Gators defense still a work in progress

The Florida Gators offense was not instantly revitalized when Urban Meyer took over the team in 2005, so expecting new head coach Will Muschamp to completely turn around the defense in year one would be an unfair expectation.

However through his first three games at the helm, Florida is sporting the best run defense in the country (allowing an average of just 30.7 yards), the sixth-ranked scoring defense in the nation (8.7 points per game) and the seventh-best total defense in college football (209.3 yards per game).

As he preached from the moment he took the podium to discuss his decision to take over the Gators, Muschamp reiterated on Monday that everything in football starts with dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

“We’re talented up front. I think we’ve got good players up front. I’ve always felt that way,” he said. “I wish we had a little more depth than we have, but I’ll take the guys we got.”

From the push of defensive tackles redshirt senior Jaye Howard and sophomore Dominique Easley to the flexibility of defensive ends sophomore Sharrif Floyd and senior William Green, the players up front know the onus is on them to set the tone.

“They take a lot of pride in, and I always talk to them about dominate the line of scrimmage, making it a one-dimensional game,” Muschamp said. “You’ve got to be able to do that in this league.”

[EXPAND Click to expand and read the remainder of this post.]That is exactly what Florida has done up to this point. In Saturday’s Southeastern Conference opener against the Tennessee Volunteers, the Gators limited starting running back Taurean Poole to 18 yards on nine carries (they are holding all rushers to 1.2 yards per carry this season).

“Obviously the score dictated [that Tennessee starting throwing] the other night. We changed the game and our approach. The way we played the run early in the game kind of gets them out of it, too,” Muschamp noted. “There’s no question that [stopping the run] very important. If you can make an offense one-dimensional, it’ll give you a chance to win a lot of football games.”

The philosophy extends to the rest of the front seven, including junior mike linebacker Jon Bostic, who said the team has focused on attacking the line of scrimmage from the day the new coaching staff took over.

“All throughout two-a-days and even this summer – even when the coaches first got here in the spring -that was one emphasis we definitely wanted to make,” he said. “We want to stop the run. We want to be one of the most physical defenses in the country.”

Though the Gators are showcasing that strength and discipline up front, the team’s young secondary is still coming together. Out of Florida’s 16 penalties for 150 yards on Saturday, six were from the secondary including five pass interferences and a holding call.

The unit also gave up 288 yards and three touchdowns to Volunteers quarterback Tyler Bray. UF wound up intercepting him twice but missed out on some game-changing opportunities by dropping a number of other balls thrown right at the defense.

“It’s nice to be there, but you got to finish the play. You don’t get your name in the paper for dropping one,” Muschamp said when addressing the drops. “When you’re able to have an opponent that’s down, you’re able to knock them out with a turnover like that. You’ll be able to get out of the red zone – we had three opportunities the other night to defend the goal line and get off the goal line.”

In the end, the Gators prevailed on Saturday; however, against a better opponent, the numerous penalties and missed turnover opportunities may have come back to bite them.

As much as Florida has impressed from a defensive standpoint, two of their stellar efforts were against lower level non-conference opponents. With Alabama and LSU looming in the next three weeks, UF has a lot of work to do if they truly want to be one of the elite defenses in the SEC.[/EXPAND]