Florida’s defense has been terrific under Ron Roberts’ guidance. Through five games of the 2025 season, the Gators rank 24th in total defense, 26th in scoring defense, and 28th in third down defense. That’s all while playing a difficult early season schedule including three top 10 teams.
In three years under Billy Napier, missed tackles have haunted Florida’s defense. In 2022, Florida missed 132 tackles in 13 games, equating to 10.1 missed tackles per game. In 2023, Florida missed 116 tackles in 12 games, equating to 9.6 missed tackles per game. In 2024, Florida missed 144 tackles in 13 games, equating to 11 missed tackles per game.
Not all missed tackles are created equal, but Florida has never finished with a top 40 tackling grade under Napier, according to Pro Football Focus. The Gators finished as low as 112th in the country in 2023.
This offseason, Ron Roberts was promoted to defensive coordinator following Austin Armstrong’s departure to Houston. Florida has significantly improved their tackling numbers with Roberts having full control of the defense.
Florida has missed just 26 tackles this season (5.2 per game) and hold the third best tackling grade in the country, trailing only North Texas and Georgia. The Gators have not missed more than seven tackles in a game this season.
Coming off the bye week, Florida missed just three tackles vs. Texas, the lowest UF has recorded since the season opening game vs. Utah in 2023 (3). It also ties the lowest number of missed tackles in a single game under Napier.
“I think the bye week really helped us,” sophomore linebacker Myles Graham said on the three missed tackles vs. Texas. “We work a lot of individual drills. We kind of looked back to the fundamentals. We work on the basics, more than just working on schemes. We did both, but more on the fundamentals. So I feel like that really helped.”
Florida missed seven tackles vs. Miami, which tied the season high.
“And then we coming into this week, we kind of emphasized that we had way too many missed tackles last game,” Graham said on the Miami game. “That’s on me, and that’s on the rest of these guys, so we really wanted to improve on that, and we’re still improving on that. Hopefully these next couple games, we can have zero.”
From 2022-2024, Florida had five games with five missed tackles or less, two of which were against McNeese State and Samford. The Gators already have three games with five missed tackles or less through just five games of the 2025 season.
The Gators have the second lowest run missed tackle percentage in the SEC, trailing only Arkansas per SEC Stat Cat. The improvement in tackling has limited the number of explosive plays Florida’s defense is allowing, which is keeping them in every game despite a struggling offense. Florida holds the 5th lowest opponent explosive play percentage in the SEC at 9.62%.
Florida is set to face a talented Texas A&M offense with a stable of running backs and an athletic quarterback in week seven.