Report: Florida DC Patrick Toney Leaving Gators for NFL

Florida defensive coordinator Patrick Toney is reportedly leaving the Gators after one season with the team.

Photo: Patrick Toney; Credit: Alex Shepherd 

Florida co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Patrick Toney is in negotiations to leave the Gators and join the Arizona Cardinals as a defensive assistant, according to Chris Low of ESPN.

While Toney has yet to officially accept the job, Low also reported that Gators head coach Billy Napier is targeting Alabama inside linebackers coach Austin Amstrong as Toney's replacement.

Toney, 32, was hired as Napier's first defensive play-caller a year ago when the latter was named Florida's head coach. While Toney made it to Gainesville with high expectations to fix a broken Gators defense, that failed to happen in 2022 as UF ranked 10th in scoring and 12th in yardage in the SEC this past season. 

Napier propped Toney up for his efforts in coaching the Gators' defense after Florida's 45-35 home loss to LSU in Oct. 2022, claiming that Toney was following his own, proven process in an attempt to revive the unit. 

"I think, ultimately very professional. Patrick, I’ve been around a number of years and absolutely one of the best coaches I’ve ever been on staff with, and I’ve been around some of the elite coaches. He had a lot to do with our defensive turnaround at our previous stop. So he’s doing what he does. He’s extremely bright and he’s evaluating things objectively, technically and making the necessary adjustments. 

"We’ve got good people in the building. No one is taking more pride than our players and our staff and Patrick Toney in trying to improve in some of these areas.” 

Instead, there is likely to be another young coach handling the reigns of Florida's defense for the foreseeable future. 

Alabama hired Armstrong, 29, in an assistant role in January after he spent two seasons as the youngest defensive coordinator in the FBS at Southern Miss from 2021-22. The Golden Eagles led the Sun Belt Conference in sacks (44) and tackles for loss (109) while ranking second in interceptions (17) under Armstrong's watch in 2022.

Armstrong worked under Napier at Louisiana first as a graduate assistant in 2018 and as linebackers coach in 2020, spending the season in between as a quality control assistant for Georgia. 

Stay tuned to All Gators for continuous coverage of Florida Gators football, basketball and recruiting. Follow along on social media at @AllGatorsOnFN on Twitter and All Gators on FanNation-Sports Illustrated on Facebook.

Get your Gators football, basketball and other sporting events tickets from SI Tickets here.