If there’s a positive takeaway from Florida’s loss to Kentucky, it’s that the Gators’ defense shined in week two.
The Gators held the Wildcats to 272 yards of offense, giving up just 70 rushing yards in the game. The Gators’ defensive line had their way with Kentucky, sacking Will Levis three times after not recording a single sack in week one.
I named Kentucky receivers Tayvion Robinson and Barrion Brown to my watch list before the game. The Gators completely shut them out, holding them for a combined two catches for negative two yards.
The one knock I had on the Gators’ defensive performance Saturday was the inability to cover the tight ends. However, Patrick Toney made a nice adjustment mid-game, switching Trey Dean on the tight ends, who performed much better in coverage.
One player that Gator Country wanted to see perform better was Gervon Dexter. He showed us all what he’s capable of doing on Saturday.
Dexter recorded seven tackles, a half sack, a pass deflection, and an interception in Florida’s loss. His stat line doesn’t do his performance justice either, he was flying around on the field and mauling Kentucky’s offensive line.
Billy Napier saw growth in his defensive line from week one to week two, specifically in Gervon Dexter.
“Thought we took a step forward in this past game,” Napier said. “I thought some of the young players really — you saw week 1 to week 2 improvement, and you think about for them in their career it was game one to game two improvement. So we’re starting to get better play from some of that second tier.”
“I thought Gervon in particular really was significantly better in the game,” Napier said. “When I say that, I’m talking about alignment, discipline, fundamentals. Across the board there we were much improved.”
Dexter said that the defense just executed what Patrick Toney called.
“Coach Toney called a very good game,” Dexter said.” We just executed what he called and it went well for us.”
The Gators’ defense was particularly good in the first half, holding Kentucky to negative 37 rushing yards. The defense appeared to be worn out late in the game after Florida lost the time of possession battle in the 3rd and 4th quarter.
Dexter doesn’t believe there was any fatigue, but suggests the Gators are going to figure out what went wrong.
“No, I don’t think there was any fatigue,” Dexter said. “They had the ball longer, but like I said, we are going to see what we did wrong and fix it tomorrow.”
Linebacker Ventrell Miller was injured early in the 4th quarter Saturday, which could be a reason why Florida was getting pushed around late in the game. This could potentially be a major loss for the Gators.
“Ventrell is the quarterback of the defense,” Dexter said. “He’s very vocal, so that makes it very difficult for us to play without him on defense. He communicates well and does a lot of things well. It is kind of like losing your heart.”
Napier says there will be an injury update on Miller during Wednesday’s press conference.
The Gators’ defense will look to keep their momentum against South Florida in week three of college football.