GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With five of 10 on-field coaching hires completed, Florida head coach Billy Napier is targeting four NFL assistants and a key Big Ten staffer for the next wave, a source told The Athletic.
Napier is seeking to bring aboard Chris Rumph from the Chicago Bears, Karl Scott from the Minnesota Vikings and Eric Henderson of the Los Angeles Rams on the defensive side. He also aims to reunite with New York Giants offensive line coach Rob Sale, the source indicated. Those discussions are on hold until those NFL teams complete their seasons.
Napier might be able to move sooner in targeting Michigan State assistant William Peagler as tight ends coach. The Spartans wrap up their season by facing Pitt in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Dec. 30.
Though contracts aren’t finalized, the staff is primed to feature four $1 million assistants — Scott, Henderson, Sale and co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney. Napier has $7.5 million allocated for full-time assistants. Last year’s on-field staff under Dan Mullen earned around $6.1 million, though defensive coordinator Todd Grantham was among the nation’s highest-paid coordinators at $1.8 million.
HIRINGS ANNOUNCED COACH SALARY
Co-DC/safeties
Patrick Toney
$1 million
RBs/Assistant head coach
Jabbar Juluke
$450,000
WRs
Keary Colbert
$500,000
Assistant offensive line
Darnell Stapleton
$250,000
CBs/Assistant head coach
Corey Raymond
$725,000
TARGETED HIRINGS
COACH
PROJECTED SALARY
Offensive line
Rob Sale (Giants)
$1 million
Defensive line
Eric Henderson (Rams)
$1 million
Co-DC/Inside linebackers
Karl Scott (Vikings)
$1 million
Outside linebackers
Chris Rumph (Bears)
$850,000
Tight ends
William Peagler (Michigan State)
$425,000
The hirings would combine championship pedigree, recruiting chops and in most cases, familiarity with Napier at previous stops.
Rumph, 50, spent three seasons as defensive line coach at Florida under Jim McElwain and was elevated to interim defensive coordinator at the end of the 2017 season following McElwain’s firing.
He was a part of back-to-back national championship teams at Alabama in 2011 and 2012, working alongside Napier the first year. Rumph also coached at Clemson, Tennessee and Texas during his 18 college coaching seasons, a career that has produced 25 NFL draft picks, including three first-rounders.
Scott, 36, in this first season overseeing the Vikings’ defensive backs, has 14 years in college coaching, most recently three at Alabama in which the Tide went 38-3 and won the 2020 national championship.
Defensive line coach Eric Henderson has received great reviews from Rams coach Sean McVay and All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Henderson, 38, is in his fifth NFL season and third with the Rams as a defensive line coach. During 2020, Rams head coach Sean McVay described Henderson as “a future star” months before promoting him to game coordinator.
“You like everything about the guy. He has great energy, he has great command,” McVay said. “His development and what he’s done with our D-line each of the last couple of years that has been outstanding.”
Aaron Donald won his third NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award under Henderson in 2020, crediting the assistant’s communication style and confidence to deliver hard coaching to superstar players. “When you’ve got a coach like that,” Donald said, “you just sit and listen and you try to keep what you’ve been doing but also add what he’s trying to teach me and make me that much better.”
A native of New Orleans, “Henny” set the Georgia Tech career record with 59.5 tackles for loss before spending three seasons migrating between the Bengals’ roster and practice squad. His college coaching experience included two seasons as a grad assistant at Oklahoma State and one year as the defensive line coach at UT-San Antonio before jumping into the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers.
Sale, 42, now in his first season with the NFL Giants, coached under Napier for three seasons at Louisiana. Prior to that, he had one-year stints as the offensive line coach at Georgia, Louisiana-Monroe and Arizona State after spending five years under Nick Saban at Alabama as an offensive analyst and strength and conditioning assistant.
Sale was a three-year starter on the interior offensive line at LSU.
