Billy Napier announces plans to retain on-field Florida staffer

When the Florida Gators hired Billy Napier away from Louisana, he immediately began to fill out his staff. Fast forward to late January and Napier is still making quality hires for the program.

Florida announced they would be retaining a name from Dan Mullen’s staff on Friday. Corey Bell, who spent the 2021 season as the director of player personnel for the Gators, will remain in Gainseville with the role of quality control of running backs. It’s now Bell’s second stint with Florida after working in the secondary during the 2017 season.

Bell spent three seasons at UCF as the cornerbacks coach under Josh Heupel before he left for the Tennessee job. Sticking within the Sunshine State, Bell has also served on the Florida Atlantic staff as the secondary coach and director of player personnel and at Miami as the director of football operations.

Florida excelled on the ground last season, rushing for over 200 yards a game. Quarterback Emory Jones was the team’s leading rusher with 758 yards and four touchdowns. Bell will be in charge of helping the running backs be top of the group next season.

Florida Gators linebacker withdraws name from transfer portal

In a surprising turn of events, Florida linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper has now withdrawn his name from the transfer portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz reported on Thursday evening. The news comes just over an hour after Hopper officially entered his name into the portal on Thursday. According to On3’s Nick de la Torre, he spent just 68 minutes in portal.

The news is absolutely massive for Florida and the gifted linebacker is expected to be one of their top returning defenders for the 2022 season.

A former top 100 overall recruit in the 2019 recruiting class, Hopper racked up 65 tackles, ten tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, and one forced fumble this year for the Gators.

During Florida’s final three games of the season, he had 25 tackles, four tackles for loss, a sack, and a forced fumble.

In the 2020 season, he played in 11 of the 12 games and tallied 15 tackles in a reserve role. He notched four tackles a game three times that season, including in the Cotton Bowl against the Oklahoma Sooners.

Coming out of high school, Hopper chose Florida over Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, and Tennessee, among others.

His brother, Tyrone Hopper, recently transferred from North Carolina to Missouri. According to PFF, his most productive season came in 2020, when he finished with 27 pressures and 23 hurries.

On3’s Wade Hampton Peery contributed to this report