GAINESVILLE, Fla. — He has the familiarity of a longtime neighbor you pass in the car each morning and instinctively wave to, although you’re not sure his name. Or maybe it’s more like the feel of that beloved beach towel you dig out of the closet each summer for a weekend in St. Augustine.

Whatever the image Gators fans have of Billy Gonzales, there is no mistaking that he has been a fixture on the UF sideline for more than a decade. Since he first stepped foot on campus as a young receivers coach for Urban Meyer in 2005, Gonzales has spent 12 of the past 21 seasons at UF.

His third stint with the Gators added a twist nine days ago when Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, after relieving head coach Billy Napier of his duties, named Gonzales Florida’s interim coach. A veteran assistant in his 32nd season coaching college football, the 54-year-old Gonzales makes his debut as a head coach on Saturday when the Gators (3-4, 2-2) face No. 5-ranked Georgia (6-1, 4-1) in Jacksonville.

Gonzales is staying on script despite his elevated status, continuing to park in the same space outside the Heavener Football Training Center and working out of the same office.

“That’s out of respect for Coach Napier,” Gonzales said. “I’ve been asked to oversee the program. I always tell them, ‘We are doing this together as a staff.’ It’s us working together, it’s us working with our players, always will be, and I take great pride in that.”

 

Soon after the promotion, Gonzales called Meyer, his position coach at Colorado State and the person most responsible for his decision to pursue a coaching career. He was looking for advice, and who better to call than Meyer, who led the Gators to a pair of national championships as Florida’s head coach from 2005-10.

Growing up in Thornton, Colo., located off Interstate 25 north of downtown Denver, Gonzales signed with Colorado State in 1989 when former Ohio State coach Earl Bruce took over the Rams. As a true freshman, Bruce called on Gonzales to take over as the team’s primary punt returner when Rodney Bowman was dismissed for a violation of team rules. Meyer rejoined Bruce, his mentor when Meyer was a graduate assistant at Ohio State early in his career, the following season.

The 1990 Rams took off, earning their first bowl berth in 42 years and beating Oregon in the Freedom Bowl for the first bowl victory in program history, with Gonzales — No. 26 in the YouTube highlights of the game — returning punts. When he finished his career, Gonzales was the school’s all-time leader.

While injuries derailed Gonzales’ final season, he hung around after his senior season in 1993 to help Meyer coach slot receivers in the spring of 1994. By the fall, Gonzales was an assistant at MacMurray (Ill.) College, a now-defunct school that competed in the Division III Upper Midwest Athletic Conference in football.

The experience included a trip to a local hardware store each Monday to buy supplies to help him paint lines on the practice field.

“It gave me an opportunity to understand that, for me, it meant a lot being able to work up the steps to get to this level,” Gonzales said. “When you get into coaching and you have an opportunity, most importantly, it’s always about the players. And for me, it was to hopefully continue to give back to what the coaching staff gave me when I was a player, and that’s to provide guidance, that’s to provide another family, another father figure.

“And then, obviously, I like winning. We want to win. We’re at the University of Florida. We’re out here to try to get that done as well, too.”

Gonzales learned how to win with the help of Meyer, who set a major college record with 165 wins in his first 15 seasons, and his 85.4 winning percentage ranks third all-time, trailing only Hall of Fame coaches Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy, according to the National Football Foundation.

But the lessons ran deeper, which is why Gonzales sought advice from his mentor in the first hours after replacing Napier.

Meyer delivered a message Gonzales had heard before.

“I’ve got to help my guy here,” Meyer said on the “Triple Option” podcast last week. “This is not easy — the most important thing [is] these darn players. And everything is going to be on film. A player can ruin his [NFL] Draft stock or his career by screwing around right now, or not getting coached.”

Gonzales faces a Herculean challenge in his first game as a head coach. Florida has lost four consecutive games to the Bulldogs for the first time since the early 1980s, and with an offense ranked 15th in scoring (22.4) and 12th in total offense (363.0 yards per game) in the 16-team Southeastern Conference, he has suggested a more diverse attack in the final five regular-season games.

As for the Florida-Georgia rivalry, no one has to tell Gonzales the importance of his debut game.

“It means a ton,” he said. “Two states fighting right there on the border. So, it’s something that you want the players to have an opportunity to experience.”

Gonzales was a natural selection to take over the team when Stricklin decided to part ways with Napier, who was 22-23 in his four seasons. Gonzales has served as receivers coach under Meyer, Napier and former Gators head coach Dan Mullen.

He won a pair of national championships in his first stint, was part of 10- and 11-win seasons under Mullen.

“He’s been around the University of Florida, now in three different decades, been a part of three different staffs,” Stricklin said. “He understands that pedigree.”

And, like Gonzales reminded everyone on Monday, he likes to win.

In Gonzales’ first game as a UF assistant, a 32-14 victory over Wyoming in 2005, receiver Chad Jackson caught three touchdowns and ran for a score. Still, despite 10 receptions and being the star of the game, Jackson did not earn a spot in the Champions Club that week, a postgame awards system that Meyer instituted to honor each week’s top performers.

“Billy Gonzales is the toughest grader on the staff,” Meyer told reporters a couple of days later. “He didn’t feel Chad blocked very well.”

Twenty years later, Gonzales continues to push players to perform at the highest level. It just so happens that more people than ever before are paying attention.

“I think it was a really good [first week], firing us up a little bit,” fifth-year offensive lineman Austin Barber said. “To get back on the field and see him in that head role, it’s pretty cool.”