Florida Football: Gators add Bowling Green's Beyah Rasool to defensive staff

In a move to strengthen their defensive unit, the Florida Gators have added Beyah Rasool to their football staff in an off-field role as an analyst, first reported by Matt Zenitz.

Rasool's hiring comes after a brief stint at Bowling Green, where he served as the cornerbacks coach and special teams assistant during the 2023 season. Despite his short tenure, Rasool's impact was evident as the Falcons' secondary showed improvement across various metrics.

Bowling Green finished the year ranked fourth in the nation with 17 interceptions and led the country in takeaways with 28. Under Rasool, starting cornerbacks Jordan Oladokun and Jalen Huskey both tied for 19th in the nation with four interceptions each. Huskey earned first-team All-MAC honors, while Oladokun garnered second-team recognition, and Davon Ferguson received third-team All-MAC accolades.

The Falcons' defense as a whole excelled, ranking 25th in the nation in total defense (326.1 yards per game) and 12th in passing yards allowed (179.8 yards per game). In contrast, the Gators struggled to force turnovers, finishing last in the country with just three interceptions in 2023.

Prior to his time at Bowling Green, Rasool spent two years as a senior defensive analyst with the Arizona Wildcats.

While the Gators' current on-field coaching staff is complete, Florida head coach Billy Napier has expressed interest in the NCAA Oversight Committee's potential move to remove the limit on the number of on-field coaches. During a recent media appearance, Napier highlighted the benefits of such a change, citing the increased workload and responsibilities of assistant coaches in the modern era of college football.

""I do think it's beneficial. We have a lot of people in our building that will immediately be able to impact our team. I think it will be healthy. I think it will allow a little bit better pace to do the job, you know, these guys not only coach their position, they evaluate their position, they recruit their position, and then they have to develop great relationships and those relationships are tested more than they used to be tested because of the transfer portal, so there's more on the plate and with more attrition, there's more evaluation and more recruitment.""

- Billy Napier

With Rasool's addition to the staff, the Gators aim to improve their defense and capitalize on his proven ability to develop talented defensive backs and build a winning culture.