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It's official: Gators announce Brad White as defensive coordinator

On3 imageby: Keith Niebuhr7 hours agoOn3Keith

Tuesday, Gators Online reported Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White was expected to become the next DC at Florida. Now, it’s official.

The Gators announced his hiring via X on Thursday afternoon.

“Brad is one of the best defensive minds in football and I’m thrilled he will be joining us in Gainesville,” UF coach Jon Sumrall said in a release. “Brad has led one of the best defenses in the SEC the last seven years and has extensive experience in the NFL as well. His defenses possess the exact characteristics we are going to have here at Florida and I can’t think of a better leader for that unit.”

Said White: “Extremely thankful to Coach Sumrall for this exciting opportunity. I’m ready to hit the ground running on helping construct a defense that will make Gator Nation proud. Coach has already stated the vision – be the most feared defense in college football. Now comes the hard work necessary to make that vision a reality.  And while scheme has its importance, the most critical focus we’ll have as a defensive staff will be to develop the highly-talented playmakers we recruit and demand that they play with a pace and violence second to none.”

Sumrall, named Florida’s coach Sunday, has deep Kentucky ties. He played linebacker for the Wildcats and later coached with them from 2019-21. During that time, White also was on the Kentucky staff.

White joined the Wildcats program in 2018 as outside linebackers coach. He previously worked with the Indianapolis Colts from 2012-17. He was outside backers coach his final three seasons with that organization.

White had been Kentucky’s defensive coordinator since 2019. The Wildcats fired head coach Mark Stoops on Monday. At Kentucky, White reportedly earned $1.4 million annually.

Per a UF release, “As a native of Portsmouth, R.I., White graduated from Wake Forest in 2004 where he was a three-year starter at linebacker. Across 35 career games, he totaled 227 tackles, 19.0 tackles for loss, 4.0 sacks and eight passes defended. White was a three-time Academic All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection and was named to the 2004 CoSIDA Academic All-District III team.”

Here are Kentucky’s defensive numbers nationally under White at DC:

2025: Scoring (75th, 26.4); Yards (66th, 374.2)
2024: Scoring (32nd, 22.1); Yards (44th, 345.5)
2023: Scoring (61st, 25.8); Yards (45th, 353.5)
2022: Scoring (11th, 19.2); Yards (12th, 311.4)
2021: Scoring (26th, 21.7); Yards (25th, 340.7)
2020: Scoring (45th, 25.9); Yards (45th, 380.7)
2019: Scoring (14th, 19.3); Yards (20th, 322.2)

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