As summer drags on, college football season slowly inches closer and closer. In mid-July, there are a lot more questions than answers about how any team’s season will shake out. In this series, Gator Country will highlight the biggest questions for every Florida Gators position group and the affects the answers will have on this season.
For the second half of this series, we switch gears towards defense. The stamp of Florida football. Or so it has been for a while now, but could that change this season? It’s still up in the air. After losing seven starters to the NFL, there are so many unknowns for this defensive unit, possibly leaving even more questions to be answered on defense than on offense in 2017.
We kicked off the defense with the defensive line last time. We continue onto the most intriguing questions at the linebacker position in this segment.
Linebacker
Like several others, this unit begins a new era this season with Tim Skipper taking over, as former linebackers coach Randy Shannon assumes duties as defensive coordinator. As far as rated talent goes, the Gators don’t stand out at linebacker, with just one former four-star player (Jeremiah Moon) on the roster. While Florida hasn’t racked up stars at the position, it has developed a lot of young talent. It will rely on that young talent to replace Alex Anzalone and the former heart and soul of the Gators’ defense, Jarrad Davis, this season.
- Will lack of experience take its toll?
As mentioned before, the Gators are tasked with replacing two great linebackers in Anzalone and Davis. The good news is, several players got a head start on that last season. Redshirt sophomore Kylan Johnson and sophomore David Reese were thrown into the fire the last half of the 2016 season, coming out of their backup roles to fill the holes as injuries plagued the defense. While there were a couple of struggles along the way, it was a relatively smooth transition for Florida, considering it was down two of the top linebackers in the country.
Johnson started six games and finished the season with 39 tackles, five tackles for loss and a sack. His best game came in the emotional win at LSU as he recorded eight tackles and his lone sack of the season in Death Valley. Reese burst onto the scene when he took over for Davis, starting the final four games of the regular season. He led the Gators in tackles in both the South Carolina (11) and LSU (12) games. He was forced to sit out the bowl game with an injury, but finished the season as Florida’s fifth leading tackler with 49. Despite starting just four games in 2016, he earned Freshman All-America and Freshman All-SEC honors.
Sophomore Vosean Joseph looks to play a much bigger role after seeing limited action last season, and could even find himself starting alongside Johnson and Reese. Joseph made a name for himself with a ridiculously hard hit on LSU quarterback Danny Etling at the one-yard line last season. He then got the call to start against Iowa in the Outback Bowl and delivered with a career-high six tackles, one tackle for loss and a pass breakup. He played well in the spring game and has proven himself to be one of the hardest hitters on the team. While he has the third-most in-game experience of Florida’s linebackers, he still has just one career start to his name.
Arguably the most exciting player in this young group is redshirt freshman Jeremiah Moon. An injury kept him off the field last season, but barring another injury, nothing should stop him this season. He wowed in the spring game as he was all over the field, totaling five tackles and a pass breakup. Moon’s versatility to rush the passer and cover tight ends gives him a huge upside going into the season. With his abilities in the middle of the defense, the Gators won’t have to rely on using a fifth defensive back quite as much as it has in recent years.
Jackson, Reese, Joseph and Moon should rotate for the majority of snaps at linebacker this season, and all four are very capable of having breakout seasons. Some bumps along the way due to youth and little experience are probably inevitable, but if they can stay healthy (which has been a big ‘if’ for Florida’s linebackers), this group has potential for greatness.
- Will a walk-on compete for serious playing time?
Walk-ons seeing the field at all is quite rare, and walk-ons playing on defense for more than just the occasional garbage time is almost unheard of, but redshirt senior Christian Garcia might just do that this season. Garcia is most well-known for preventing the rape of a woman in the summer of 2016, which is above and beyond anything he could ever do on the football field, but he now has the chance to receive some on-field attention as well.
He joined the team as a walk-on in 2015 and has had to work twice as hard as anyone for every single second of playing time he has received since then. His hard work led to him playing in all 13 games last season, mostly on special teams and as a reserve linebacker. With depth drained by injuries, Garcia was called on to start alongside Johnson and Joseph in the bowl game for his first career start. He recorded five tackles in the game and went on to record a pair of tackles as a part of the first-team defense in the spring game.
Garcia may not start another game for Florida, but he is definitely in line to compete for playing time this season. He recorded better stats last season than either of Florida’s other two not previously mentioned scholarship linebackers, R.J. Raymond (former walk-on) and Rayshad Jackson. The Gators bring in four freshmen who could also make a push, but Garcia’s experience at least puts him ahead until they have a chance to prove themselves in fall camp.
Garcia is hungry to make a more consistent impact in his final season, and he likely will, but he is a great story either way.
Up Next: Defensive Back
C-R-I-S-T-I-A-N Garcia.