Gators’ Billy Napier hires longtime cohort Rob Sale from NFL

With the NFL regular season now over, some of the hires long expected to join new head coach Billy Napier’s staff from the league have become available. The first of those hires on their way to the Florida Gators is Rob Sale, who will take over as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.

Sale spent the 2021 season as offensive line coach for the New York Giants. He will return to college football after just one year in the NFL. Sale took the Giants job after leaving Napier’s staff at Louisiana where he served as offensive coordinator and offensive coach from 2018-20.

Giants OL coach Rob Sale is leaving to become the offensive coordinator at Florida, per sources. Sale heads back to the SEC and reunites w/new UF coach Billy Napier. The two enjoyed a lot of success together at Louisiana at Lafayette. Now hoping to replicate it in Gainesville.

— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) January 11, 2022

Sale’s History in Football

Sale’s coaching track record started on the LSU as the offensive line under the tutelage of Nick Saban.

In 2007, he returned to Saban’s side, this time as a strength and conditioning assistant at Alabama. He also served as an offensive analyst for the Crimson Tide through 2011.

Sale did some work at McNeese State, Georgia, Louisiana-Monroe and Arizona State. Then he arrived in Lafayette, Louisiana, to become the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach for Napier’s Ragin’ Cajuns.

The Cajuns had an elite running game under Sale’s guidance. Napier and Sale helped set school records for rushing yards, rushing touchdowns and total yards in 2019.

Sale went to the NFL to coach the Giants’ offensive line after his three-years in Lafayette. The Giants totaled 1,688 rushing yards this season, putting them at a lowly 24th out of 32 teams in rushing yards this season. However, the team was without star running back Saquon Barkley for a portion of the season due to injury.

#Gators now officially announce Rob Sale as OC and OL coach.

Sale worked with Billy Napier from 2018-2020 at UL and was instrumental in recruiting and developing the unit that was a finalist for the Joe Moore Award this year. He spent 2021 as the OL coach for the Giants. https://t.co/DXES4fQViQ

— CONNER (@ConnerClarke) January 11, 2022

Napier’s Football Hirings

Napier has been consistently making hirings all offseason to his new coaching staff with the Gators. In this, he has hired a total of 33 members to add to the team and has truly completely overhauled this whole coaching staff in the span of just over a month.

Patrick Toney will serve as co-defensive coordinator and Mark Hocke will oversee strength and conditioning. Running backs coach Jabbar Juluke and offensive analyst Ryan O’Hara also will leave Lafayette for Gainesville. Corey Raymond will serve to coach the cornerbacks and as the assistant Head Defensive Coach.

Napier will continue to build his staff in the coming days, tapping into an assistant coaching salary pool of $7.5 million — $1.3 million more than the Gators budgeted in 2021.

.@coach_bnapier has announced 30 hires during his first month on the job.

Steve Spurrier has been impressed with Napier's moves so far.

“We're shooting for the top. Billy Napier is putting together a staff and a program and a plan to win it all.”

STORY: https://t.co/en4d1vwdcB pic.twitter.com/AtQdUMHJ45

— Zach Abolverdi (@ZachAbolverdi) January 4, 2022