Three pressing questions for Florida Football after Russ Callaway’s OC promotion

To the surprise of nobody paying attention, Florida Football has announced that Russ Callaway is being promoted to offensive coordinator for the Gators in 2025. This is Callaway's third promotion in three years after he started as a defensive intern for the Gators in 2022.

But since Billy Napier has publically stated that he plans to still call the plays in 2025, we here at Hail Florida Hail have three pressing questions for Florida regarding the promotion.

Was this promotion based on merit?

Back in December when we gave out report card grades to the Florida coaching staff, we gave Callaway a D, which was tied with Austin Armstrong for the lowest grade on staff.

At the time, we said:

"Let's be honest here, the "Co-offensive coordinator" tag was merely semantics. And the problem for Florida is that for a team that runs a ton of two tight end sets, the Gators don't really have amazing tight ends.

Hayden Hansen is a serviceable blocking tight end, and Arlis Boardingham disappeared and was replaced by Tony Livingston. Combined with the inability to sign any top tight ends in recruiting, this continues to be a unit that needs to be better given how often Napier wants to use them."

So, it is fair to ask what exactly Callaway has done to actually warrant this promotion if we are going strictly based on merit.

Will we see more Air Raid concepts in 2025?

Back when Russ Callaway was the offensive coordinator at Samford he was a noted Air Raid guy.

Billy Napier's base offense never uses four or even five wide receiver sets, and while it's not automatically better than the two tight end sets that Napier loves, the problem for Florida, as noted above, is that the Gators don't have the cache of talent at tight end to justify using them as much.

If Callaway has any actual control and is not just a yes-man to Napier, it will be interesting if he can come up with ways to use the cache of talent Florida does have at wide receiver to pair up with Lagway.

Will in-game management get better?

Forget the fact that Florida has yet to crack the top 55 in points per game for a full season under Napier. Forget the fact that in ten years of being either a D1 offensive coordinator or head coach, Napier has only cracked the top 25 in points per game once.

One of the chief problems in the Billy Napier Era at Florida is that the Gators have made far too many organizational mistakes. Florida was 87th in time between plays last season, and it highlights that Napier is often far too slow in getting the play call in.

Then, because he is distracted trying to get the play call in, things like clock management or making sure 11 guys are on the field get glossed over.

So, with Napier still calling plays, we're not convinced those problems will be fixed unless he lets Callaway call plays in crucial moments while Napier handles actual head coach responsibilities.