Florida Gators Football: UF Strikes Out On Mike Locksley

Once reported as a sure fire hire, Mike Locksley coming back to Gainesville seems as gloomy as ever. Where do the Florida Gators go from here?

Mike Locksley, who is a D.C. native, has coached for numerous top-flight programs. That includes a tenure with the Florida Gators Florida when Ron Zook was the head coach.

He has bounced around a bit since then, seeing tenures at Maryland and eventually ending up at Alabama, where he currently is now and is expected to remain. If hired by Florida, though, he would assume recruiting coordinator duties and possibly have some involvement with the offense.

The Gators’ recruiting classes finished off No. 1 and  No. 5 in the two seasons he was in the swamp.

The whole reason the Locksley to Florida news surfaced and was a major possibility was because of the departure of Geoff Collins. That left Florida with a vacant coaching role as Randy Shannon was expected to get promoted to the defense coordinator position, which he did.

When it was reported that Florida coach Jim McElwain was expected to hire Locksley on Dec. 30th, everyone thought it was going to fall through and it was just a waiting game.

A waiting game it was as. For about two weeks, the angst of the Gators finally getting a heavy hitter for recruiter weighed on their shoulders, only to come up short.

Earlier today, Brett McMurphy of ESPN reported that Locksley will remain a member of the Crimson Tide.

With already losing Lane Kiffin this offseason and now possibly Mario Cristobal, Nick Saban is doing everything he can to keep Locksley on his staff. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to compete with Saban.

Another possible hire to fill the vacant spot on the staff is Charlie Partridge, former FAU Head Coach.

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We will just have to wait and see how things play out.