napier took over in 2022. He previously served as the assistant coach and running backs coach under Napier at Louisiana from 2018 to 2021.

“We work as a team to pick the players; he coaches them,” Napier said of Juluke in 2024. “Running backs are a critical piece of the puzzle. Got to have balance at that position, and he’s the leader of that group.”

Before joining Napier’s staff, he served as the associate head coach and running back coach at Texas Tech in 2017 and as the running back coach at both LSU in 2016 and Louisiana Tech from 2013 to 2015.

“He has a proven track record of success at both the college and high school level,” former LSU head coach Les Miles said of Juluke in 2016. 

Juluke was a prestigious head coach at the high school level, winning a Class 4A Louisiana state title with Edna Karr High School in 2012. He accumulated a 80-39 record over his two stints at the school.

Juluke is currently serving a three-game suspension for his role in a pre-game altercation between Florida and LSU on Sept. 13. 

Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X @maxbernstein23.

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Max Bernstein

Max is the Summer 2025 sports editor. He is a third-year journalism sports & media major and in his fifth semester at The Alligator. He is a big South Florida sports fan and would die for Matthew Tkachuk.