Transcript: Todd Grantham On New Corners, Old Safeties and Closing the Book on 2020 Ahead Of 2021
Florida Gators defensive coordinator Todd Grantham met with local media on Monday evening, to preview the No. 13 Gators season opener against the FAU Owls. Ahead of Saturday night's season opener, Grantham examined the Gators new corner, a move for a veteran player to safety, and closing the door on the 2020 season ahead of 2021.
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Avery Helm, what does he bring you starting at corner opposite Kaiir after losing Jaydon Hill?
“Yeah I think that, first of all, we want to wish Jaydon the best as he continues to recover. Those guys were all competing really well. You know, Avery’s a guy that has really good speed that’s really progressed every time he’s had an opportunity to play. You like the way he takes scrimmage 1 and the things he did there and improves on scrimmage 2. A really conscientious guy that works hard everyday to be the kind of guy you want, and then obviously being able to have Jason Marshall backing him up. As far as being able to rotate those guys, along with Elijah Blades coming in, we feel like we’ll be able to continue to compete at that spot.”
Game-planning mode this week, the logistics change compared to last year?
“Nah we feel pretty comfortable, we’ve evaluated everything that we do, we feel comfortable with what we’re doing. The players worked hard today on our first and second-down gameplan, and we’ll continue to add our gameplan as we move forward, and we look forward to playing on Saturday.”
Scout N’kosi Perry before 2019 Miami game?
“Yeah, I mean at that time he was in a quarterback competition there, so you know we had already done a little work on him and understood his strengths and the things that he brings to the table. When you look at their offense, it’s still a system offense from the standpoint of, you know the guys that were there last year, you know they were very involved in the quarterback-run game, because they’re athletic. This guy probably brings a little more dimension from a passing standpoint, so you will have to account for that, but you know we were aware of him, transferring from Miami and we had scouted him when we had played those guys. But like I said when you watch their offense, we feel like it will still be pretty much the same, but you will have a little bit more of a passing element to it with him in there.”
Other guys you need to know where they’re at?
“I think when you look at them, the thing that’s interesting, they have a lot of transfers. I mean I think it’s roughly between eight and 10. You know when you look at their wideouts, they have some guys that are good players right now. TJ Chase is a really good player. (John) Mitchell’s coming back off of injury, so he’s a guy that can help that way. Their slot receiver is 83 (LaJohntay Wester), and they kind of move him around, he’s got some pretty dynamic things to him. Their tight end’s a transfer from Notre Dame College. That’s a bigger-body guy that, you know, can give them some possible multiple tight end things like that. They have a transfer from USF, from South Florida, kind of a punt returner, kick returner, that can be a scat back that can make plays in space. So, when you look at them, what's unique is even up front they have some transfers. They have a lot of new pieces within their offense that we've kind of done our homework on as far as what those guys bring to the table and then really just kind of look at his past offenses and what he's done and try to play it from there.”
Something about watching Emory Jones operate?
“Yeah, I mean you're a little bit hard to hear. But I think you're asking about Emory and what he brings to the table. Anytime you get a quarterback that is an athlete at that position, you have the ability for him to extend plays with his feet so therefore when plays break down he can ad-lib to the play, make things happen with his feet and extend plays. That creates a dynamic there. Anytime your quarterback has the ability to run the ball it becomes truly 11 on 11 from a schematic standpoint so you don't always have the extra hat in the hole as far as when maybe that quarterback cannot run the ball and you can you can have an extra, overlap player. But when it's truly 11 on 11 it becomes an 11-on-11 game and that extra gap is there. The biggest thing to me is just his progression from spring practice, summer, all the way through August. You see a guy that's really worked hard to compete, worked hard to improve every day, and he brings energy to our offense and our team and I look forward to watching him play.”
How comforting for Emory to have Dan Mullen mentoring him?
“Yeah, I think that anytime as a player, the guy coaching you has had success with other players and they're probably at the level you want to get at, I mean, that's something that excites you as a player, knowing that if I work hard every day and take the coaching that I came to prove myself and maybe have those opportunities as well. So I think that creates excitement for him.”
