Meet the Coaches: Tim Skipper

Tim Skipper was a starter all four years as middle linebacker for Fresno State from 1997-2000. He had 418 career tackles while at Fresno State, second in school history.  New Florida coach Jim McElwain called Skipper to be the new running backs coach for the Gators and needless to say, he was pretty excited for the call.

“Coach Mac first called me and you know that he’s at the University of Florida and you’re hoping you get that call. And you start thinking of all the great things that have happened here. Not just talking facilities wise, we’re just talking as an athletic program, the amount of winning that happens within each sport. And then you go to football, and you look at how many guys have been drafted in the first round, how many guys have played in Super Bowls and that type of thing. It gets your blood flowing and I was ready to walk here.”

Skipper comes to Florida from Colorado State where he coached under McElwain as linebackers coach from 2012-2014. Including Florida, Skipper has been a coach at five schools since 2001.

Skipper has had experience coaching on both sides of the ball. While he was at Fresno State, the Bulldogs played in four bowl games in the six seasons he was a part of the staff. A large part of their success was due to Skippers’ development of all-conference linebackers and powerful running backs.

Skipper has coached numerous prominent players, including nine that have been drafted into the NFL. These players include: Dwayne Wright who went to the Buffalo Bills, Ryan Mathews who went to the San Diego Chargers, and Chris Carter who went to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Skipper comes from a family of coaches; his father has coached for 40 years on both the college and professional level. Skipper’s brother, Kelly, has been in the coaching profession for over 25 years.

Skipper is looking forward to coaching at Florida and has some ideas and goals for the upcoming season.

“It’s like anything in life. If you treat people well, they’re going to treat you well. It’s a family atmosphere that I’ll have in that running back room. And we’ll have each other’s back and we’ll go to work.”

“The first thing I’ll say those are some great kids in that room. They’ve taken me in like I’ve been here forever. Everything’s been going good. We’ve kinda got a little combination of thunder and lightning, you’ve got Adam Lane in there and Kelvin Taylor and then you got Brandon Powell who brings a lot to the table. So it’s going to be fun, I’m really looking forward to it.”

Click here to hear Coach Skipper talk about getting a call from Coach McElwain. Skipper 1

Click here to hear Coach Skipper talk about the locker room atmosphere. Skipper 2

Click here to hear Coach Skipper talk about being welcomed by the players.  Skipper 3