Marcus Spears on Terminology, Hargreaves & Tebow’s Chances

With the hiring of Jim McElwain as the Florida Gators head football coach, most eyes and talk have been on the future of the offense in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Since offensive production has been sorely lacking the past four seasons (with the Gators even ranking in the bottom 50 the past two seasons), it seems natural for so much attention to be turned to what McElwain and his offensive reputation will do for Florida.

But while that conversation continues to go on, there’s still a small undercurrent of anxiety surrounding the defense and just how that unit might perform without former head coach Will Muschamp at the helm.

Muschamp kept his defense in the perennial top 15 of college football production and now he is the defensive coordinator at Auburn University where head coach Gus Malzahn hails Muschamp as “the best defensive mind in all of football, not just college football.”

So the question raises, what does his departure mean for the Gators and a secondary that is still classified as young?

We asked current SEC Network analyst and former Cowboys and LSU (and Muschamp product) defensive end Marucs Spears his perspective on the situation and what he believes the Gators can and should do to continue their success on the defensive side of the ball.

After spending the last year with the SEC Network, Spears has also become good friends with former Florida Gators Heisman quarterback Tim Tebow. Now that Tebow is getting a chance with his fourth NFL team in the Philadelphia Eagles, Spears touches on the dream Tebow is chasing and conversations the two had on the subject.

Watch below for the full interview and make sure to stay tuned to GatorCountry.com for all of your Florida Gators coverage as football season quickly approaches.

Kassidy Hill
Born into a large family of sports fanatics and wordsmiths alike, sports journalism came natural to Kassidy. It’s more than a passion; it’s simply a part of who she is. Hailing from Alabama in the midst of typical Iron Bowl family, she learned very quickly just how deep ties in the SEC could run. She came to Gainesville after college to pursue a degree as television sports reporter but quickly realized she missed writing. She’s excited to now marry the two aspects for Gator fans. She loves Jesus, her daddy and football; wants to be Billy Donovan’s best friend and firmly believes that offensive lineman are the best people on earth. Follow her on Twitter @KassidyGHill

2 COMMENTS

  1. If the Gator defense falters during the next couple of seasons it is due to substandard recruiting. This is not a criticism of McElwain and his staff. It is an attempt to deal with reality. Under McElwain UF has not recruiting any dominating defensive tackle. They cannot seem to recruiting ANY SEC quality LB. The Gators are in a deep hole. Want a good defense? Recruiting dominating 4-and 5-Star defensive players. Will Muschamp may be a RICH MAN but he is hardly the world’s greatest DC. It was Georgia Southern who beat Muschamps defense at The Swamp and they did not even need to throw one pass. Muschamp was the DC at Texas when that defense was in a ‘death spiral’. The UF defense was at its best under Danny Quinn.

  2. You’re kidding right?…the defense is the only reason we haven’t been 0-24 the last 3 years in the SEC. Yes last year they were young and made mistakes….we were playing 3 freshman in the secondary for Christ sakes… but don’t kid yourself other teams in the league were not looking forward at going up against our office . And the comment that snowflake made about Mac’s inability to recruit aDL or LB….can u give the guy a year on the job?