Florida hired Austin Armstrong to take control of their defense after Patrick Toney’s departure to the NFL.
“I think Austin is well respected out there,” head coach Billy Napier said after the Gators’ first Spring practice. “I think the opportunities he had this offseason is a reflection of that. Austin was with us in the past as a graduate assistant, came back as a position coach and then certainly for him to get an opportunity to coordinate defense for two years and really do a good job, I think his reputation is good so that one was a little simpler than the others.”
“He knows the verbiage, he understands the system and certainly that network of people is pretty well respected there,” Napier said.
Gator Country has had the opportunity to sit in on Florida’s first two Spring practices, giving us our first chance to see Amrstrong live.
The energy level at practice seems to be much higher between all parties involved.
“I like Coach Armstrong a lot,” outside linebacker Antwaun Powell-Ryland said after Tuesday’s practice. “He’s young, so he’s more energized, he’s more hype, he wants to get things going. I really appreciate him wanting to take this chance to come and coach us.”
Junior cornerback Jason Marshall is ready to see what Armstrong can bring to the table.
“He came in, you know, excited, and I’m urgent to see what the defense does this year,” Marshall said. “He’s a guy that comes with high expectations and high energy.”
“We’ll be more aggressive,” Marshall adds.
Gator Country has witnessed Armstrong bring a strong vocal presence and a hands-on approach to the practice field.
“Bouncing off the walls, you can see him running from this sideline to the other sideline,” Marshall said.
Marshall claims that Armstrong’s energy level is what separates him from former defensive coordinator Patrick Toney.
“Just when he steps in, he has high, high energy, so I feel like that pretty much separate him, but they’re still somewhat similar,” Marshall said.
Armstrong is expected to primarily work with the linebackers but was spotted on Tuesday’s practice spending a lot of time with the safeties.
“I think he’s still working with the safeties you know I think we’re sticking with kind of just our overall plan relative to improving the defense from an efficiency standpoint,” Billy Napier said. “I would say the attention prior to Patrick’s departure was to make Corey (Raymond) the secondary coach, we’re doing a number of other things there relative to edge players and interior defensive line, so that was the intent the entire time and certainly we just had a coordinator change, we’ll take the same approach.”
“Austin has done a great job, he’s hit the ground running and so far, so good,” Napier said.
Gator Country will continue to get live looks on Florida’s Spring practice leading up to the Orange and Blue game on Thursday, April 13th.