Out together with his spouse and daughter final month at a South Beach mall, longtime receivers coach Billy Gonzales was not job-shopping.
But when a telephone name got here in from Billy Napier, Gonzales had a sense he’d be shopping for what Florida’s head coach was promoting.
“My phone rang and it was Coach … I lit up,” Gonzales recalled following Saturday’s follow. “I was so excited about it.”
Napier wanted to rapidly discover somebody to switch Keary Colbert, who bolted for the Denver Broncos after one season with UF.
If anybody knew the lay of the land and expectations in Gainesville, together with nuances of the receiver place, it was Gonzales. He didn’t hesitate to simply accept the problem to smoke-jump into spring practices and information the Gators’ wideouts.
Wife Julie and 17-year-old daughter Caylynn didn’t have to attend lengthy for Gonzales to rejoin them with a brand new job in hand.
“It was extremely fast,” he mentioned of his determination. “I was really ecstatic about the opportunity to come back and very humbled but very honored to have the opportunity. It’s a prestigious university.”
However, the soccer program with championship pedigree has taken a step again.
Gonzales was there in 2021 when the wheels got here off throughout Dan Mullen’s fourth and ultimate season, following 29 wins in the course of the earlier three. The 51-year-old assistant additionally was a key cog throughout UF’s profitable run underneath Urban Meyer, together with the 2006 and 2008 nationwide titles.
Along the way in which, Gonzales coached a cadre of big-time receivers, starting from All-Americans Percy Harvin (2008) and Kadarius Toney (2020) a dozen years aside.
Current Gators are nicely conscious of their new coach’s resumé. Reminders of his previous gamers’ accomplishments dangle all through the Heavener Football Center.
“They see it up there every day,” Gonzales mentioned. “I actually don’t have to inform them. It’d be totally different in the event that they weren’t working. My guys are working.
“It’d be different if they weren’t working hard.”
Gonzales, a former receiver at Colorado State the place Meyer was his place coach, additionally calls for nothing lower than most effort.
“He’s gonna be on his Ps and Qs,” sophomore Caleb Douglas mentioned. “So when you out there at practice, make sure you’re going 1000%.”
Douglas welcomes Gonzales’ detail-oriented strategy. The 6-foot-3, 203-pound receiver discovered rapidly in 2022, Douglas’ first school season, that enjoying receiver goes past working routes and catching passes.
Gonzales mentioned throughout a earlier stint at UF, if his receivers don’t block, they received’t play.
“If I look back to here, I think twice we had receivers that had 13 catches in the game — and that’s a lot,” he mentioned. “It you’re gonna have 50 to 60 other plays where you better be turning it and peeling for your teammates. We go over that constantly.”
This previous week, Gonzales recalled, Douglas rapidly discovered a defender to dam after a teammate caught a cross.
“He likes things to a T,” Douglas mentioned. “So we’re out there blocking. You want to go get the backside? Then you gotta go get the backside. Ain’t no lolly-gagging, none of that.”
While Douglas remains to be attending to know Gonzales, his return was a reunion for others.
“When coach Nape came and told me, I was pretty excited — not going to lie,” mentioned Xzavier Henderson, who enters his fourth season. “That’s the coach who recruited me. He was here when I first got here and he’s been the coach that taught me the most I know about playing receiver.”
Henderson was the nation’s Twelfth-rated receiver within the 2020 class, per 247Sports however has 5 touchdowns and has averaged 11.4 yards on 73 catches in three seasons.
With Gonzales again lower than a month, the 6-foot-3, 198-pound Miami native dominated Thursday’s scrimmages with 3 touchdowns and greater than 100 yards. Whether the efficiency is a coincidence or a harbinger, Henderson is clearly snug with Gonzales.
“He’s the same Billy G,” Henderson mentioned. “He nonetheless brings that very same vitality. He’s going to teach you.
“That’s a real coach.”
Besides Harvin and Toney, Gonzales educated many top-flight Florida receivers who went on to the NFL, together with Louis Murphy, Riley Cooper, Andre Caldwell, Van Jefferson, Freddie Swain and Josh Hammond.
With Henderson, Douglas, Ricky Pearsall and Ja’Quavion Fraziars, together with a gifted freshman trio, Gonzales is having fun with his third act with the Gators.
“They’ve got great work ethic,” he mentioned. “There’s length, there’s quickness, there’s size. I’m fired up to have the opportunity to coach them.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Edgar Thompson at [email protected] or comply with him on Twitter at @osgators.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com