It's Natural: Florida Gators Defense Finally Settling Into Natural Positions Ahead of Georgia
Come Saturday afternoon, there are bound to be some folks out of place.
Those that are typically found in parking lots, under overpasses, staked out on any available grassy real estate and in any other nook and cranny around TIAA Bank Field, will likely have stayed home.
And those who do make the trip to Jacksonville will have to do their pregaming in non-traditional locations. “Non-traditional” meaning nearby bars or restaurants as the City of Jacksonville forbade tailgating around the stadium in effort to ease the spread of Covid-19.
It’ll be strange. But strange has been no stranger for the Florida Gators this season.
With the obvious obstacles that a global pandemic create, Florida was forced to piece together a defense, which lacked two of its top three tacklers from 2019, in the absence of a true offseason.
When the Gators’ defense struggled against Ole Miss in week one, there were questions, but none that Dan Mullen couldn’t answer in saying that the Gators’ hadn’t played live, full-contact football but two times the entire offseason.
“We’ve tackled twice since the Orange Bowl,” Dan Mullen said following the Gators’ win over Ole Miss. “Normally you’ve got a lot of spring ball, you’re getting physical, you’re getting tackling… We only did two in our scrimmages.”
Paired with a number of new faces playing a number of new positions, it seemed the Florida defense would improve with time.
However, that didn’t end up being the case.
In the opening three weeks of play, after games against Ole Miss, South Carolina and Texas A&M, the Gators found themselves dead last in a number of statistical categories within the league.
Having given up an average of 7.58 plays per drive, 2.35 first downs per drive, allowing opponents to score in the red zone 58.06% of the time and missed a rushing tackle 36.67% of the time, all posted last-place finishes within the SEC and attributed to the #FireToddGrantham Twitter campaign rising from the ashes.
Following the loss at Texas A&M and the defense’s poor performance, Dan Mullen was backed into a corner and forced to take a long look at his defense.
“I think one thing you look defensively that we spend our time on is now ‘are we sound or not?’ I know what we’re doing sound. We’ve got a great coaching staff and I know our scheme is sound,” Mullen said following the Gators’ loss to the Aggies. “But now, as guys are performing here on a live basis within a game, there’s a lot of new faces out there for us as well. Are we putting them in a position to make plays .Even though this is sound, right, this guy, we’re putting him … he’s not going to be as good at doing this; we need to put him in a position to be something that he’s going to do really well. If we struggle doing something make sure we’re not putting those guys in that position, right?”
Right.
And following the program’s Covid-19 outbreak, it appeared as though the Gators’ staff wouldn’t be able to address the defensive woes. It also looked as though the Florida defense would be greatly depleted.
And while Florida’s defense against Missouri was indeed depleted, the Gators were able to make up for the absence of eight defensive players with the return of one defensive player.
Kyree Campbell, Florida’s projected starting nose tackle heading into 2020, missed Florida’s first three games for undisclosed reasons. But on game four, following a two week football hiatus, Campbell returned to the fold, which opened up a number of different avenues for the Gators to improve their defense.
Prior to Campbell’s return, T.J. Slaton had nearly been an every-down player on defense. Meanwhile, Zachary Carter, who will miss the first half against Georgia after his part in the halftime melee, has been forced to play defensive tackle for the first time in his career. Additionally, Georgia transfer Brenton Cox Jr. is able to move back and into a true outside linebacker position, where he’s best fit, versus the defensive end position he’s been playing.
Explained Grantham, "By having Kyree back it allowed Brenton to move back a little bit. It gave us the ability to play Brenton as a true outside ‘backer as opposed to a defensive end. We played with bigger-body guys and that physical presence allowed us to be pretty stout against the run.”
With everyone playing in their natural positions, the Florida defense improved tremendously against Missouri.
“I think the biggest thing is, and it goes back to what I said last week, you’ve got to establish your physical presence in the game by being able to limit their ability to run the ball,” Florida’s defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said Tuesday.
“That does that. I really think that came about because of our ability to have certain guys available, and by having those guys available it gave us flexibility to play guys in some natural positions. Really the guys did a good job of playing physical and then executing the game plan, and that allowed them to make plays. The credit needs to go to the players and the ability to have some guys available that gave us the flexibility to play guys where they need to be playing.”
Grantham’s goal of limiting the run game is important as ever heading into Saturday’s game against the Bulldogs.
Thus far in 2020, Georgia’s rushing attack outweighs its passing attack 210 to 156. Fortunately, the Gators were able to hold Missouri to just 80 rushing yards last week, in a showing that’s promising heading to Jacksonville on Saturday.
Grantham, who will be calling his third game against Georgia as Florida’s defensive coordinator, has a good idea of what it’ll take to slow the Dawgs’ rushing attack.
“I think the biggest thing when you talk about stopping the run is your ability to set the edge of the defense, build a wall inside, don’t give them seams, don’t create displacements and then make sure you’re always coming downhill and fitting your gaps,” Grantham explained.
“I think that’s the biggest thing that you’ve got to look for is your ability to set the edge of the defense because they do got some talented running backs. Their offensive line’s a veteran group. If you look, four out of the five guys were there last year. They can get you at the point of attack. So, we’ve got to understand formationally what’s happening and then be able to set the edge and build a wall inside, get the ‘backers to going downhill.”
With everyone on Florida’s defense settling into their more natural positions, Grantham’s goals and expectations on Saturday don’t appear nearly as tall as what they would’ve at the start of this season.
So while Florida-Georgia attendees will be burdened with finding their place in Jacksonville, those on Florida’s defense are no longer looking for their rightful homes in the lineup. And the self-discovery of the Gators’ defense couldn’t come at more critical time.
Comments