Florida Hiring New England's Joe Houston to Oversee Special Teams

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida is hiring Joe Houston to oversee its special teams in a senior analyst role, All Gators can confirm. 

Houston, 37, will join the Gators after four seasons as the assistant special teams coordinator for the New England Patriots. 

The imminent move was first reported by Jacob Rudner of Swamp247.

Houston offers the Gators eight seasons of experience coaching special teams at the college level and four from his time in the pros. He was in line to coach special teams under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2020 before receiving the opportunity to join the Patriots.

In New England, Houston worked alongside assistant head coach Joe Judge and special teams coordinator Cam Achord to orchestrate and gameplan the Pats’ special teams squads while aiding the development of the team’s kickers. 

Before his time in the NFL, Houston spent four seasons at Iowa State including one year, 2018, in the role of special teams coordinator. He coached two kickers, Cole Netten and Garrett Owens, toward All Big-12 recognition in 2016 and 2017, respectively. 

A Redondo Beach, Calif. native, Houston enlisted in the coaching ranks after playing kicker at the University of Southern California from 2007-10 and a brief semi-professional career. He earned starting duties for the Trojans in 2010 and converted 10-of-16 field goal attempts and all 43 of his extra-point tries. 

He played for the Chicago Rush and Nebraska Danger in the Arena Football League following graduation, memorably tying an AFL record with 11 extra-point conversions in a game for the Rush in 2012.

Chris Couch has occupied the analyst role of "GameChanger Coordinator" for Florida since his 2022 hiring, placing him in charge of the Gators' special teams over the past two seasons from an off-the-field capacity.

The unit's results left plenty to be desired during that stretch.

Although its kicking and returning teams improved marginally year-over-year with a changes in personnel, Florida nearly averaged one special teams penalty per game between 2022-23 with 24 in total — most egregiously including the deployment of two players with the same jersey number on the same play against Utah in 2023. Individual units were also not infrequently observed with fewer than 11 players on the field. 

Couch will work with Houston in Florida’s special teams and situational football department.

Find Houston's coaching history in full below.

2020-23: New England Patriots (NFL) – Assistant Special Teams Coordinator

2019: Iowa State – Associate for Quality Control

2018: Iowa State – Special Teams Coordinator

2016-17: Iowa State – Associate for Quality Control

2015: Toledo – Quality Control Assistant 

2012-14: – El Camino College – Special Teams, Secondary 

This is a breaking news story that will be updated.