Time after time in 2020 the offense would snap the ball and Florida's defense would still be lining up. It led to a historically bad season for the Gators' defense and caused both secondary coaches to be relieved of their duties following the season.
"I think one of the things we struggled with and we talked about a lot is alignment, of making sure the sense of urgency in playing up-tempo offenses, of getting our calls in," Dan Mullen said this spring. "Do we get the calls in in time? Do we get the calls made to the defense on the field in time? If the guys make the call, then make the formational adjustment in time when you're seeing no huddle. Part of it there is a little sense of urgency issue."
New secondary coach Wesley McGriff has made that his top priority. The accountability and the communication don't wait until the team hits the grass. You can hear the safeties shouting calls and holding each other accountable in their meeting room.
"If you walk by the meeting room you hear the calls and if you peek in there, you know, you see the hand signals," McGriff said. "So you know I have to teach them how to be like Hollywood a little bit and be like actors, and make sure we call those signals out and make sure we hand signaling."
It's not enough just to know what the calls are and know your own assignments. That led to Dan Mullen saying Florida had a lot of "independent contractors" on the team last year. McGriff wants his players to hold each other accountable. When you make a call, it needs to be acknowledged. That's another point of emphasis and something that was missing last season.
"The biggest thing is not only just communicate with your teammates, but make sure your teammate co-signs off on it," McGriff said. "That means now he has it, that he has the check, and I'll tell the safeties over and over again, ‘do not stop communicating till your teammate co-sign off on it."
That signing off isn't limited to the calls and checks in the playbook either. To really hammer the message home McGriff has installed sign-offs for everything the players do when they're together.
"You ask one person to go to the restroom, the whole room going to co-sign and sign off on it," safety Rashad Torrence said. "Just simple stuff like that kind of goes onto the field and we just use simple, little tidbits to kind of nag off each other, and that kind of translates to the field. But I really do think that our communication has gotten better.”
McGriff has helped turn defenses around before. In his one season as secondary coach and co-defensive coordinator at Auburn, McGriff helped the Tigers go from the bottom third of the SEC in 2015 to top three in the league in 2016 in scoring defense (11th/26.0 to 2nd/15.6), rushing defense (11th/182.7 to 3rd/124.8) and third-down conversion defense (13th/44.9 to 2nd/34.0).
Florida's defensive backfield is loaded with talent. Led by preseason All-American Kaiir Elam and senior safety Trey Dean. They have young, talented players like Avery Helm, Jason Marshall, Tre'Vez Johnson, and Rashad Torrence. They just needed guidance and someone to make them accountable to each other.
No more independent contractors in the Florida secondary.
