After losing an assistant to Alabama, Dan Mullen turned to a familiar face to fill a hole on his Florida coaching staff.
Sunday afternoon, Florida announced that Mullen has hired David Turner as the Gators’ new defensive line coach. Turner replaces Sal Sunseri, who is leaving Gainesville to take a job on Nick Saban‘s coaching staff in Tuscaloosa.
From 2013-15, Turner was Mullen’s defensive line coach at Mississippi State; in 2009, Mullen’s first year as the head coach in Starkville, Turner was his line coach as well.
“David is a great addition to our coaching staff and the Gators football family,” Mullen said in a statement. “We spent some time together at Mississippi State and he has produced numerous first-round picks in the NFL over his 30-plus years of coaching. Having spent 16 years in the SEC, he understands that this is a line of scrimmage league and our defensive line will continue to play fast, physical and aggressive under his leadership.”
Turner comes to UF after spending the 2018 season as the line coach at UT-San Antonio. Prior to that, he was the defensive tackles coach and defensive run-game coordinator at Texas A&M from 2016-17.
In between his two stints at MSU, Turner was the defensive line coach at Kentucky from 2010-12. His other SEC experience has come at Alabama (2006), Vanderbilt (2002-05) and UK (1993-94).
