Story written by Spencer Reed
The Florida Gators defense faces a tall task this week when the Texas A&M Aggies make their first ever trip to The Swamp. The Gators defense comes in with the 55th ranked defense in the country and will face the best offense they’ve seen this season.
The Gators haven’t seen anything like what they’re going to experience with Texas A&M, whose offense ranks 41st nationally in scoring and 3rd in the SEC in total offense.
To help out the ever-struggling offense, the Gators are going to need some big-time takeaways in order to get a win.
However, big-time takeaways have been far from abundant over the past three games.
After forcing five turnovers through two games, the Gators defense has not forced a turnover since CJ Henderson’s pick-six in the 4th quarter of the Tennessee game. With a high-powered offense like Texas A&M on the way, you’d expect an added emphasis on takeaways.
But for Chauncey and the rest of the Gators defense, creating turnovers have always been a point of emphasis that gets worked on week in and week out, regardless of the opponent.
“We’re doing our same ball skills; tracking the ball, poking it out, I mean, like we do every week,” Gardner said. “Just because we haven’t generated turnovers doesn’t mean we’re not working on it.”
The Gators defense will definitely have their plates full this weekend, through the ground and on the air.
Texas A&M averages just under 223 rushing yards per game behind running backs, Trayveon Williams and Keith Ford. The Aggies also have a dual-threat QB in Kellen Mond that has been a nice complement to the superb running back tandem.
Mond has 266 yards on the ground and 2 touchdowns. The true freshman also has completed 88-of-155 attempts pass attempts for 1,045 yards, 7 touchdowns and just 3 interceptions.
Mond took over as the starter after their loss to UCLA and led the Aggies to four straight wins before giving Alabama the best game they’ve seen all year. Not only does he have one of the best running back tandems in the country to take the weight off his shoulders, but also one of the best receivers in the country in Christian Kirk.
Kirk led the SEC in receptions last year and was named a preseason AP All-American prior to the 2017 season.
Kirk had 5 receptions for 110 yards and 2 touchdowns against Arkansas but remained relatively quiet against South Carolina and Alabama.
The standout junior is due for a big game, but the young Gators secondary has proven that they can run with the best of receivers.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys playing this week, we tell them ‘Do what you’ve been doing the past 3 weeks’,” Gardner said. “Eye control wins games and we didn’t give up any big plays last Saturday, so we’ve got to keep doing what we do and keep fighting and chip away at it.”