Let’s Talk About Defense for the Florida Gators

With Saturday night’s showdown between the Florida Gators and the New Mexico State Aggies came the debut of the Jim McElwain era in Gainesville. It was exciting. All the talk and hand wringing finally came to an end and the Gators left the Swamp late Saturday night having totaled over 600 yards of offense and 61 points. Inevitably, with all of Gator Nation watching the offense’s every move, it seems like something has been forgotten- the defense.

While there was the one-sided twitter “battle” over who was “DBU” and other talk of whom had the best defense in college football, the spotlight has basically been on Florida’s new offense all offseason. With Florida’s offensive explosion in the first game of the season, the story lines shouldn’t just read how Coach Mac has crafted a new offense without mentioning what he has done in maintaining the defense.

While the argument could be made that you can’t really judge the defense’s performance due to the offense they played against, the same could be said for the offensive situation as well. But that’s going to happen and no one will bat an eye. This series hopes to cast more light on the defense, even as offenses around the country continue to garner most of the limelight.

Coming out of the gate, the bigger concern on fans’ minds should’ve actually been the defense, as an offense doesn’t have to look like Coach Spurrier’s Fun ‘n’ Gun if the defense is good enough.

For a little background, Florida had the fifth best scoring defense in the country in 2012 and an offense that did not even rank in the top 75 nationally in scoring, and they still managed an 11-2 record. So, starting new after the last four years of offensive ineptitude, it shouldn’t be all that hard to field an offense better than the Demarcus Robinson or bust model of 2014. That leaves the big question mark on defense. Were Mac and his new staff going to keep the defense elite as they focused so much time on the offense? Through the first game of the season, that question seems to be answered as much as the question of the offense.

In the first quarter, “the best defense in the nation,” as Florida Gators Defensive Coordinator Geoff Collins believes them to be, held the Aggies to a three-and-out and 45 total yards. A decent start, but then came the second quarter.

Beginning with Gators quarterback Will Grier being stripped of the ball near the Florida 20, the defense was put in a hole. That should give Florida fans flashbacks from last year. This turn of events tested the young Florida defensive line early. They seemed to be holding up until Larry Rose III burst through the line on an eight-yard touchdown run. After the Gators’ offense had taken the ball down the field and scored again, the defense had another chance to assert its dominance. Unfortunately, they were gashed by the New Mexico State Aggies for a huge run play and eventually surrendered another score on a pass over the top to the right corner of the end zone. This drive could be seen as a joint lapse between the defensive line and the secondary. But, there are some positives to this: the defense did not allow this to happen again, the defensive line is very young and still learning, and two key members of the vaunted secondary were not even playing on Saturday. Safety Keanu Neal was out with a minor injury and Safety Marcus Maye was suspended for Saturday’s game alone.

As for the second half, it went about as good as any Gator fan could have possibly hoped for. While most fans would probably consider the defensive play of the night to be Vernon Hargreaves III’s third-quarter interception and 43-yard return, the total yards allowed for the second half is more impressive. The defense yielded all of negative one yard the entire second half. Negative. The defense actually took a yard away from the Aggies by the end of the half. Combine that with the yards New Mexico State gained in the first quarter, and almost all of their yards- 156 of their 200- came in the second quarter.

Barring the “learning the moment” that was the second quarter, the defense played lights out. If the young, but hyper-talented defensive line can find a way to mature quickly, they could complement the ever-improving secondary and give Coach Mac a legendary defense to ease the inevitable growing pains of the improving offense.

 

Game Notes: 

Vernon Hargreaves III channeled his inner Charles Woodson Saturday night by playing offense, defense, and special teams. Hargreaves hauled in a pass for six yards, returned a punt for 11 yards, and logged the seventh interception of his career. Florida also committed a total of one penalty, none of which were on defense. The Gators routed the Aggies 61-13, totaling 606 yards and allowing only 200.

 

austyn_szempruch
The son of a Florida alum, Austyn grew up hearing of the lows of the ’79 Gators and experiencing the highs of the Chris Leak and Tim Tebow led Gators. Through it all, he knew he was born to be a Gator too. Knowing that his greatest passion besides Florida football was history, he finally achieved his dream of gaining admission to the University of Florida in 2012 and decided to major in history. Throughout his college career he attended every Gator game he could, as well as gaining invaluable experience while interning at the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at UF. During his senior year at Florida, he saw his chance to combine his writing experience from history with his love of all things UF and was blessed with the opportunity to intern at Gator Country. As well as the Gators, he is a huge supporter of the Eagles and what they plan to do with Tim Tebow. Austyn also enjoys the idea of devoting his life to being a professional golfer but settles for being a casual golfer with a decent drive and a bad putt.