Florida’s running back room has consistently produced for the past three years under position coach Jabbar Juluke and now he’s being recognized as one of the nation’s top assistants.
On Tuesday, Juluke was nominated for the Broyles Award, which honors college football’s top assistant coaches. He’s one of 65 nominees in the class, selected out of approximately 1,500 coaches across 131 FBS programs.
“The Broyles Award selection process includes the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), broadcasters, a college football hall-of-fame selection committee, and current college head coaches,” according to the Frank and Barbara Broyles Foundation official website.
Two former Florida coaches have finished as finalists for the award — defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Dan Quinn in 2012 and wide receivers coach Dwayne Dixon in 2001.
Jabbar Juluke at Florida
Juluke followed Billy Napier to Florida after four years on his staff at Louisiana. Under Juluke, Florida has produced 11 200-yard rushing games, and his 2024 position room has combined for more than 1,500 yards and 20 total touchdowns.
He recruited both Montrell Johnson Jr. and Trevor Etienne, one of 15 running back duos to rush for more than 700 yards apiece in 2022. His latest success story is four-star freshman Jadan Baugh, who has led the position room with 522 yards and seven touchdowns while Johnson battles injuries.
Johnson is still on pace to eclipse 500 yards with 494 on the year and two more games to play. Junior college transfer Ja’Kobi Jackson has also contributed greatly with 401 yards and six touchdowns. Both Jackson and Johnson are averaging 5.5 yards per carry, which would rank inside the top 50 nationally with more touches.
Frank and Barbara Broyles
John Franklin Broyles was a head football coach at both the University of Missouri (1957) and the University of Arkansas (1958-76) before transitioning into the athletic director role at Arkansas from 1974 to 2007.
More than 30 of his former players have gone on to coach in college or professional football, including five national championship winners — Hayden Fry, Joe Gibbs, Jimmy Johnson, Johnny Majors and Barry Switzer. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones played on Broyles’ 1964 national championship team at Arkansas.
His foundation, also named after his wife Barbara, aims to support caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients. Barbara was diagnosed with the disease in 2005 and Frank succumbed to complications of Alzheimer’s in August 2017. The Coach Broyles’ Playbook for Alzheimer’s Caregivers has been translated into 11 languages and is distributed electronically across the world.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida running backs coach nominated for Broyles Award
