{"id":84402,"date":"2025-12-15T21:31:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T21:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/84402\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T21:31:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T21:31:23","slug":"florida-reportedly-swoops-in-to-hire-db-coach-before-fsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/84402\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida reportedly swoops in to hire DB coach before FSU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"not-prose mb-6 mt-4 alignfull perfmatters-lazy\" width=\"246\" height=\"30\" alt=\"presented by toyota\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saturdaydownsouth.com\/app\/themes\/bramble\/public\/build\/assets\/presented-by-toyota-minimal-B--CgbxZ.svg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"not-prose mb-6 mt-4 alignfull\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saturdaydownsouth.com\/app\/themes\/bramble\/public\/build\/assets\/presented-by-toyota-minimal-B--CgbxZ.svg\" width=\"246\" height=\"30\" alt=\"presented by toyota\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saturdaydownsouth.com\/college-football\/teams\/florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Florida Gators<\/a> defeated the Florida State Seminoles 40-21 in the Sunshine Showdown this season. Late Friday evening, they knocked off the Seminoles again in the coaching hunt.<\/p>\n<p>According to CBS Sports\u2019 Matt Zenitz, the Gators have hired UCF defensive backs coach Brandon Harris. The 35-year-old was being courted by Florida State, but new head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.saturdaydownsouth.com\/college-football\/coaches\/jon-sumrall\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Jon Sumrall<\/a> managed to steal him away.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Florida is expected to hire UCF defensive backs coach Brandon Harris, sources tell <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBSSports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@CBSSports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Florida State had been working to hire him. Ultimately, he\u2019s headed to Florida. The former Miami and NFL cornerback helped UCF rank 25th nationally in pass defense this season. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vTJYOC6X5l\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/vTJYOC6X5l<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mzenitz\/status\/1999648465291239540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 13, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Harris has spent the bulk of his career, both playing and coaching, in the Sunshine state. Once he coaches his first game in Gainesville, he\u2019ll have played or coached for every FBS school in the state besides South Florida:<\/p>\n<p>Player \u2013 Miami (2008-10)<\/p>\n<p>Coach \u2013 FIU (2019 &amp; 2021)<\/p>\n<p>Coach \u2013 Florida State (2020)<\/p>\n<p>Coach \u2013 Florida Atlantic (2022-24)<\/p>\n<p>Coach \u2013 UCF (2025)<\/p>\n<p>Coach \u2013 Florida (2026)<\/p>\n<p>Harris was also a member of the Miami Dolphins during training camp in 2016. Florida fans are happy to have him on the coaching staff, but are even more excited about his addition knowing Sumrall essentially poached him from the Seminoles.<\/p>\n<p>With Harris and Sumrall in tow, the Gators are ready to make their climb back toward the top of the SEC. The duo will make their Florida coaching debuts on Sept. 5 versus Florida Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p>        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded-full mx-auto sm:m-0 grayscale aspect-square perfmatters-lazy\" alt=\"Braden Ramsey\" width=\"88\" height=\"88\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/aea2698cc9df4ba4d383bf058fc9f98f2564064324d1c602bb2e3eebc8ec78e5\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"rounded-full mx-auto sm:m-0 grayscale aspect-square\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/aea2698cc9df4ba4d383bf058fc9f98f2564064324d1c602bb2e3eebc8ec78e5\" alt=\"Braden Ramsey\" width=\"88\" height=\"88\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Gators defeated the Florida State Seminoles 40-21 in the Sunshine Showdown this season. Late Friday evening,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-84402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}