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Florida officially announces hiring of co-defensive coordinator, safeties coach
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Florida hired Vinnie Sunseri as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach on Thursday, with head coach Billy Napier adding someone with championship DNA to his coaching staff.
Florida fans might remember the name but for the wrong reasons. Sunseri was part of 2 national championship teams at Alabama in 2011 and 2012, but now he’ll be wearing orange and blue instead of crimson and white.
“Vinnie Sunseri has a great pedigree coming from a football family and has also played and coached for exceptional coaches throughout his career,” Napier said in a statement. “He is a two-time national champion with NFL and collegiate experience. Vinnie will help our organization improve as we continue to build. I’m excited to welcome he and his wife, Kaci, to Gainesville.”
Sunseri played safety on those championship teams at Alabama, and now he’ll be in charge of the safeties at Florida in 2025. He was the safeties coach at Washington last season after spending the previous 4 years at the NFL level on the New England Patriots coaching staff.
He’s shown versatility during his coaching career, too. After beginning as a graduate assistant at Alabama in 2019, he was a defensive coaching assistant with the Patriots in 2020 before moving to the other side of the ball as a running backs coach in New England from 2021-23.
As Napier mentioned, Sunseri played in the NFL. He was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the fifth round of the 2014 draft, played 2 seasons with the Saints and then spent the 2016 season with the Patriots and San Francisco 49ers.
Now, all these years after starring in college in Tuscaloosa, he’ll be on the other side of the rivalry in Gainesville.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
