ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia coach Kirby Smart has hired Charlton Warren as defensive backs coach. Warren spent the 2018 season coaching cornerbacks for Florida after coaching defensive backs and special teams at Tennessee in 2017. Warren, an Atlanta native, previously had coaching stops at North Carolina (2015-16), Nebraska (2014) and Air Force (2005-13). He played as a defensive back at Air Force. Smart noted Warren's career has been spent on defense "and especially defensive backs." Warren participated in the NFL minority internship program in 2007 with the Houston Texans.<doc-sep>Sometimes, we run Roundups... Florida corners coach Charlton Warren heads to Georgia Last weekend, the news was that Florida cornerbacks coach Charlton Warren would not be taking a defensive backs coach job at Georgia. This weekend, the news was that he did. Georgia announced its hiring of Warren on Saturday, with the move coming out of the blue and after initial reporting of Warren being a candidate at Georgia led to swift denials issued to multiple media members and reports suggesting Georgia did not interview Warren. Given the way at least one media member openly suggested that Warren lied to him... Yup, his words not mine. I didn’t lie. https://t.co/4b1uMHQYr8 — Jason Higdon (@Jason_Higdon) January 20, 2019 ...it seems likely that the story on Warren’s departure was one of initial interest swiftly denied and an offer from Georgia that was too appealing to pass on. Whether that appeal was based in a significant raise over his Florida salary — as would seem likely — or a bump in responsibilities from cornerbacks coach to defensive backs coach or some combination of those professional perks and being able to be closer to family for the Atlanta native, it was enough to get Warren to defect from one SEC East school to another for a second consecutive offseason. (Warren coached at Tennessee in 2017 prior to landing at Florida.) And while it puts a number of people in awkward positions — Warren, for example, now has to recruit players like 2019 recruit Kaiir Elam, who officially visited Georgia this weekend, after having spent months recruiting them to Florida — it was a move in keeping with the mercenary and peripatetic nature of college football’s coaches, who get to rake in hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars thanks to a fixed market for their players’ labor, yet have freedom of mobility and negotiating power that players do not have and would be banned by the NCAA for exercising, respectively. I do not blame Florida’s players for being salty about Warren abandoning them. Lol okay just don't coach the best corners in the country ‍♂️ — Marco Wilson (@MJW_era) January 19, 2019 Florida will likely want to move quickly to hire a replacement for Warren — who was by all accounts a good coach and recruiter, if not an irreplaceable one — with Elam still deciding on his future and National Signing Day looming. But while there are logical candidates for the role — former Florida safety Marquand Manuel is newly unemployed after being let go by the Atlanta Falcons, and former Florida State defensive back Terrell Buckley worked under Dan Mullen at Mississippi State, for starters — available, Mullen now has more flexibility than he had prior to Saturday when reconstituting his defensive staff, and could theoretically do any number of things to give Todd Grantham his full complement of lieutenants. And while defensive line coach Sal Sunseri and Warren departing in the span of a few days gives Florida holes to fill on its defensive staff, the single greatest priority for that staff is probably finding a way to give linebackers coach Christian Robinson, a rising star who has been superb on the recruiting trail, a substantial raise and extension. Robinson is making just $90,000 for the 2018-19 year, per contracts released to media last May, which is a tiny number even before considering how well he has performed. Whatever Florida does in the near term, I expect Robinson — a Grantham protege — to be involved as a defensive assistant. Florida forward Keith Stone suffers season-ending torn ACL Prior to Warren’s sudden departure on Saturday, the Gators had just scored a win over Georgia, withstanding a spate of hot shooting by the Dawgs to take a 62-52 victory in Athens early Saturday afternoon. But in that win was a loss, as redshirt junior forward Keith Stone suffered a serious injury early in the second half and needed to be helped off the court. On Sunday, we got confirmation of the worst news possible for Stone: The injury is a torn ACL in his left knee, which will end his 2018-19 season. Stone had not been having a strong season entering Saturday, but showed out in possibly the best half of his entire year against Georgia, scoring eight points and flashing both his athleticism (on a stunning drive to a dunk) and his feathery shooting touch (on a contested three) in the first period. He would finish with just that output for the game, though, going down a mere 13 seconds after checking in after halftime — and now a season that featured eight games with eight or more points and nine without is over. Florida will mostly be able to survive losing Stone’s scoring punch and decent post defense off the bench, as we saw on Saturday, but it is now incredibly thin up front, where its only other reliable true forward is Kevarrius Hayes. Forward Chase Johnson transferred from Florida in late December. Tweeners Dontay Bassett and Keyontae Johnson — who is 6’5”, but phenomenally athletic — helped fill in for Stone against Georgia, but Bassett is still learning how to defend and Johnson simply isn’t big enough to routinely be matched against genuine big men. And Isaiah Stokes, Florida’s biggest healthy big, seems to be