Saturday afternoon will serve as one of the few times this season when a Florida defensive back isn’t the best defensive back on the football field. That honor will go to Tennessee safety Eric Berry Saturday when the Volunteers visit Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at 3:30 p.m.
Florida’s star defensive backs, cornerback Joe Haden and safety Major Wright, actually have a friendship with the All-American.
Wright met Berry when the two were at the Army All-American Game in 2007. They played in the same defensive backfield for the East team, spending all week together, whether on the practice field or off it.
Haden met Berry in Miami when both Wright and Haden decided to go spend some time in south Florida. Wright found out that Berry was in town, and the three spent the time together.
“I think he’s the best defensive player in the nation,” Haden said. “Me and Major talked to him last night about how good he was doing. We’re close friends, and it’s real cool how we keep in touch with him.”
You heard Haden right. Florida middle linebacker Brandon Spikes is a unanimous All-American selection who anchors the best defense in the country with his passion and relentlessness. Even with all of that, Haden still thinks Berry is the top defensive player in the country.
“I love Spikes to death, but I just love Eric’s game,” Haden said. “We watch film of them playing SEC teams, and the way he plays, I just love watching him.”
Most of Haden and his defensive backfield’s time watching film have come checking out the Tennessee offense. The cornerbacks have focused in on Quintin Hancock and Gerald Jones at wide receiver for the Volunteers, particularly on Jones, who gave the Gators some trouble last year in Knoxville.
But Haden knows that his defense will be focused on stopping the running game.
“Their run game is pretty powerful,” Haden said. “They’re trying to put us up in the run box because me and Janoris (Jenkins) are pretty good tacklers. We’re just trying to keep everything in front of us.”
The Florida defense will have the ability to load the box with as many as eight players to focus on stopping the run. That’s a benefit allowed when they have the top secondary in the conference.
Haden and the Florida secondary have seen film of Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton, and most of his film from last week’s loss to UCLA includes him throwing interceptions. Haden, like many others, noticed that when Crompton is under pressure, he has a tendency to throw into coverage.
“We saw the first two games, and he threw a couple picks because he had pressure on him,” Haden said. “People jumped routes and that’s what me and Janoris are looking into right now.”
The feel around practice has been noticeably different this week for all the players. The two games against inferior competition are in the books, and the Gators now move forward to SEC play. The uniqueness of the Florida schedule allows them to open conference play against one of their most bitter rivals.
“We just practiced a lot longer today,” Haden said. “He (Head coach Urban Meyer) does that with all SEC teams, where practice just gets a little more intense and a little longer. The first two games, every time we play somebody, coach always says that was nothing and to wait for next week. With an SEC team coming, we’ve got to get ready to play against real guys now.”
As someone said, the real season starts Saturday.