Gators Hire Mark Hocke As Director of Football Strength and Conditioning

The Florida Gators have begun to announce their coaching hires, starting with Director of Football Strength and Conditioning coach Mark Hocke.

The Florida Gators have hired Mark Hocke as the football program's Director of Football Strength and Conditioning, replacing Nick Savage who had been with the program for the past four years under ex-Gators head coach Dan Mullen.

Hocke will also hold the title of associate head coach, after having held that title over the past four seasons with head coach Billy Napier at ULL. Under Napier and Hocke, Louisiana had four-straight Sun Belt West Division titles, a share of the Sun Belt title in 2020 and finished as league champions this season. 

Hocke began his collegiate coaching career at Alabama in 2009, spending six seasons under Nick Saban on his staff. He spent the 2011 and 2014-15 seasons with Napier in Alabama when Napier served as an analyst and wide receivers coach.

In 2015, Hocke served as the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Georgia where he directed a 15-person staff that trained a pair of All-SEC honorees in offensive linemen Brandon Kublanow and John Theus, as the Bulldogs finished the year with a 10-3 record, which included a win over Penn State in the Gator Bowl.

He was also on the strength and conditioning staff at Texas A&M (2017) and Florida State (2016).

For Napier, this is the head coach's first announced move on his assistant coaching staff, one that is expected to be an "unprecedented" army to lead the Gators over the next several years.

Though Florida players clamored for the coach to retain Savage on staff, it is common practice for the head coach to bring their own strength and conditioning coach, one that will likely work with the players the most out of any assistant coach on staff.

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