Transcript: Florida Gators Todd Grantham On Oklahoma Sooners Offense, Job Security and Awards
Florida Gators Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham met with local media from Gainesville and Oklahoma to preview the No. 7 Gators upcoming matchup against with No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners.
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Aware of criticism, what does defense have to do to get to a championship level?
“Well my concern is always the next opponent. If you look over the last four years I mean we’ve been able to put together some pretty good defenses. You know we’ve had some challenges this year with a lot of things that are going on. And you take the situations that come up and you make the best of it and you find ways to win games. From an evaluation standpoint, when you look at it, this will be our third straight New Years Six game since coming here. We got to the SEC Championship Game and we were six points away. Last year we played Georgia and we were seven points away. The comment was, ‘what’s the difference between us and Georgia?’ and we said seven points. Right now what’s the difference between us in the SEC Championship Game, it’s six points. If you look, Alabama is a very talented defense and at the end of the day we gave up six more points in the game. We’ve got to find a way to eliminate that and to get the win. Really it gets down to wins and losses and how you’re going to go about winning the game. That’s the process for me is how you go about winning games and what do we gotta do to win this game coming up. That’s where the focus is.”
Mullen wants to address the real problems, what are some of the addressable issues?
“Well you go back and look at the Alabama game. First of all they’re a very talented team. When you go back and look at the first half, we can’t inflict the third down penalties. You go and look at the first drive, we had a third down penalty that allowed them to extend the drive. The second drive we actually created a turnover but we turned it back to them within the interception itself. And then the next two drives we were actually off the field and had a couple of third down penalties that allowed them to extend the drive. So, you know, if you go back and look at those, we have to eliminate that. I think that from a situational standpoint it’s kind of interesting that we’ve actually played better third down defense this year than last year but it’s maybe not showing up to people that way, but our third down percentages have been better. To me it’s just about there’s a discipline involved in the game and we have to play cleaner. That needs to be the approach that we take in this game… is to one, let the seniors that are leaving go out with another New Years Six win. The next thing is that the younger players coming back, I think it’s real critical that they get some snaps and get some playing time because that lets them see where they are. It also builds confidence for the future in the fact that they’re ready to take the horns as we move forward next year to be the kind of defense that we want to be and play to the standard that we have played in two of the last three years.”
(On Kaiir Elam's season and progression this year) "Yeah, I think Kaiir's a guy that I'm really proud of. You know, this day and age it's really hard for guys sometimes to take critical looks at themselves on what they gotta get better at and he is very passionate about the game. He is very tough on himself in the standpoint of, wanting to be exact in what he does. He's a competitor. I mean, the guy competes in everything he does, he's a smart guy that really tries to understand the whole concept, not just his plays but what's happening around him, which can make him a better player. And I think that the accolades he's gotten is really a credit to his constant persistence in working to become a complete player. And I mean that from being able to come up and support the run, to defend the pass, to being a good blitzer, to doing everything that you need to do as a football player to help your team win. And that's where I think Kaiir is, is he's a complete player that really works to be a perfectionist at his craft." (On what it means to play in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic) "So, first of all, it's an honor to play in the Cotton Bowl, in the classic. I remember as a kid growing up and it was a lot colder back then - at least we don't have to worry about the weather, I mean it was some cold days back then when I watched them play as a kid with my Dad. Obviously, there's a liot of tradition in this game. We're very humbled to be a part of it, to be a part of the Years Six bowls. We understand we got a great challenge in Oklahoma and their fantastic offense at what they do. So, really, it's about us being able to go out and represent ourselves one more time and the University of Florida and work to play to our standard and go out and send, like I said before, send the seniors out the right way as well as let the young guys coming back get a taste of what it's like so that they understand the amount of work involved to make sure this continues as a part of our program." (On how much of a transition he's seen from the progression of the new tailback (Rhamondre Stevenson?) and quarterback (Spencer Rattler)) "I think, one, when you talk about the running back, dynamic guy, can accelerate, can make guys miss, can create double-digit runs, and find a seam that maybe not always as big as it needs to be and make things happen. So, I think that that's obviously helped them. Then the quarterback, he was a highly recruited guy out of high school. A lot of people wanted him. And if you look at his game, 1 continuity all the way up till now. He's a guy that you can tell is getting more comfortable in the system. Understanding more about where to throw the ball, where to go with it relative to the formations and what the defense is giving you. And then he has the ability to make plays with his feet. He can pull it in the run game. He can extend plays in the pass game to get guys open. I think the one thing that we'll have to be conscious of is the word "plaster" this week, meaning that even though when you're playing zone, is he continues to scramble you're going to have to basically match the guy in your area and cover him man-to-man because he really can extend plays for guys to get open, which creates explosives. And he's doing a nice job with their offense."
Last year the defense, obviously performed statistically to a better level; didn't seem to make some of the mental mistakes. What do you pinpoint for that, like for third down situations against Alabama? "Well, I think when you go back and look at those individually, I think one was the hands of the face. I mean there's, there's going to be a few of those within the game. Sometimes they're called, sometimes they're not. It's a penalty, you got to understand it. I think that anytime you have guys that are going in and out of the game, you're going to sub relative to situations that come up, and you've got to be on top of what situation's coming up and be able to get into that. So, you know, we do have some new guys, guys are learning every day. Guys are working hard every day and believing in the system. I think a big reason to say that is, if you look at the second half and the way the guys played and really fought their hearts out, and really continued to grind, there's obviously belief in what we're doing, because we were able to get it back within a six point game and have the chance to, you know, take the lead." Somebody that we haven't talked a lot about, Brad Stewart really kind of seemed to play all over the place on Saturday against Alabama. What has he just kind of brought to the defense this year and what do you hope to see from him against Oklahoma? “Brad was a guy that based upon our DB situation, we moved to nickel, to our STAR position, which is really, you know ability to play corner, you know, have some run support, blitz, match guys underneath, man to man kind of deal. And it's a good role for him, and he embraced the role. He worked hard at it. And he brings a certain physicality to that and and that freed us up to keep other guys at other positions. So I think he's a guy that has continued to progress, even though it was a new position for him. He's a football player. He understood leverage, he understood blocks. Understood, you know, running to the ball, doing those kind of things. He understood how to cover guys as a safety. So, you know, it just kind of fit naturally and again it allowed us to get our best players on the field and put him there to give us some flexibility with some other guys." I know Dan and Kyle especially, they don't pay attention to the awards as much, at least from what they've said throughout the season. But Zach Carter, I mean he was left off of the All-SEC coach's team 1st and 2nd team and there was a guy on there that had only played six games. So I guess what are your thoughts on that, as well as just the season that he had for you? "Well, I'll just speak about Zach because I'm not—I haven't seen the list, you know, so I'll just talk about Zach in itself. I think when you look at Zach, he's a very talented player in the SEC. He's a leader for our defense. I think the arrow is really up on him and rising as a player. He has the ability for us to play early downs as an end—okay—we can move inside if we had to but it creates a little bit of a mismatch when he's playing end against tight ends and things like that so that ability, you know, gives us a chance to win those situations there. And then because of his versatility and his ability to learn and, and be creative we move him inside on third down on passing situation to create mismatches inside. He's got size, he's got quickness. He can be stout at the point of attack. He’s really worked hard with Coach Savage in becoming a better core strength guy, and you kind of see that in tape. And he's said, he’s had some really good games for us. There's no doubt in my mind that he's a guy that creates matchup problems and that's why we try to move him around a little bit to create those problems. I think that as we move forward you know, this year and next year and he moves toward his career, I think we're going to see that does become a dominant player and the kind of player that, you know, is gonna be able to play on Sundays."
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