Defense wins championships, or so they say. That formula didn’t really pan out in Gainesville for the Florida Gators the past four years but the adage holds true in many cases.
Returning almost the entire defensive line and secondary, the Gators promise to have, yet again, one of the premier defenses in the SEC as well as the country. The defense, on the first day of 2015 spring camp, was light-years ahead of the offense, as is mostly the case early on in spring.
“Defensively, they’re obviously ahead,” said head coach Jim McElwain. “There’s a lot of carry-over from what they were doing, you can see how fast they were playing.”
New defensive coordinator Geoff Collins will run a lot of the same or similar schemes that the previous defensive staff ran. When Collins spoke with the media after arriving in Gainesville, he talked about being multiple but still running a defense that was best suited to the talent he had on the roster.
And, as they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
“That’s actually something that we talked about when I was making my decision, me and coach Mac,” senior defensive lineman Jon Bullard said. “It’s basically the same [defense], a few different things. I think it’s a good defense. Hopefully we’ll get it down pat and have a good spring and it will be successful.
From the schemes to the terminology there is a lot of carry over on defense. On offense, however, there are wholesale changes. Based on Florida’s 96th ranked offense from a year ago, that’s not a bad thing, but it does bring an adjustment period. McElwain seemed upset at how his quarterbacks essentially are having to learn how to take a snap from under center.
More and more, high schools are moving to spread offenses. Both Will Grier and Treon Harris played almost exclusively out of the shotgun in high school and Harris never took a snap under center while playing as a freshman in 2014.
From a numbers standpoint the offense is severely hampered. Having just seven healthy offensive linemen is a detriment to an offense that is installing an entirely new scheme and playbook. Florida is also light at running back and still waiting and searching for playmakers to emerge on offense at the skill positions. Outside of Jake McGee, there isn’t a proven tight end.
“Right now, everybody’s got an opportunity. So if we can find out a guy’s got a special something here, we’ve got to build on that and let guys have an opportunity to be explosive playmakers,” McElwain said. “But those guys got to come to the surface to. It’s a long process on the ID.”
As far as philosophy goes, McElwain isn’t trying to pinpoint anything this early on. Florida has some big-time playmakers like Jordan Scarlett, Jordan Cronkite, Antonio Callaway and D’Anfernee McGriff waiting to enroll this summer. In the infancy stages of building his offense he’s keeping the message simple.
“I don’t have any real magic potions here. The key is invest in yourself, give of yourself for the benefit of others and you know what, be accountable for everything you do,” McElwain said. “Your actions speak louder than words, man. We’ll see it on film, we’ll coach it on film. The guys who learn to do what’s right, pretty good chance they’ll play.”