With spring football finally here, Gator Country is here to preview where each position group stands as the team transitions into 2021.
Continuing with defensive back, we will give an in-depth look at who returns and players to watch and pose three questions we need answered before the end of spring.
The right adjective does not exist to adequately describe how poorly UF’s defensive backs played last season. Terrible, putrid, awful and abhorrent are too kind. They gave up the second most passing yards per game of any Florida secondary since at least 1946. The cornerbacks failed to play tight coverage and looked like they had never been taught how to play the ball in the air before. The safeties took terrible angles, struggled to tackle and busted far too many coverages.
There is reason for optimism in 2021, however. New cornerbacks coach Jules Montinar and safeties/nickelbacks coach Wesley McGriff have produced results everywhere they’ve been and will infuse energy into their rooms. There’s also far too much talent in the secondary for last season to be anything other than an outlier. Simple regression to the mean should lead to an improved secondary this fall.
Who’s Leaving: Shawn Davis, Chester Kimbrough, Quincy Lenton, C.J. McWilliams, Brad Stewart, Donovan Stiner, Marco Wilson
The biggest losses are Davis and Stewart. Davis was the Gators’ most talented all-around safety the past two seasons, though that is a bit of a low bar. He finished his career with 124 tackles, five interceptions, 10 pass breakups and a forced fumble in 37 games. Though he was inconsistent and was suspended several times, Stewart produced one of the most iconic moments of the Dan Mullen era with his pick-six of Joe Burrow that sealed the LSU win in 2018. He moved to STAR as a senior and turned in perhaps the best game of his career against Alabama, with nine tackles and a pass breakup.
Stiner simply didn’t have the athleticism to succeed at the SEC level. He was a solid leader and communicator on the back end. He occasionally produced some big moments, such as his bone-jarring sack against Mississippi State in 2018 and his end zone interception of Auburn’s Bo Nix in 2019. However, his lack of speed made him a liability.
Wilson had a promising freshman campaign but regressed to the point where he was difficult to watch in 2020. Opposing quarterbacks picked on him every week with tremendous success, and fans will never forgive him for his ill-timed shoe throw against LSU.
Kimbrough struggled to get on the field in his two seasons, breaking up just three passes. He transferred to Michigan State.
McWilliams didn’t play well in 2018, missed the entire 2019 season with an injury and opted out of the 2020 season. He transferred to Purdue, where he will reunite with former UF safeties coach Ron English.
Lenton was injury-prone throughout his career and played in just 17 games in five years. You almost forgot that he was still on the roster at times.
Who’s Back: Trey Dean, Kaiir Elam, Fenley Graham, Avery Helm, Jaydon Hill, Tre’Vez Johnson, Mordecai McDaniel, Ethan Pouncey, Jahari Rogers, Rashad Torrence, Kamar Wilcoxson
While the secondary was a disaster as a whole last season, Elam continued to play well. He intercepted two passes, broke up 11 passes and played airtight coverage for most of the season. Unfortunately, teams stopped throwing his way once they realized how weak the rest of the secondary was around him. He should have another solid season in 2021 and get drafted fairly high.
Hill had some promising moments last season as well. He broke up three passes against both South Carolina and Oklahoma. For some reason that defies logic, the coaches insisted on playing Wilson ahead of him.
Dean is the only safety on the roster with more than one season of college experience. He found a home at safety last season after playing cornerback and STAR his first two years. Though he played sparingly, he was the most consistent safety on the team last season. He intercepted Alabama’s Mac Jones in the SEC Championship Game. The Gators will be counting on him to make another big jump this spring as well as be a leader for the crop of youngsters behind him.
Torrence had an up-and-down freshman campaign. He started three games and made 25 tackles for the season. He’ll begin the spring starting next to Dean at safety.
The rest of the returnees were highly ranked recruits but haven’t gotten many opportunities to prove themselves in college. This spring will give them the chance to do just that.
Breakout Watch: If you could build an ideal STAR for Todd Grantham’s defense, it would look an awful lot like Johnson. He has great speed and quickness, and he plays more physically than you might expect for someone listed at 5-foot-11 and 196 pounds. He played in all 12 games as a freshman and registered 15 tackles, two pass breakups and an interception.
With Stewart and Wilson gone, Johnson should have a chance to lock down the starting job at STAR with a strong spring.
The Gators use the STAR position in a variety of ways. They’ll play man coverage, zone coverage, blitz and help out in run support. Because of how they use this position, the potential for a breakout season is always there.
Newcomer of Note: The Gators welcome in four freshmen this spring, but none of them enter college with as much hype as Jason Marshall.
As the only five-star high school signee in the class, Marshall is known for his length and physicality. He’s the type of cornerback that you can line up in press coverage against the other team’s best receiver. He has great but not elite speed, and his tackling will need some work for him to reach his full potential.
With Elam and Hill being the only experienced corners on the roster, Marshall will get the opportunity to win a starting job right away. Even if he doesn’t start against Florida Atlantic on Sept. 4, it’s probably only a matter of time before he’s in the starting lineup. He’s the future of the secondary formerly known as DBU.
Questions: These are the three things we want to know before the end of spring.
- 1. What will change under Montinar and McGriff?
Mullen likely didn’t hire them to do things exactly like they had been done before. They’ll bring some different coaching tactics and philosophies to the position. One thing Mullen mentioned on Tuesday is that Montinar and McGriff will coach separate positions but also work together quite a bit to facilitate better communication throughout the secondary. That will be an interesting dynamic to watch as the year goes on. Whatever the changes are, they’ll play a large role in how the secondary performs in the fall.
- 2. Will some of the young cornerbacks make progress?
Pouncey was a top-200 recruit in the 2020 class. He played with a high level of aggression and displayed tremendous closing speed and ball skills in high school. He missed all of last season with a hip injury. Rogers was a top-100 prospect and is a great athlete. However, he primarily played quarterback in high school and appeared in just three games as a freshman. Helm and Wilcoxson were also four-star prospects who played sparingly last season. The Gators need some of these talented young players to emerge if they are to get the secondary back on track.
- 3. How does the STAR position shake out?
They have options here. Johnson is the ideal fit athletically, but he experienced some struggles last year. They could move Hill inside if Marshall proves that he’s ready to play immediately. Wilcoxson could also be an option, although he still needs to develop after he enrolled a year early. They could opt to play three linebackers depending on the formation the offense shows them, which would likely mean Amari Burney playing the STAR role. This will be a position battle to watch, and it will likely carryover to the fall.