Golden Details Gators Staff Changes for 2025-26

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- After winning his first national championship in his coaching career, Florida Gators head coach Todd Golden had another first in his tenure with the program: an assistant coach left the program.

In fact, it happened twice.

Assistant coach Kevin Hovde, who joined the program ahead of Golden's first season in 2022-23, accepted the head coaching position at Columbia, while John Andrzejek, who joined a year later, was named the head coach at Campbell.

In their places, Golden promoted Director of Basketball Strategy and Analytics Jonathan Safir and hired NYU head coach Dave Klatsky. The two will take on a large portion of the defensive coaching duties left void by Andrzejek's departure.

"I think Dave (Klatsky) and Jon Safir will take on a lot of responsibility," Golden explained. "Honestly, it's a whole staff thing. I think those guys specifically will be tasked with making sure we're on target for where we are and what we need to do. And the good thing about defense is there is some technicality to it, but it is a lot about effort and enthusiasm and about being physical and playing hard. I think those guys will do a good job on that side of the ball this year.”

Safir headlines the "newcomers" as the lone promotion from last season, during which Golden praised him for helping building the roster.

"Jon Safir deserves a ton of credit for our growth and program," Golden said after last season's win in the SEC Tournament championship. "I lean on him a lot for roster decisions, roster management. He's incredibly bright. A young star in our profession."

Meanwhile, Klatsky joined the program after three seasons leading NYU, which included a runner up finish in the NCAA Division III championship last season.

"He's awesome. Coach Klatsky is the man," junior forward Thomas Haugh said. "He's on the defensive side. He's also worked a little bit with us on the offensive side, too. And his ability to cut film and kind of explain stuff to me, it just makes the game (to where) going out there, I feel more confident and comfortable."

Last year, Florida boasted the No. 6 defense nationally in the KenPom ratings (91.8) with the No. 4 scoring defense in the SEC (69.7 points per game).

Meanwhile, Hovde left a void on Florida's offensive staff as the offensive coordinator during the team's run to the program's third national championship.

Rather than directly replace him, Golden is taking on a lot of the offensive duties with help from new Director of Basketball Strategy and Analytics Kevin Olsen and returning coaches Carlin Hartman and Korey McCray, both of whom hold the title of Associate Head Coach, as well as Taurean Green.

Olsen, previously the video coordinator in Golden's first season, will help Golden "stay organized" in his offensive coaching duties, while Hartman, McCray and Green will help Golden from a "play-calling perspective."

"You guys know, we don't call a lot of plays over the course of a game. We like to play out of our early game. Out of timeouts and on some dead balls, we'll call some stuff. So far, so good," Golden said. "We’ll miss Hovde, but I think we'll be all right.”

Florida's offense is headlined by a new guard duo in Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland and Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee alongside Haugh, who has been elevated to the starting lineup at the three.

While the two newcomers and Haugh have big shoes to fill in place of Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard, Golden is confident the Gators can continue to play its fast-paced style of offense while finding other ways to make up for the efficient shot-making lost by Clayton Jr.'s departure.

"We should be able to take care of the ball better this year; we weren't always elite doing that. And I think our offensive rebounding should be a little bit better," he said. "So obviously we lost a lot of shot-making. We don't have somebody that can make shots like Walt on this year's team, but not very many teams do. So we got to find different ways to kind of pick up that efficiency."

Florida will debut its new-look team with its new-look staff on Nov. 3 in Las Vegas against Arizona.