UF to hire Buster Faulkner as Gators next offensive coordinator
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GAINESVILLE — New UF coach Jon Sumrall will hire Buster Faulkner as offensive coordinator to return excitement and explosiveness to a Gators attack among the SEC’s least-productive under Billy Napier.
The Orlando Sentinel confirmed Faulkner will join Sumrall’s staff after he spent the past three seasons under Brent Key at Georgia Tech, where the 44-year-old oversaw the offense and developed Haynes King into a top dual-threat quarterback.
The Yellow Jackets averaged 33.1 points, or 28th nationally, 466.3 yards (12th) and 7.09 yards per play (eighth) while going 9-3, with consecutive losses (at Pitt, vs. Georgia) to end the regular season and miss out on a chance for CFP berth.
When UF introduced him Monday, the defensive-minded Sumrall vowed to hire someone who would energize the Gators offense, once the trademark of the program under Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer and even Dan Mullen before he was fired in 2021.
“I may be a defensive guy, but I want to be more of a defensive guy like somebody Coach Spurrier knows, like Bob Stoops,” Sumrall said. “I want the scoreboard to light up. The way we’ve played maybe where I’ve been has looked a little different than how I want to play moving forward because your job everywhere you are is to figure out how you win for the place you’re at.
“Here, I think we can score a lot of points, and that’s what I want to do.”
Expected to sign a three-year deal, Faulkner inked a two-year contract extension at Georgia Tech in July. He earned $1.25 million this past season, along with a $250,000 incentive paid Nov. 30.
Earlier this week, Sumrall hired Kentucky’s Brad White as defensive coordinator. He also will receive a three-year contract, the Sentinel has learned.
The Gators averaged 21.6 points and scored a single touchdown each in losses to USF, LSU, Miami, Kentucky and Tennessee. With Napier calling plays, Florida never fielded an offense ranked higher than 57th in scoring, averaging 29.5 points in 2022 with first-round pick Anthony Richardson at quarterback.
In 2024, UF finished 12th in the SEC in total offense, after the Gators were sixth in 2023 and seventh in 2022. Napier entered the offseason after ’24, his third season at UF, expected to make an outside hire at offensive coordinator.
Faulkner was among those considered. But Napier ultimately, if not stubbornly, decided to continue calling plays — to his detriment.
Faulkner likely would have energized a predictable, sluggish attack.
In 2022, before Key and Faulkner arrived, Georgia Tech averaged 17.1 points, but improved to 31.1 points per game in 2023. In 2024, the Yellow Jackets averaged 28.5 points while finishing 7-6 for the second straight season.
Faulker joined Key after serving three seasons (2020-22) as a quality control assistant at Georgia working with the quarterbacks for national title teams in 2021 and 2022. Quarterback Stetson Bennett, a former walk-on, threw for 4,127 yards and 27 touchdowns.
Faulker’s offenses at Arkansas State (2016-18) set records. He also coached at Southern Miss (2019), Middle Tennessee (2011-15) and Murray State (2010).
Faulkner was a quarterback from 2000-03 at Valdosta State, where he learned the Air Raid attack at the place the late Mike Leach developed the pass-happy scheme.
Former New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll was also considered strongly for the position.
The Gators were in a battle with Penn State for Daboll’s services.
The well-traveled Daboll last coached at the college level in 2017 at Alabama, where he served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for a national championship team. The Crimson Tide averaged 37.1 points and featured a running game averaging 250.6 of the team’s 444.1 yards a game.
Daboll, 50, and a native of Canada, left for the Buffalo Bills to become offensive coordinator, a position he held from 2018-21 with the team and previously at three NFL teams — Kansas City (2012), Miami (2011) and Cleveland (2009-10).
The Bills finished second in scoring (31.3 points per game) in 2020, reaching the AFC Championship game against Kansas City, and were third (28.4 ppg) in 2021, losing again to the Chiefs during a 42-36 shootout in overtime in a divisional-round game.
The New York Giants named Daboll their coach in 2022, where they reached the playoffs at 9-7-1 and won a playoff game for the first time since 2012 before losing 38-7 to Philadelphia in the next round.
The team failed to build on the success, going 9-25 in 2023-24. A 2-8 start this season led to Daboll’s firing.
Pittsburgh’s Kade Bell and Tennessee’s Joey Halzle also were considered to become UF’s offensive coordinator.
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com
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