deep in Mike White’s doghouse: He has not played since Florida’s loss to South Carolina, and broadcasters have suggested that White has insinuated to them that Stokes has work to do to earn his minutes. And while Florida could really use the lanky Gorjok Gak right now, it appears that he, too, is out for the season: The South Sudanese player posted a picture to Instagram captioned “Till Next Year..” on Sunday, strongly implying a redshirt is in his future. White is now faced with the prospect of getting through two more months of what has been a grinding season with just three true bigs — or perhaps two, if Stokes is also headed for a redshirt, as Florida staff writer Chris Harry hinted at in a piece published Sunday — and even less of an inside game than his offense previously had. Florida has dealt with significant injuries to bigs under White before — the Gators did make the Elite Eight in 2017 and the NCAA Tournament in 2018 after losing John Egbunu to an ACL tear. But this latest bit of terrible luck for a big man under White probably means a snakebit Gators team has to lean even more into the pressing defense and three-reliant offense that has produced mixed results on the court and a fair bit of fan antipathy off it — and that may make these next two months painful ones for Florida and its fans.<doc-sep>Kirby Smart has made his choice regarding a defensive backs coach. Georgia has announced that Charlton Warren has been hired to the position after serving in the same role at Florida this past season. “Charlton is from Atlanta and has a wide range of experience coaching defensive football at several universities and conferences around the country,” said UGA head coach Kirby Smart. “His entire coaching career has been on the defensive side of the ball and especially defensive backs. He has developed an outstanding record and reputation in the coaching profession and he’ll bring great knowledge and energy to our staff.” Warren is an Atlanta native who played defensive back at Air Force. He was a three-year letterman for the Falcons and has experience as a secondary coach in the SEC and the Southeast region. He spent the 2017 season at Tennessee where the Vols led the SEC in passing yards per game allowed at just under 162. Tennessee finished seventh in the conference in passer rating allowed that season and sixth in opponents' average yards per attempt. Warren at North Carolina for two years prior to his move to Knoxville where the Tarheels finished third in the ACC in passing yards allowed per game in 2015 at just under 189 and they led the league a year later at just over 180 yards per game. Those two seasons saw UNC finished No. 2 in yards per pass attempt (2015) and No. 10 (2016). North Carolina also tied for the ACC lead in interceptions in 2015 with 17 but it finished last the following season with just one. Nebraska was Warren's home in 2014 where the Cornhuskers' pass defense surrendered just 6.1 yards per pass attempt, ranking them 13th in the nation. That unit also allowed a puny completion percentage of 48.5, which ranked No. 2 in the nation. In his first season with the Gators in 2018, they finished No. 3 in the SEC in passing yards allowed per game at just over 180. That pass defense also ranked No. 4 in the league in opponents' passing yards per attempt at 6.2 and third in efficiency with a rating allowed of just 112.69. As a recruiter, Warren has helped reel in four top 200 prospects in the past four years, and three have come in the past two recruiting cycles at Florida. He's being brought on to replace Mel Tucker, who accepted the head coaching position at Colorado in the days after Georgia's SEC Championship loss to Alabama. The Bulldogs went more than a month with a vacancy on the staff but they'll have a coach for the stretch run to National Signing Day next month. Warren is the primary recruiter for on the top targets left on Georgia's board, Benjamin (North Palm Beach, Fla.) cornerback Kaiir Elam. The four-star defensive back is ranked as the nation's No. 49 overall prospect and No. 7 cornerback. According to the 247Sports Crystal Ball, Florida is currently the team to beat with 94 percent of the submissions.<doc-sep>
Georgia filled its defensive staff on Saturday with the addition of Charlton Warren as secondary coach. Warren joins the Bulldogs' staff after on-the-field coaching stints at Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Nebraska, and Air Force. Warren has developed three players taken in the last two NFL Drafts - Nebraska safety Nathan Gerry in the fifth round of the 2017 draft, Tennessee cornerback Rashaan Gaulden in the third round of the 2018 draft, and North Carolina cornerback MJ Stewart in the second round of the 2018 draft. Last season Warren coached Trey Dean III, a Coaches Freshman All-SEC Team selection, and CJ Henderson, a Coaches' All-SEC Second Team selection. The Peach State native was a three-year letterman at the Air Force Academy, with active service served as a systems acquisitions manager at Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia and Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. He will inherit a group that includes J.R. Reed, Eric Stokes, Richard LeCounte III and early enrollees DJ Daniel, Tyrique Stevenson, and Lewis Cine. "Charlton is from Atlanta and has a wide range of experience coaching defensive football at several universities and conferences around the country,” said head coach Kirby Smart, in a statement. “His entire coaching career has been on the defensive side of the ball and especially defensive backs. He has developed an outstanding record and reputation in the coaching profession and he’ll bring great knowledge and energy to our staff.” Check out Warren mic'ed up from his time at North Carolina in the videos above.