Defensive coordinator Brad White made his stance clear.
“You can’t play in this defense if you got a shot to inflict some damage and you don’t take it. We are going to play with our pads.”
It was a refreshing sentiment for Gator Nation, which has watched its defense get pushed around for far too long.
One thing has remained consistent with Florida’s new staff: nothing will be given. If you are one of the 11 best players, you will play.
“There is no depth chart,” White said on Wednesday. “It’s a long way until we kickoff in the fall. In my very first meeting with the guys, I said listen, the reason I don’t carry a pen around, I only carry pencils, is that I can flip around and I can erase. A guy can go from first team down to third, third team up to first, tick up slowly, tick down slowly. You’ve got to be accountable; you’ve got to be reliable.”
With the Gators not taking the practice field until March 3, most of Florida’s staff doesn’t have a strong feel for the roster. For White, the focus is on the approach his players take during winter workouts.
“What I’m really evaluating right now is mentality, attitude, how much do they compete,” White said. “Obviously you want to see movement skills, but I’ve had a lot of guys that don’t do great in drill work that when they put pads on, and they have that mentality about them, they overcome those deficiencies.”
“So I’m looking for guys that have that mentality,” White added. “I know we’re going to have plenty of talent at Florida, but the greatest talent on defense is that dude that’s just got that that dog him.”
Florida will run a 3-4 defense under White, but like almost all defenses at the college and professional level, the Gators will be multiple up front in an effort to provide different looks for opposing offenses.
“We are a 3-4 team, no different than the Indianapolis Colts were, quote, ‘3-4.’ It’s way more 4-down than it is 3-4,” White said. “We’re going to set the three technique, we’ll play with four linebacker type looks. But a lot of 4-3 sort of principles, where that boundary JACK backer will be just essentially a D-end.”
“I think we’ve got guys up front, and we’ll see in pads. From what I’ve seen, what I’ve seen from their mentality, we’ll be able to play four down and jump into three and give multiple looks,” White added.
The rising complexity of modern offenses have made the 3–4 defense an increasingly attractive scheme due to its adaptability, disguised pressures, and matchup flexibility. However, White still plans to use traditional four-down fronts, allowing his players to play freely.
“Offenses are so well trained that if you give them a singular look, they understand what the leverage points are, they’ll destroy you,” White said. “But if you can move where the bubble is, if you move where the three technique is, that’s the beauty of playing some 3-down fronts. They don’t know which way it’s going to go, but make no mistake, we’re going to get down and get in some four down stuff and let those guys go.”
Stopping the run is imperative in college football. The last five National Championships all finished with a top six rushing defense, and four of them ranked inside the top three.
Florida hasn’t ranked among the top 65 in rushing defense since 2019, a key factor in the Gators’ losing record over the past six seasons.
White has made stopping the run a non-negotiable priority moving forward.
“You have to be able to stop the run. Like, you truly do. That’s not just a cliche to pound it about toughness. If a team can run the football, and in college they do it 1,000 different ways and out of 1,000 different formations that the NFL doesn’t have to deal with. And so if you can’t handle the run game, you’re going to have a really, really difficult time winning ball games. And so that’s where it’s going to start,” White said.
“We’re going to have to be smart in how we stop the run,” White added. “What we can’t do is we can’t commit everybody to the run game because the pass game over last eight years, the evolution of film that can be distributed across platforms, the rise and complexity of the pass game in college has skyrocketed. When I got back into college in 2018, it was very simplistic, and now you see it more with NFL style routes, how they’re trying to affect safeties, how they’re trying to affect eye discipline. Motions, shifts. It’s far more challenging, but at the end of the day, you still have to be able to stop the run. Now, if you can stop the run with some light boxes and cover up the pass, I think you’re gonna be in good shape.”