Florida Gators hired Austin Armstrong a mentor and now he is leaving for Houston

One of the subplots for Florida Football in 2024 was who exactly was calling plays on defense. After Austin Armstrong was the unquestioned defensive coordinator in 2023, Ron Roberts was brought to town as a co-defensive coordinator to "mentor" Armstrong.

In a case where Gainesville might not be big enough for the two of them, Armstrong will be leaving town and not for a job that anyone would consider an upgrade.

Florida Football: Mentor advice

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that Armstrong was in discussion with the Houston Cougars, and Matt Zenitz was the first to report that Armstrong is, in fact, leaving Florida to go be the defensive coordinator at Houston.

Armstrong came to Gainesville in 2023 after Patrick Toney left for the NFL. Armstrong was the defensive coordinator at Southern Mississippi and was hired onto Alabama's staff as a linebackers coach before taking the job at Florida.

He was sold to Gator fans as a rising star in the business, and for the first half of 2023, it looked like Florida's defense was improved. But their inability to limit explosive plays led to a unit that gave up at least 30 points during a stretch of six out of seven games and gave up a literal college football record to LSU's Jaydon Daniels when he became the first player ever to throw for at least 350 yards and run for at least 200 yards in a single game.

Heading into the 2024 campaign, Billy Napier went out and hired Roberts from Auburn. Napier tried to sell a narrative that Roberts would be a mentor to Armstrong, given that the two had previously worked together on Napier's staff in Louisiana.

Napier claimed that Armstrong was going to still be calling the plays. He stated last February that:

"Austin (Armstrong) calls the plays, but we are getting a guy who can coach the coaches… (Roberts) is the head coach of the defense to some degree."

But we also noted that, at the time, we didn't think this whole mentor thing was going to work out. We here at Hail Florida Hail also stated in February that:

"But why at the University of Florida are you bringing in a mentor for your defensive coordinator? This is not the type of place where it exactly exudes confidence among your fanbase that the man calling the defensive plays needs to check in with someone as if he is back in high school and has to take around a grade sheet on Thursday to all his teachers so he can be eligible to play on Friday."

As it played out, Armstrong wasn't calling the plays in 2024, at least in the beginning. Florida's defense was objectively terrible to open the season, and at the core of the problems was Roberts insisting that Florida's safeties played extremely high off the line of scrimmage, begging teams to exploit the underneath areas.

After the first bye week, Florida was much more aggressive in their approach, more like something Armstrong would have preferred, and Armstrong was spotted on the sidelines during the back half of the season rather than in the press box.

The common belief is that Roberts was still calling the plays. Whether Armstrong was forced out or left on his own, neither is a good look for Florida.

If Armstrong was forced out, we are openly admitting that the 2023 season was a failure in part because of Napier's hiring decisions. It also means in the span of two years, Napier has gone from "Hey guys, Armstrong is a rising star, and you guys are going to love him" to "Hey guys, Armstrong was mid, and he needed to go."

If Armstrong left on his own, why is Houston the best gig he could get? If he was a "rising star," he wouldn't be going backward to a Big 12 school that went 4-8 in 2024. Why leave at all in that case, especially if Florida is supposed to be as good as Napier is going to try and sell as they are in 2025?

As we wrote after the FSU win, Florida is presumably going into the offseason with some wind at their sails, and if the defense can maintain its level of play from the back half of the year, there is a real pathway for Florida to go 9-3 or beyond in 2025.

But there are fair and legit questions to ask about the departure of Armstrong, and there is a core segment of Florida fans who are tired of being told to "trust the process," only to watch the process reset every year with a new batch of excuses.