Florida football banking on two WR coaches to benefit talented group

Different coaches organize staffs in different ways.

Under former Florida football coach Billy Napier, the Florida Gators emphasized the offensive line with two offensive line coaches on staff, which produced mixed results. Guard O'Cyrus Torrence and center Jake Slaughter developed into All-Americans under Napier. Overall, though, UF's offensive line struggled to protect the quarterback against the more physical teams in the SEC, such as Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M.

New Florida coach Jon Sumrall has opted to employ two wide receiver coaches, with Trent McKnight as inside receivers coach and passing game coordinator and Marcus Davis as outside receivers coach. McKnight worked at Georgia Tech under new UF offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner. Davis worked at Auburn and helped develop speedy receiver Eric Singleton, who transferred from Auburn to UF last month.

McKnight and Davis crossed paths last spring when they were both evaluating the same player at a Tuscaloosa, Alabama, high school during a spring recruiting evaluation period.

"He was a good dude," McKnight said. "And that happens at some practices. You are evaluating a certain guy, and there’s another guy that’s there that’s watching the same person. I knew of him as a player, but that was our first interaction.

"High character guy, good energy, was asking questions. I think that I took a lot from that first interaction with him, and it’s been great the two of us working together the last month.”

Davis said he's looking forward to working with McKnight as well.

"He's one person that I respect in his profession, you know, how he goes about his business, how he evals players," Davis said. "I thought he did a great job with that. And so, I'm looking forward to continue to learn and continue to work with him."

How a two WR coaching system can benefit Florida football

McKnight explained how a two wide receiver system benefits coaching the position group.

"The Air Raid teams, a lot of times they’ve had two receiver coaches, right?" McKnight said. "When you talk about it from individual, we’re able to split individual up. So, if you get 10 minutes, Marcus can be working a top-of-the-route technique for five minutes. I can be working releases for five minutes. The one thing I don’t like as a receiver coach is one guy working a drill and 14 guys standing in line."

Florida returns rising sophomore receivers Dallas Wilson and Vernell Brown III while adding a proven SEC receiving threat in Singleton, who had 58 catches for 534 yards and 5 TDs at Auburn last season.

There's depth behind the projected starting three, which included Georgia Tech transfer receiver Bailey Stockton, returning redshirt sophomore TJ Abrams and incoming freshman four-star and top 100 national recruit Davian Groce. Faulkner said the Gators could deploy some four receiver sets next season to get as much speed on the field as possible.

"We’re going to base out of a lot of three-receiver sets but have the ability to get into 10 personnel," McKnight said. "A lot of it is what the guys do when we get into spring practice, right, like, who are your best players? Let’s get our best players on the field. Let’s find a way to get them the ball in space so they can go make plays.

Davis, who grew up in Boynton Beach a Gators fans, said what he took in his three years coaching receivers in the SEC at Auburn (from 2023-25) was the importance of attention to detail.

"You gotta focus on the small details," Davis said. "You can't take anything for granted. You can't take a play for granted, you can't take a rep for granted, because you never know when that detail gonna show. You never know when that play is gonna add up, and that could be the difference in winning or losing."

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com

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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: How two wide receiver coaches could transform Florida football offense