With a guy like Tyrone Truesdell coming in, is it almost back to your NFL days, you know, picking up a waiver guy on Monday and trying to get him acclimated as soon as possible?
"Yeah, we're certainly excited to have him. You know he's a big bodied guy that can give us some stoutness in the middle, allow us to maybe expand some roles of some guys in there, and you know you never can have enough depth at that position as you go through the season. And he was a guy that we were excited about trying to get here, and then we're, you know certainly happy and fortunate that it finally came about and we look forward to watching him play on Saturday."
What's a realistic timeframe for having him game ready and taking snaps? Are we talking a week, two weeks, three weeks what's sort of your timeframe?
He'll play Saturday, he’ll play Saturday.
What are your expectations for Brenton Cox, this season?
“Yea I think that Brenton's done a good job of really trying to become a complete linebacker. You know when you play outside backer, a lot of people want to talk about your rush element and how many sacks you have and that is an important deal, but your ability to set the edge of the defense, your ability to give some coverage element to that at times, to become a complete player—I think he's done a really good job of buying into becoming a complete linebacker, a complete player, and has worked hard to improve his craft in every area. And, you know, I look forward to watching him play and, you know, give us some production."
You guys listed Tre'Vez Johnson as the starting STAR. Can you just talk about what you've seen from him and sort of the special talents or traits it takes for him to play that position?
“So Tre’Vez is a guy that you know, really can play multiple positions. You always talk about how can you get your best players on the field. You know he's been able to go through a spring practice and all season, you know, last year he was kind of thrown in the fire, and kind of learned on the run a little bit, but he's a very conscientious guy. He's really worked hard in the offseason to understand the nuances of that position along, along with understanding those things as well as developing in the weight room. You know he's a year older, a year more mature. It's allowed him, you know, in his cover skills to be a little bit firmer. So, you know, that position is one that, you know, you've got to be able to come up and set the edge on perimeter bubbles, and those kind of things. You got to be able to blitz a little bit, and then you've got to be able to cover. So, you know, we obviously asked a lot of him but you know we feel comfortable with his talents that he'll be able to do those things and we look forward to, you know, watching him show his progression as we move forward to the season.”
Truesdell up to speed?
“Well, I mean I think the first thing is you have a limited package for him and say, learn these things. I’m a big believer in as you learn, you learn the concepts. So this, you might have to play this one technique, but it applies to maybe four different defenses, and as you learn that you’re maybe learning three to four concepts, then all the sudden you know eight to 10 defenses and we’ll be fine with that. So it’ll obviously be a limited package with him in there. We’ll make sure he’s comfortable with it. I’ll make sure I go over the calls with him and make sure he knows exactly what to do and just let him go play and have fun. It’s been a long road for him to get here and we’re certainly excited we can add him to that unit to give it some depth.”
Most eager to see from defense?
“I’m looking forward to watching these guys play. They’ve really busted their tails since January. We’ve kind of had a saying of get better today, and then, team before all. And like I’ve said before when we first started it’s about us playing to our identity, which has always been fast, physical and aggressive. I feel like the players have bought into that. It’s really about playing as a unit because individually if we play as a unit and everybody brings their individual talents and we play as a unit we can create synergy which allows the unit to play better than maybe the individual parts. As we go through the season, if we can progress that way, then I think we can be the kind of team we certainly want to be. So it’s just a matter of being able to get on the field and go play.”
Depth off the edge?
“I think the biggest thing is looking to create one-on-one matchups and how do we create those matchups where guys go play. That will be the task every week to kind of mix that up a little bit to create the matchups relative to who we’re playing. As the guys you’ve mentioned (Carter, Moon, Cox, Princely) and some others we look forward to trying to get those guys one on one and letting them go play.”
A lot of depth?
“I think when you look at us, depth is one of those you have it and a couple quarters into the season you may not have it. But right now we feel like we’ve got some depth and I feel like we’ve done a really good job of moving some guys around to get our best players on the field in ways, I mean, how can we get these guys on the field? We’ve kind of mixed and matched some personnel groupings to allow us to do that, so it’s just a matter of going out and playing.”
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