Unless you’ve been living under a rock without access to the internet or sports-talk radio for the past eight months, you know by now that the Gators’ secondary faces a daunting challenge this season.
After years of priding themselves on stifling pass defenses and claiming the fictional “DBU” title, UF crashed and burned in 2020, surrendering an unthinkable 257.5 passing yards per game, which ranked 100th in the country.
Four of the five starters on the back end and both of the coaches are gone. Now, the Gators must turn things around with a crop of players that includes 14 players in their first or second years in the program and two new coaches.
And they don’t have the luxury of making slow, incremental progress, either. With the offense expected to come back down to earth at least a little bit minus Kyle Trask and Kyle Pitts, the Gators likely need the pass defense to rank among the top-30 or so in the nation to have success as a team.
So, how will they do it?
Well, new secondary coach Wesley McGriff believes it comes down to the two C’s: communication and confidence.
It didn’t take an expert to notice the secondary’s communication issues last season. Far too often, players would still be yelling and pointing at each other when the ball was snapped. Far too often, you’d see a receiver run completely uncovered deep down the field after the cornerback mistakenly thought that the safety would pick up the receiver.
Obviously, UF’s secondary was way more talented than the 100th best group in the country. But to play to their full potential this time around, everybody needs to be on the same page.
McGriff said communication has been a point of emphasis this offseason. He’s tried to instill in his players that communication is more than a one-step process. You can yell at the top of your lungs and signal with your hands vociferously, but if the guy lined up next to you doesn’t get the message, you’re still at fault.
Communication starts in the meeting room. McGriff has his players yell out calls and make their signals just like they would on the field.
“It’s essential to make sure that you’re communicating on the back end,” McGriff said. “I think communication starts in the meeting room. So, the guys are doing tremendous job of communicating in the room, in the meeting room and getting on the same page, which builds confidence once we get on the grass.
“I have to teach them how to be like Hollywood a little bit and be like actors and make sure we call those signals out and make sure we’re hand-signaling. And the biggest thing is not only just communicate with your teammates but make sure your teammate co-signs off on it. That means now he has it, that he has the check. I’ll tell the safeties over and over again, ‘Do not stop communicating until your teammate co-signs off on it.’”
To really pound that message home, McGriff makes them communicate more than just football-related things. Everything they do in the meeting room is done as a unit.
“We sign off and co-sign on just about anything,” safety Rashad Torrence said. “You ask one person to go to the restroom, the whole room going to co-sign and sign off on it. Just simple stuff like that kind of goes onto the field, and we just use simple, little tidbits to kind of nag off each other, and that kind of translates to the field. But I really do think that our communication has gotten better.”
Head coach Dan Mullen said the improved communication starts with McGriff and new cornerbacks coach Jules Montinar. There are some advantages that come with splitting the cornerbacks and safeties into separate rooms, with more individualized teaching being chief among them.
However, the cornerbacks and safeties’ jobs are so intertwined with each other that it’s important for them to be on the same page. Being led by two separate coaches with possibly very different backgrounds and philosophies can threaten to destroy that cohesion.
Mullen wouldn’t throw former coaches Torrian Gray and Ron English under the bus, but it’s clear that he thinks a lack of unity heavily contributed to the passing defense debacle of 2020.
“I think [McGriff and Montinar have] done a great job of doing that, of helping the young guys develop and getting themselves prepared and the mindset and the leadership and just the attitude and the demeanor within the room,” Mullen said. “I think they’ve done a great job improving that, of getting the secondary to work as one whole unit instead of as somewhat independent contractors.”
Now, onto the second part of the secondary’s turnaround plan. Despite their struggles last season, McGriff said he’s been pleased with his group’s confidence since he arrived in January. They never appeared discouraged by the way things unfolded last year. Instead, they’ve been eager to improve and have embraced their new coaches.
“The culture here at the University of Florida is really great,” McGriff said. “We have a strong culture here. And so, no, their confidence wasn’t shaken at all. It was a joy to get in and begin to work with them. It’s something I do and have done my entire career, is I coach a lot of confidence up because you have to be confident when you’re going out and executing, and especially in this league.
“These guys have a nice chip on their shoulder. They have tremendous work ethic, and the thing I like about them is that they love each other. They’re like brothers, and they understand that it’s strength in numbers. We’re together, and when we’re out there communicating and playing as one, then we can create a lot of synergy between each other, and our confidence level will stay high.”
Torrence credits McGriff for infusing enthusiasm into all parts of the defense. His energy has become contagious.
“Coach [McGriff] has brought a lot of energy, and it’s kind of trickled down from the coach to the players – the ones, twos and the whole defensive roster,” he said. “That energy, it just brings us all together, and you see your brother playing next to you with a lot of energy, it’s kind of like a game of ‘match.’ You’re trying to get as much energy as he has. So, we’re all kind of bouncing off of each other.”
It remains to be seen if the Gators will reclaim their spot among the nation’s elite pass defenses this season or if there’s simply too much work that needs to be done and not enough time to do it all.
McGriff believes that they have all of the necessary ingredients to pull off a turnaround of epic proportions.
“It takes all the young men from the coaching staff and the players in that room getting on the same page and communicating,” McGriff said. “It takes a strong leader, which we have in coach Todd Grantham. Now, as assistant coaches, we’ve got to work really hard to make sure we stay on the same page, and that trickles down to the players.
“The way you get to that point is just continue to work on the small details, make sure we’re technically and fundamentally sound, make sure we’re going downstairs and we implement and install defenses … the exact way the coordinator wants it and make sure that the head coach’s message is being carried out into the locker room, and then you see it pay dividends on the field.”