Houston takes a problem off the hands of the Florida Gators

One of the very real critiques of Billy Napier we have had during his time with the Florida Gators has been his unwillingness to cut bait with staff members who are not carrying their weight. When it is clear that someone needs to go, rather than outright fire them, he does these awkward staff reshuffles in an effort to keep everyone happy.

Thankfully, for the second time this offseason, the University of Houston has hired dead weight away from Gainesville.

Chris Couch can't count to eleven and is hired by Houston

Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports has reported that Chris Couch has accepted a job with the Houston Cougars to become their special teams coordinator.

Couch has long since been a punching bag for Gator fans ever since he arrived on campus. He was given the title of GameChangers Coordinator, and quickly, it was evident that while the game would change under Couch, it wasn't for the better.

Constant gaffes and errors accumulated as the unit's inability to get eleven guys on the field was a major focal point during the 2023 season. Florida's three biggest errors that year were their infamous penalty against Utah when two players wore the same number, the leaping penalty against Kentucky that extended a drive and led to a touchdown, and the substitution chaos against Arkansas that led to Florida missing a game-winning field goal.

Billy Napier doesn't fire people

It's one thing if someone comes on staff, it becomes evident they aren't cut out for the job, and you quickly cut bait and move one.

However, Napier has a habit of not firing employees who are in his friend's circle, instead keeping them on staff as dead weight.

Napier demoted Mark Hocke after the 2023 season as the head strength and conditioning coach but kept him around as the Director of Player Relations in 2024. Hocke took a job this offseason with Louisiana.

After bringing in Austin Armstrong to be the defensive coordinator in 2023, he was quickly replaced by Ron Roberts in 2024. But like Hocke, Armstrong was kept on the defensive staff doing who knows what. Houston hired Armstrong as their defensive coordinator this offseason.

And now Couch, who "worked" alongside Joe Houston this past season and one of the first things Houston implemented was a special teams mat. Outside of the gaffe against Tennessee, special teams for Florida were better in 2024.

But like Hocke and Armstrong, Couch was kept around on staff as dead weight until someone came along to hire him.

Couch's salary was never made public while in Gainesville, but if it was at all close to what the rest of Napier's assistants make, let's not pretend that Couch was working with special teams out of the goodness of his heart.

And with heightened salaries come heightened expectations. And if Napier's approach is to sweep things under the rug when his assistants don't perform, then why should anyone on Napier's staff worry about their job if they know there is a golden parachute on the other side?