Florida’s coaching staff reload under new head coach Jon Sumrall is picking up speed - and it’s starting to take on a distinct Georgia Tech flavor.
The Gators have added Ryland Goede to the fold, continuing a trend of staffers following offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner from Atlanta to Gainesville. Goede spent the 2025 season at Georgia Tech as a quality control coach working with running backs, but his ties to Faulkner and the offensive system run deeper than just one year on the sideline.
Before stepping into a coaching role, Goede played tight end at Tech in 2024, seeing action in 11 games and earning five starts. He finished the season with six catches for 70 yards, including a touchdown in the Birmingham Bowl against Vanderbilt - a fitting capstone to his playing career. That lone season in Atlanta came after a winding collegiate journey that started at Georgia, included a stop at Mississippi State, and ultimately brought him back to his home state to finish out his eligibility.
Goede’s familiarity with Faulkner goes back to his four years at Georgia (2019-22), where he was part of a deep tight end room and even pulled double duty as a member of the Bulldogs’ baseball team in 2020 and 2021. After graduating in 2023, he and his wife, Alexa - a former UGA volleyball standout - transferred to Mississippi State, where they both suited up for the Bulldogs before making the move to Georgia Tech.
A former four-star recruit and the No. 9-ranked tight end in the 2019 class per 247Sports, Goede now brings a player’s perspective and a rapidly growing coaching résumé to Gainesville. And he’s not coming alone.
Earlier this week, Florida also began finalizing the additions of several other Georgia Tech staffers, including Emil Ekiyor (offensive analyst), Dylan Dockery (assistant H-backs coach), Mike Polly (assistant offensive line coach), and A.J. Erdely (assistant quarterbacks coach).
Ekiyor is a name that SEC fans will remember well. He was a mainstay on Alabama’s offensive line from 2018 to 2022, starting 40 games and earning first-team All-SEC honors as a senior.
He helped anchor a unit that won the Joe Moore Award in 2020 as the nation’s best offensive line and played a key role in three SEC title runs and the Tide’s 2020 national championship. After reuniting with former Bama OL coach Brent Key at Georgia Tech in 2025, Ekiyor now brings that championship pedigree to Florida’s offensive brain trust.
Dockery, meanwhile, just wrapped up his third season at Georgia Tech. He began as an offensive analyst in 2023 and was elevated to H-backs coach in 2024.
His coaching path has been steady and diverse, with previous stops at Appalachian State and Jacksonville State. A former tight end himself at East Tennessee State (2014-18), Dockery brings a player’s understanding to the position and has worked his way up through the ranks by grinding in support roles and learning the nuances of multiple offensive systems.
Mike Polly also joins after one season at Georgia Tech, but he arrives with 17 years of coaching experience under his belt. While his time in Atlanta was brief, Polly’s résumé suggests he’ll bring a steady veteran presence to the offensive line room - an important complement to the younger coaches being brought in.
Then there’s A.J. Erdely, who’s been working with quarterbacks under Faulkner for the past three seasons.
Erdely started as an offensive analyst at Tech in 2023 before being promoted to offensive assistant in 2024. Prior to that, he was a quality control coach at Southern Miss, where he first linked up with Faulkner.
His familiarity with Faulkner’s offensive philosophy and his hands-on work with quarterbacks make him a key addition to the development of Florida’s signal-callers.
The common thread here? Continuity.
Sumrall and Faulkner are clearly building a staff that knows each other, trusts each other, and understands the system they want to run. That kind of cohesion behind the scenes can be the difference between a good offense and a great one - especially in the SEC, where margins are razor thin.
With these additions, Florida isn’t just hiring résumés. They’re bringing in a group of coaches who’ve already worked together, already bought into the system, and already know what it takes to develop players at the Power Five level. It’s a calculated move, and if the chemistry translates to the field, the Gators could be laying the foundation for a new era of offensive identity in Gainesville.