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Billy Napier adds former Louisiana player to Gators staff

On3 imageby: Zach Abolverdi01/26/22ZachAbolverdi

Shane Vallot wanted to pursue a coaching career after he finished playing at Louisiana. Florida’s Billy Napier, his former coach, is giving him that first opportunity.

Vallot announced Tuesday that he has joined Napier’s staff at UF. He will serve in a support staff role, working in the weight room with the offensive line.

“First stop of my Coaching Career @GatorsFB,” Vallot tweeted. “Extremely excited for this new Opportunity. Ready to get to work.”

Vallot, a native of Lafayette, La., joined the Ragin’ Cajuns football team as a walk-on in 2017. Napier awarded Vallot a scholarship in the summer of 2019 after he won the starting job at center.

Vallot became a three-year starter for Napier, anchoring Louisiana’s offensive line and earning All-Sun Belt Conference honors in 2020 (third team) and 2021 (second team).

“He’s a 6-foot guy that has really made himself into a heck of a football player,” Napier said Vallot of in November. “He’s probably lost … 60 pounds since we’ve first gotten here.

“A guy who has done a great job communicating up front. He’s got a little underdog mentality to him because of his background. He wants to be a coach, so I think that makes him an exceptional player.”

In that same story from the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, Vallot expressed his desire to follow in Napier’s footsteps.

“I would like, eventually, one day … to be in the shoes that Coach Napier is in,” Vallot said. “So it makes me feel good to see our head coach think that way about me.”

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