With spring football finally in sight, Gator Country is here to get you through these final few weeks until the Gators are back on the gridiron.
Before Florida football returns, we will preview where each position group stands as the team transitions into 2021. Continuing today with defensive end, 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.
While the defense nosedived in almost every key statistical category in 2020, the pass rush remained strong. The Gators finished the season ranked second in the SEC at 2.9 sacks per game. However, that number was down almost a full sack per game from the 2019 season, when UF led the league with 3.8 sacks per game.
With every scholarship defensive end on the roster returning for next season, Gator fans have every right to expect them to return to the top of the sack leaderboard in 2021. Whether they’ll be able to set the edge and prevent explosive running plays is another story and one that will play a huge role in whether the defense experiences a huge turnaround or not.
For the purposes of this preview, the BUCK position will be considered a defensive end.
Who’s leaving: No one
Thanks to the NCAA’s decision to not count the pandemic-affected 2020 season against players’ eligibility, all 10 defensive ends are back.
The only surprises among the group are Jeremiah Moon and Zachary Carter. Moon was a redshirt senior last year. Rather than trying to catch on with an NFL team, he opted to return to UF for a sixth season. Carter could’ve entered the draft following his breakout season and likely would’ve gone in the middle rounds but chose to return to Florida to improve his draft stock.
Despite the logjam that’s been created at BUCK, no one has opted to transfer so far this offseason, a pleasant development for the Gators.
Who’s back: Khris Bogle, Zachary Carter, Andrew Chatfield, Brenton Cox, Dante Lang, Jeremiah Moon, Antwaun Powell, Princely Umanmielen, David Reese, Lloyd Summerall
Carter is coming off of the best season of his career, as he led the team with five sacks and shared the team lead with 9.5 tackles-for-loss. The Gators will move him around to create mismatches. On early downs, he’ll play strongside end and give offensive lines trouble with his 290-pound body and exceptional strength. On passing downs, they’ll slide him inside, where he’ll present a speed mismatch to interior offensive linemen. With the Gators adding depth at tackle through recruiting and the transfer portal this offseason, Carter should play more often at end, where he looked more comfortable and was more productive last season.
The BUCK position has the makings of a potential three-headed monster. Brenton Cox is the incumbent starter. He used his elite speed and first step quickness to record four sacks and tie Carter for the team lead in tackles-for-loss. However, he tried to do too much sometimes, and opposing offenses took advantage of his lack of discipline with quick throws and perimeter runs.
Moon will probably never live up to the sky-high hype that surrounded him earlier in his career, but he brings consistency and veteran leadership to a young position group. He’s probably their best BUCK at setting the edge against the run. He just needs to stay healthy after three of his previous five campaigns were ended prematurely due to injuries.
Bogle emerged late last season as a promising building block for the future. He made three sacks and forced a fumble in the final six games. He’s a great athlete, but he needs to continue adding muscle and filling out his long frame. He was listed at 240 pounds last season. If he can ever get up to the 260-range, look out.
Breakout Watch: There’s a golden opportunity for somebody to take the backup job at strongside end and run with it. The Gators didn’t really have a backup to Carter last season. When Carter slid inside, they often put two BUCKs on the field at the same time. While this increased their speed and pass-rushing capabilities, it left them woefully undersized and susceptible to getting the ball rammed down their throat on the ground, which happened far too often.
The best candidate to be Carter’s backup this season is Umanmielen. He saw action in six games as a true freshman and recorded a pair of sacks. His length and lateral quickness allow him to be a solid run defender. However, he needs to add weight and work on his pass-rushing moves before he’s ready to play meaningful snaps. His progress as a pass-rusher will be worth monitoring this spring.
If Umanmielen steps up as a reliable option at strongside end, that will allow the Gators to get the best of both worlds in a sense by boosting the pass-rush without sacrificing size in the process.
Newcomer of Note: Justus Boone
Boone is the only newcomer to the position this spring, so he was the only choice. However, even if there were other options, he might’ve still been the pick. Keeping with the theme from the previous section, he’s a natural strongside end, which has become almost as rare as a unicorn for the Gators on the recruiting trail in recent seasons.
A late riser on the recruiting circuit, he adds outstanding length at 6-foot-5. He weighed more than 250 pounds before ever participating in a Nick Savage-led workout. There’s been some speculation among recruiting analysts that he could even grow into a tackle someday. He plays with aggression and is known for his ability to set the edge in the running game. Like Umanmielen, however, he needs to work on his pass-rushing moves.
Boone’s size and knack for creating negative plays in the running game combined with UF’s lack of proven depth at his position give him a chance to earn immediate playing time. He needs a strong performance in spring ball to make that happen.
Questions: These are the three things we want to know before the end of spring.
- l. Will anyone emerge as the go-to pass-rusher?
When Todd Grantham’s defense is at its best, he has a dominant pass-rusher. In 2018, he had Jachai Polite. In 2019, he had Jonathan Greenard. While the Gators had several good options at BUCK in 2020, they didn’t have that one guy that struck fear into opposing quarterbacks and offensive coordinators and made them alter their game plans. While the pass rush was far from the defense’s biggest issue, finding a dominant guy up front could help the linebackers and defensive backs. The less time you can give a quarterback, the better. Cox is the most likely to emerge, but he can’t disappear for large stretches like he did last season.
- 2. Can they become more physical at the point of attack?
Quite frankly, the defensive ends looked soft against the run at times last season. Texas A&M, Alabama and Oklahoma – otherwise known as the three best offensive lines they faced – all had a field day on the ground against them. Georgia and Arkansas each ripped off a long run. Grantham’s defense is predicated around stopping the run, getting the offense into an obvious passing situation and then bringing the heat from unpredictable places. The first part of that equation didn’t happen frequently enough, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the other two didn’t either. Part of the solution is to get bigger and stronger in the weight room, but a large part of it is about attitude. They’ve got to want to kick the guy in front of them’s butt and settle for nothing less than sheer domination. There aren’t many opportunities for linemen to be physical in the spring, but they’ve got to improve that mindset starting now.
- 3. How much progress will the young collection of BUCKs make this spring?
The Gators are set to lose Moon after this season, and Brenton Cox could have a tough decision to make regarding the NFL. If he leaves, you’re looking at a very inexperienced position heading into 2022. So, it’s important that someone outside of Moon, Cox and Bogle proves that they can play at a high level. Andrew Chatfield had some nice moments last season and sacked Mac Jones in the SEC Championship Game. Antwaun Powell looks the part at 6-foot-3 and 260 pounds but only played in two games as a freshman. David Reese can’t seem to catch a break with his health, and Lloyd Summerall has only played in four games in two years. Their development this spring will be something to watch.