Billy Napier addresses how staff will handle Jabbar Juluke suspension

Florida coach Billy Napier spoke Wednesday about how his staff will adjust to the 3-game suspension of running backs coach Jabbar Juluke following a pregame scuffle at LSU.

“Jabbar will be with us all the way up until we depart for the stadium, so we’ll absorb his gameday responsibilities amongst the staff,” Napier said on the SEC teleconference.

Juluke will miss game days against No. 4 Miami and two upcoming SEC opponents, though he will continue to coach his position during practice throughout the week.

Napier praised Juluke for taking responsibility for the incident.

“Yeah, I was not on the field during the unit warmups,” Napier said. “So, in general, I think just misrepresentative of the league, of the university, of our organization as a whole. And Jabbar has taken ownership of that, as you would expect from Jabbar. He’s been first-class in terms of the way he’s handled it. And we’ve worked with the SEC office and the university administration to resolve it.

“He’ll serve his time here and the discipline that comes with making a tough decision, Jabbar’s got a body of work in his career. He made a mistake and I think the big thing here is that we’ve got to continue to grow and learn from things like this and be a good example to others. And he’s done that so far.”

With three high-stakes SEC games on the docket, Florida‘s staff faces the challenge of keeping the running backs prepared while Juluke serves his suspension.

Derek Hryn