Gators hire South Florida assistant coach; Will he recruit Miami? Doubt it.

GAINESVILLE -- The University of Florida hired assistant football coach Dan McCarney on Friday afternoon. For more information about the hiring CLICK THIS LINK.

McCarney coached the defensive line at South Florida last season. Does hiring McCarney mean that current defensive line coach Greg Mattison is leaving for the Baltimore Ravens? A university official told me that is not the case shortly after McCarney's hiring was made public.

Florida recently lost two assistants. Safeties coach Doc Holliday went to West Virginia and running backs coach Stan Drayton skipped town for Tennessee (oh, the horror). Meyer will assign his new coaches positions once he fills the remaining spot.

Holliday's loss created a recruiting hole in South Florida. Meyer is filling that void with two coaches. Receiver coach Billy Gonzales will now recruit Palm Beach and Broward counties and Meyer said he will place one of his new hires in Miami-Dade.

Two assistant coaches in South Florida should be a good indication that Florida is pretty serious about recruiting South Florida and plans to remain a permanent and strong presence in the area. It's possible McCarney will be the coach asked to recruit Miami-Dade, although he didn't recruit the area for South Florida.

McCarney coached college football for nearly 30 years in the Midwest before being hired at South Florida in 2007. I don't exactly see him being able to relate to kids in South Florida, but I could be wrong. 

McCarney was the head coach at Iowa State for 11years (1995-2006) and led the Cyclones to five bowl games. He was named Big 12 coach of the year in 2004, the year Iowa State was co-champs of the Big 12 North. McCarney was a defensive coordinator at Wisconsin from 1990-1994 and was an assistant at Iowa from 1977-1989.

-jo-

Comments

[UF Peru]

He has a pretty good record, and pretty sure we can use him on our defense developing young talent. But as a recruiter in the south? I don't see it. He is an old coach from out west. What kind of connection can he have with South Florida's young talent?????? We need a young coach to recruit down there, preferable a couch that actually worked down there...

[Gators!!]

Forget it! After next year when UM wins a few more games all SF talent will head to the U. We should stick to NF.

[Tom]

You do know that Coach Mac has a home in Florida and has recruited Florida for many years. If he could pull Florida kids to Iowa imagine what he can do for Florida. You got a great coach and a great person. Perhaps you guys should look outside the state and realize that everyone recruits out of Florida

[Joseph Goodman]

Tom,

Thanks for the info and thanks for visting the blog.

-jo-