Taurean Green and Mike Peterson are back at UF to help the men’s basketball and football teams return to glory.

by Pat Dooley (BSJ ’76)

At a small media gathering in the atrium of UF’s basketball facility, Taurean Green finished a press conference. We hugged and I told him, “I can’t believe you got another job where you can wear shorts to work.”

A week before, I was at Gainesville’s Ironwood Golf Course when I felt a big hand on my back. I turned around to see Mike Peterson. I remember thinking, “This seems right.”

Two of the most beloved athletes in Gator sports history are back as coaches, and it feels like Earth has returned to its axis.

Green (BSR ’12), point guard for the back-to-back basketball national champions in 2006 and 2007, was hired by new Gators coach Todd Golden to be director of player development. That includes a little bit of everything, including working with players on the court.

Peterson (BA ’13), an All-American linebacker in 1998 and key part of Florida football’s first national championship in 1996, is now the Gators’ outside linebackers coach and alumni liaison. For him, it was a return to the area where he grew up and played football at Santa Fe High.

Linebacker Mike Peterson, an anchor of the Gators 1996 NCAA championship team, was an All-American at UF and in 2011 was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy of UF Athletic Association

“I thought one day, maybe I would coach [at UF],” Peterson said. “I have a lot of roots here. Just to be around my family, my mom and dad and little cousins. … It’s a dream come true.”

It’s a dream for Green as well, to return to his alma mater.

“Everything comes full circle,” he said. “I put a bug in [Billy] Donovan’s ear four or five years ago that I wanted to be a coach. And because I wanted to be a coach, I knew I had to have my degree. Plus, I promised my mom and dad that I would come back to get it.”

Before either Gator great got into coaching, both had long careers as professional athletes: Peterson 14 seasons in the NFL with the Colts, Jaguars and Falcons; Green 17 years in Spain, Greece, France, Italy and Poland. (Coincidentally, Peterson and Green were both second round picks.)

Peterson started coaching as a graduate assistant on Will Muschamp’s Gators staff, then became an assistant strength and conditioning coach. He later joined Muschamp at the University of South Carolina and had six years as an assistant coach there. Green spent a year with Donovan’s Chicago Bulls to get his coaching feet wet.

“How coaches think, how they game plan, how they prepare for practice, how to manage the team through a drought or whether they’re winning, just going through the daily process of how to coach a team — everything I’ve learned, I want to bring it here,” Green said.

Gators point guard Taurean Green was a core of UF’s legendary back-to-back NCAA championship teams in 2006 and 2007, sharing the court with Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Lee Humphrey and Al Horford. Photo courtesy of UF Athletic Association

It’s nice to have them home.

“It’s so good to go out to dinner and have fans come up to me and want to talk,” Peterson said. “I still get chills when I’m riding around and see certain things. The other day, I drove under the bridge on 441 in Alachua where I used to train, and so many memories came back: running over that bridge and doing lunges.”

Head coaches Golden and Billy Napier hope Green and Peterson are a bridge to the past. Their championship rings are a testament to Florida’s glory years in football and basketball, and their professional experience is invaluable.

“That’s part of my job, player development,” Green said. “Trying to teach these kids what’s important, how to move the right way, how to take care of themselves. I look back to when I was 16, 17, 18, 19. You’ve got to remember, at the end of the day they’re still kids, they’ll make mistakes. You’ve just got to teach them along the way.”

Teachers, role models, advisers, coaches. Green and Peterson check a lot of boxes.

Especially the most important one.

Gators.

Sportswriter Pat Dooley (BSJ ’76) covered the Gators for The Gainesville Sun for 33 years until his retirement in 2020. He still shares his love for Gator sports through his podcast, “Another Dooley Noted,” and WRUF radio program, “Dooley’s Back 9.” His Gator Nation News column does not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Florida.