Written By Bob Redman aka Hollywood Bob
Ashour Peera is one of those guys that kind of hides out in the open when Billy Napier is around.
The former local teacher, high school coach and assistant for the Florida Gators club lacrosse team, Peera now holds the title, Director of Football Logistics at the University of Florida. His job is to be there when Napier needs something, really anything. Then, his job is to not get in the way when Napier goes about doing his business.
The two are connected at the hip, and Peera is there absolutely because Napier wants him there — on or off the sidelines of the football field.
Peera’s title implies just one part of the job he performs is as someone there when Napier has to make big decisions during a contest, based on scoreboard management in terms of time or the score.
Peera wears many hats, however, when assisting the Florida head coach. Those duties made him the first person to arrive in Florida and on the recruiting trail when Napier was hired as the head coach for the Gators back in early December. Peera was riding the jet around the recruiting trail as the first face of the Napier staff for prospects. That is the kind of trust Napier has in Peera to do so many jobs.
“I’m still figuring out what that is, but it’s kind of a jack-of-all-trades,” Peera said of role. “I’ve been working with Coach the last three seasons either as a quality control coach, work in academics, work in recruiting, work in operations. So, I’ve kind of had a hand in all of our areas. Coming here, just kind of doing more of the same, making sure everything’s running smoothly.”
He likely gets his ability to do so many things for Napier from his life experiences. After playing Division 3 football in Chicago and it “didn’t work out,” he decided to get into coaching and left that shortly to try semi-pro football and then that was short lived. He went back to coaching.
Peera has been coaching ever since in some form or another, including many spots in Florida. The majority of his time was spent at Belleview Elementary, just 55 miles from the Florida campus, where he taught first grade. He also coached even closer at Ocala Vanguard as an offensive line coach.
One of his roles is to facilitate the move of new members of Napier’s staff, the largest collegiate staff in all of college football.
“I think I get as many questions now during the day as I did as an elementary school teacher teaching first grade,” he said as he continues to serve as the conduit for the fusion of the new staff.
The bottom line is that Peera does what he has to do for Napier to get the program, and the people in it, humming like it was designed to do.
“I think part of it is just knowing the systems that we run, how we operate, having a feel for how Coach wants things done in the program. He always puts people first, so I know that’s always at the front for us is how we treat people… I think we try to emulate that and make sure it’s throughout our program.”
Then there is the analytics thing.
“Analytics is an underlying secret weapon title of mine,” he said with a grin.