Florida Gators Football: 9-17-14 Defensive Notebook

Florida Gators defensive coordinator DJ Durkin held his weekly press conference Wednesday as the Gators are three days out from their game against Alabama. Coming off a 36-30 overtime win against Kentucky, the Gators will play Alabama at 3:30 at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the first away game of the season. Alabama defeated Southern Miss last week 52-12. This is the second of an eight-game stretch of conference play and the first of two SEC West opponents Florida will face in the next three weeks.

Here’s what Durkin had to say, as well as safety Marcus Maye, who met with the media.

Defensive coordinator DJ Durkin:

Vernon Hargreaves v.s. Amari Cooper:

“Yeah, I mean, obviously those are two great players. So I think, you know, it’ll be a fun one to watch. I’m sure they’re both probably excited to face each other, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Coverage plans on Cooper:

“We have several different plans going into the game, so that’s not going to be the entire game like that, no, we have a couple different ways, obviously he’s a guy they like getting the ball to. He’s very explosive, dangerous, so we have a couple different ways we’re going to handle that and some of it will be Vernon on him and some of it won’t.”

Watching game film from last week against Kentucky:

“Yeah, we just, you know, we made mistakes with our eye discipline. That was something we talked about going in the game, when you face a tempo team you’ve got to get lined up and get your eyes in the right place and react and see it. On those particular plays we didn’t, so that’s something obviously we’re working on to correct and being addressed. I think the guys, they played really hard, played with great effort. It wasn’t a matter of that, it was just a matter of on those plays we weren’t looking at the right thing.”

Durkin on Alabama’s offensive line:

“They’re a physical unit. They want to establish the run, establish the line of scrimmage. That’s how they’ve always been. That’s what they hang their hat on offensively. We know that. It’s a big challenge for us. We’ve got to go play physical and control the line of scrimmage on our end.”

Durkin on the team playing against a mobile quarterback last week:

“Yeah. I mean, I think just the awareness of our guys, it’s something that now they’re hearing it for a couple weeks in a row of what we have to do to contain the quarterback. Things are a little different. When you’re facing a quarterback that doesn’t run really well, you can do some different things in terms of pass rush and pressure and all that. Obviously, that’s not part of the game plan for either of these guys this week. I think there’s definitely carryover for those guys, and they’re hearing the message for two weeks now.”

Safety Marcus Maye:

Importance of tackling against the Tide’s running game:

“Tackling is going to be very important. Like I said, they run the ball, all their backs have that skill to make a big play. So we just have to tackle well at all times and just keep them from making those big plays.”

Energy at practice:

“Definitely. We’ve got a big game this weekend so there’s always extra fire you’ve got to have during practice. Once the game comes, it’s pretty much going to be the same way. There’s a lot of energy out there at practice right now.”

Ryan Randall
From Melbourne, Florida, Ryan has lived in Florida since he was three, becoming a sports fan around that age. His passion for journalism rivals his love of sports. Shortly out of high school he covered prep and community sports for his hometown paper in Brevard Country, before moving to Gainesville, where he covered the Gators in the pros as well as prep sports for a few publications. A Telecommunications major at UF, Ryan now interns at Gator Country and ecstatic to showcase his talents for the publication. When not working on stories, Ryan enjoys playing basketball, music, as well as art. Follow Ryan at @_RyanRandall_

3 COMMENTS

  1. As a Georgia player said a couple of years ago; “This is big boy football.” Forget Cooper and Robinson, this game will be decided in the trenches. I doubt UF will waste a down trying to go deep since Driskel has yet to prove he can be accurate. That means a lot of horizontal passes and a power running game.

  2. Thanks for reading. It’s funny you said the “This is big boy football” quote, as Roper told a story this week of David Cutcliffe telling him the same thing. The trenches are always important in the SEC, but especially in a game like this, with an Alabama team that, even with Cooper, still likes to run the ball. Even for the passing game, Florida is going to have to get some pressure on Sims to help out the secondary, as well as keep a spy on him because of his explosiveness. Going to be a good strategic matchup.