Florida Gators hire Kerry Dixon II as wide receivers coach

New head coach Jim McElwain filled the last remaining position on his initial coaching staff on Tuesday when the Florida Gators announced that Kerry Dixon II would take over as the team’s seventh wide receivers coach in as many seasons.

Dixon spent the 2014 season coaching running backs for FIU, a position he held with FAU the two seasons prior (2012-13).

“Kerry is a young, energetic, up-and-coming coach,” said McElwain in a school release. “He has strong recruiting ties throughout the state and as a former offensive coordinator he will bring value to the offensive game plan.”

A former Baylor quarterback and Hampton wide receiver, Dixon began his post-playing career as the head coach of Booker T. Washington High School in Houston, Texas (2005-06). He then took over at quarterbacks coach at Morgan State (2007) and Texas Southern (2008) before becoming the offensive coordinator (as well as the quarterbacks coach and wideouts coach) at Division II Stillman College for the 2009 campaign. Dixon crossed paths with McElwain that year as Stillman College is located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Florida has been forced to put a new wide receivers coach in position ahead of each of the last seven seasons. Dixon is the third such coach to have never coached the position before at the FBS level, joining then-graduate assistant Bush Hamdan and graduate assistant-turned-wide receivers coach Chris Leak, who held the job in 2014.

Dixon is considered to be a strong South Florida-area recruiter and is the second assistant McElwain has hired after National Signing Day as he was also forced to replace defensive line coach Terrell Williams with Chris Rumph of Texas.

McElwain, who coached wide receivers for much of his career as an assistant, could very well spend additional time with Dixon and the position group, such as Will Muschamp did with Florida’s defensive backs, Urban Meyer did with the Gators’ special teams and Steve Spurrier did with the entire offense.

The following video is from 2010:

Florida has also seemingly made a couple of program assistant hires as of late with (Florida State graduate) Marc Nudelberg, Cincinnati’s tight ends coach and special teams coordinator one season ago, joining the team as a quality control assistant. He spent the first eight years of his career in a variety of roles (student assistant, equipment manager, quality control coach) at FSU under both Bobby Bowden and Jimbo Fisher (2005-13).