When Florida announced it was hiring Will Muschamp as the next head coach for the Gators, those familiar with him knew it meant a radical change in defensive philosophy.
So far in spring football practice, Florida’s defensive players have been trying to keep up as all the changes are implemented.
“Everything is different,” weakside linebacker Jelani Jenkins said. “We got to learn a whole new playbook. That’s what we’re doing right now. Every day we get new plays and we’re just learning. A lot of it is different, but a lot of it is some stuff that we’re carrying on. Every day we’ve got new stuff going in. I don’t even know what’s coming up in a week or so. I don’t even know the whole playbook yet.”
One of the main adjustments so far has been learning some of the 3-4 principles Muschamp said his defense would rely on.
At Saturday’s practice, the Gators wore full pads for the first time this spring.
They also got their first taste of the 3-4 defense.
Jenkins and fellow linebacker Jon Bostic couldn’t get enough of it.
“I like it a lot,” Jenkins said. “It seems like it really frees up the linebackers and allows us to run a little bit. It was new, and everything’s different. It was an adjustment, but we’re going to keep practicing and getting better.”
As one of the fastest linebackers at Florida in the past few years, Jenkins is the type of player who could really explode in his third year in Gainesville.
He’s playing on the weakside for the Gators, which means he’ll have plenty of ground to cover. Last season, he showed a natural instinct in knowing where the ball was going.
Arguably Florida’s best linebacker for most of the year, Jenkins is excited to be learning a more “pro-style” defense where he thinks his skill set will fit in well.
“I think everybody’s pretty excited about the new things that are going in,” he said. “It’s good to learn the pro-style defense early on in your college career.”
While Muschamp has been pretty “hands-on” with the defense so far, Jenkins said it’s defensive coordinator Dan Quinn who has really helped the defensive players adjust to all the early changes.
“He knows what he’s doing and the whole coaching staff knows what they’re doing,” he said. “He’s intense. He knows what he’s doing and he’s passionate.”
For Jenkins, the big key is studying the playbook and learning the ins and outs of every formation and play.
Learning the playbook will help things translate to the field early, so players aren’t thinking as much when the ball is live.
“It can be overwhelming at times, but it’s not that bad,” he said. “They’re still throwing in a whole lot of plays every day. I think for a lot of young guys, it’s new to them. It’s not hard. If you study your playbook it’s not a big deal.”
Despite all the changes and the addition of Ronald Powell at the Buck, a new position on the defense, Jenkins thinks the product Florida puts out on the field won’t be that much different than in years past.
For a defense that finished near the top nationally almost every year under Urban Meyer, that’s good news.
“We’re going to be the same defense that we’ve always been at Florida,” Jenkins said. “We’re going to run and hit hard and keep being relentless and aggressive. That’s how we’ve always been.”