Peagler has coached running backs at Michigan State the past two seasons and coached Doak Walker Award winner Kenneth Walker III this season. He came with Mel Tucker from Colorado, where he served as offensive director of quality control. Peagler worked with Napier as director of player personnel at Louisiana in 2018 and was a grad assistant working with Georgia’s offensive line during the 2017 run to the CFP final
Napier is seeking to bring aboard Chris Rumph from the Chicago Bears, Karl Scott from the Minnesota Vikings and Eric Henderson of the Los Angeles Rams on the defensive side. He also aims to reunite with New York Giants offensive line coach Rob Sale, the source indicated. Those discussions are on hold until those NFL teams complete their seasons.
Napier might be able to move sooner in targeting Michigan State assistant William Peagler as tight ends coach. The Spartans wrap up their season by facing Pitt in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Dec. 30.
Though contracts aren’t finalized, the staff is primed to feature four $1 million assistants — Scott, Henderson, Sale and co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney. Napier has $7.5 million allocated for full-time assistants. Last year’s on-field staff under Dan Mullen earned around $6.1 million, though defensive coordinator Todd Grantham was among the nation’s highest-paid coordinators at $1.8 million.
HIRINGS ANNOUNCED COACH SALARY
Co-DC/safeties
Patrick Toney
$1 million
RBs/Assistant head coach
Jabbar Juluke
$450,000
WRs
Keary Colbert
$500,000
Assistant offensive line
Darnell Stapleton
$250,000
CBs/Assistant head coach
Corey Raymond
$725,000
TARGETED HIRINGS
COACH
PROJECTED SALARY
Offensive line
Rob Sale (Giants)
$1 million
Defensive line
Eric Henderson (Rams)
$1 million
Co-DC/Inside linebackers
Karl Scott (Vikings)
$1 million
Outside linebackers
Chris Rumph (Bears)
$850,000
Tight ends
William Peagler (Michigan State)
$425,000
The hirings would combine championship pedigree, recruiting chops and in most cases, familiarity with Napier at previous stops.
Rumph, 50, spent three seasons as defensive line coach at Florida under Jim McElwain and was elevated to interim defensive coordinator at the end of the 2017 season following McElwain’s firing.
He was a part of back-to-back national championship teams at Alabama in 2011 and 2012, working alongside Napier the first year. Rumph also coached at Clemson, Tennessee and Texas during his 18 college coaching seasons, a career that has produced 25 NFL draft picks, including three first-rounders.
Scott, 36, in this first season overseeing the Vikings’ defensive backs, has 14 years in college coaching, most recently three at Alabama in which the Tide went 38-3 and won the 2020 national championship.
Defensive line coach Eric Henderson has received great reviews from Rams coach Sean McVay and All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Henderson, 38, is in his fifth NFL season and third with the Rams as a defensive line coach. During 2020, Rams head coach Sean McVay described Henderson as “a future star” months before promoting him to game coordinator.
“You like everything about the guy. He has great energy, he has great command,” McVay said. “His development and what he’s done with our D-line each of the last couple of years that has been outstanding.”
Aaron Donald won his third NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award under Henderson in 2020, crediting the assistant’s communication style and confidence to deliver hard coaching to superstar players. “When you’ve got a coach like that,” Donald said, “you just sit and listen and you try to keep what you’ve been doing but also add what he’s trying to teach me and make me that much better.”
A native of New Orleans, “Henny” set the Georgia Tech career record with 59.5 tackles for loss before spending three seasons migrating between the Bengals’ roster and practice squad. His college coaching experience included two seasons as a grad assistant at Oklahoma State and one year as the defensive line coach at UT-San Antonio before jumping into the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers.
Sale, 42, now in his first season with the NFL Giants, coached under Napier for three seasons at Louisiana. Prior to that, he had one-year stints as the offensive line coach at Georgia, Louisiana-Monroe and Arizona State after spending five years under Nick Saban at Alabama as an offensive analyst and strength and conditioning assistant.
Sale was a three-year starter on the interior offensive line at LSU.
Peagler has coached running backs at Michigan State the past two seasons and coached Doak Walker Award winner Kenneth Walker III this season. He came with Mel Tucker from Colorado, where he served as offensive director of quality control. Peagler worked with Napier as director of player personnel at Louisiana in 2018 and was a grad assistant working with Georgia’s offensive line during the 2017 run to the CFP final
