After ranking 87th in points per game and 84th in yards per game a season ago, the Florida Gators’ defense found significant improvement in week one of the 2023 season.
The Orange and Blue held Utah to just 270 yards and 24 points, while 14 of those points were caused directly after offense and special teams’ mishaps.
“Just overall there in year two in the system I think the fundamentals have improved,” Napier on the defensive improvements. “The comprehension and the understanding of the concepts and their assignment, therefore they play faster. They are able to eliminate some of that indecision therefore they’re anticipating, they’re processing quicker, they play faster, they get better production, there’s less mental errors, there’s less technique flaws, we’re on the same page, communication is at a different level.”
Florida’s defense got off to a disastrous start on Thursday night, allowing a 70-yard touchdown to Money Parks from the hands of Bryson Barnes on Utah’s first play of the game. As reported earlier by David Wunderlich, without that pass, Barnes was 11-for-17 (65%) for 89 yards (5.2 yards per attempt), with no TDs or picks. As a team, with QB Nate Johnson included, Utah completed 14-of-22 passes (64%) for 95 yards (4.3 YPA) with no TDs or picks, if you exclude the opening play.
“We always can improve, but after the first play in the game for the most part pretty clean football to some degree,” Napier said on his defense. “Now, we’re going to continue to play really good competition in the future and we need to train and prepare and get ourselves ready and continue to develop and grow as the season goes so we’re ready for the best competition.”
Austin Armstrong’s unit recorded just three missed tackles against Utah, the program’s fewest since 2018 vs Idaho.
“A lot of improvement. I loved it,’ defensive end Tyreak Sapp said on their performance. “I like and I love going on the field with that group because that’s a group of guys that I want to play for. That’s a group of guys that I can look in their eyes every play and I know confidently that they want to put it all on the line.”
Florida’s defense held the Utes to just 38 yards of offense in the second half, a figure that could indicate more depth in the unit.
“I feel like we were pretty fresh and played a lot and then we rotated a lot,” Sapp said on Wednesday. “So we got a lot of guys who can get out there and play and there’s not a lot of drop off. Even with our younger guys, they can go out there and we’ll ask what I like to call, go out there and hold them down.”
“I tell Coach, hey, put me out there. Whatever you need, I’m right here right now,” Sapp added. “Everybody, all the guys want to come off, I rally everybody up. I talk to everybody and say this is what we need to do. And I stress the issue and I force it and I make sure every time we go in that field we look forward to dominating. Nothing else.”
Florida allowed just three third down conversions on 13 attempts in week one, a significant improvement over their 2022 season where they ranked 129th in FBS, allowing 50.32% of third downs.
“I love it, and I love the fact that we can improve it. We can be even more scary. We can wreak more havoc. We can wreak more havoc and give teams problems,” Sapp said on their performance on third downs.
“As a D-lineman we got to earn the right to rush the passer, so we got to win the first and second down. That’s what they’ve got to do. Got to earn the right. Playing on third down for us, it’s a privilege. You go out there on third now first it’s a privilege. You’re a man and you take pride and you play like it,” Sapp added.
One area the Gators’ defense could improve on is their pass rush, as Florida failed to sack the quarterback in week one and didn’t create much pressure.
“Just rush the Q better, rush the Q, this week, try to get some sacks on our stats, try to get some sacks, tell the back end guys to keep handling up, tell Jason, keep encouraging him, all our guys on the back end, even our young guys like Jordan who played a lot, those guys take a lot of snaps especially those young guys just keep going and then up front I take it as my job to control that and making sure we can do everything we can to harass the Q,” Sapp said on where they can be better.
Florida’s defense will look to build on a promising start to the 2023 season in week two against McNeese State.