Three burning questions for Florida Football after hiring Vinnie Sunseri as "Co-DC"

The Gators hired Sunseri to fill the vacancy left behind by Austin Armstrong

New England Patriots v Las Vegas Raiders
New England Patriots v Las Vegas Raiders | Chris Unger/GettyImages

After taking his time, Billy Napier has added to the coaching staff for Florida Football. Matt Zenitz of 247 has reported that the Gators have hired Vinnie Sunseri as co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach.

Sunseri was with the Washington Huskies last year before temporarily taking the defensive coordinator job at Jacksonville State. Prior to those jobs, he spent time with the New England Patriots. Sunseri played at Alabama before a three-year run as a player in the NFL.

As our profile on X states, I just ask questions out loud. So here are three burning questions I have about hiring Sunseri and adding him to the staff.

Sunseri isn't really the "co-defensive coordinator," is he?

Much in the same way that Russ Callaway is the "co-offensive coordinator," this DC title given to Sunseri feels like an artificial title given to him by Napier that will mean nothing in reality.

Sunseri has zero DC experience, and as we learned last year, Ron Roberts is actually in charge of the defense, no matter what titles are given.

Sunseri will be in charge of the safeties and will do as Roberts says.

What motivation did Sunseri have to come to Gainesville?

After his run with the Patriots, Sunseri's first college job as an official member of a staff was last year with Washington.

As we noted on Friday, the Huskies did have Makell Esteen see most notable improvement in play, but the other three safeties who played at least nine games all had PFF grades under 70 in 2024, with two of three seeing a double-digit drop in their grade from 2023.

Sunseri took the DC job with Jacksonville State, which would be a step forward in his career. So it feels strange that he would give up a DC job just to retake a position coach job, especially when Napier is still far from safe to make it past 2025.

Does this confirm Austin Armstrong was a failed hire?

One of the reasons why Napier's seat was molten lava hot in 2024 was because of the lack of goodwill he had following 2023. And the center of the 5-7 season was a defense that got shredded down the stretch, including the infamous 4th and 17 against Missouri.

By hiring Sunseri versus someone like Will Muschamp, it's obvious at this point that Roberts runs the show on defense, which essentially confirms that Napier pulled the plug on Armstrong after one season.

The theory of sunk cost would tell you to do what is best going forward and not to hang on to bad hires. But, when Napier goes around telling people how methodical he is, only to wind up with someone he basically had to fire a year late, it's not unfair to cycle back and ask questions as to why 2023 was such a failure of a season.

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