As Mohamoud Diabite wrapped up his final tackle of the 2020 season, he gathered back into a despondent Gators huddle and stared up at a 30-point deficit on the AT&T Stadium scoreboard.
Florida’s 55-20 Cotton Bowl loss to Oklahoma in January marked a frustrating but fitting end to UF’s season. Decisively poor defense defined the Gators’ last three games, and scrutiny towards the defensive unit grew from tepid to overwhelming.
For Diabate and Florida defensive corps, memories of the frustrating 2020 season and criticisms from fans and pundits on social media have been burned deep into their psyche and serve as the primary motivation for the upcoming season.
“I feel like all of us got a chip on our shoulder,” Diabate said. “We saw what everybody was saying about our defense, about our coaches, personal, about us. So, it’s like, how can you not have a chip? How can you not remember that when you’re working out.”
The Auburn, Alabama native has worked diligently to improve on his 69-tackle season, and his greatest gains have come in the weight room so far.
Diabate has added nearly 20 pounds since the end of last season, a difference the linebacker hopes will add some physicality and versatility to his game in 2021.
“It was a good offseason,” Diabate said. “I felt like I dedicated myself every day, my nutrition, my stretching, everything. I feel like with this added weight, I’m even faster. So, with all that, I feel like it’s time.”
Another key returning defensive player for Florida, Kaiir Elam, cited his frustration with the way UF’s defense performed at the end of last season.
Entering 2021, the Jim Thorpe Award watch list nominee has paired with Trey Dean to assume a leadership role in the Florida secondary and motivate their team past their unsightly performances against LSU, Alabama and Oklahoma.
“We lost the last four games,” Elam said. “I know that really motivated everybody in my class for a fact because that’s unacceptable; that's not the Gator standard. The final game against Oklahoma just left a bad taste in our mouth, so I feel like guys are motivated off of that.”
Elam noted that last year's defense was “a little out-of-whack” and struggled to communicate adequately, and the junior corner believes this season’s unrestricted practices have served to create a more cohesive unit.
Florida’s secondary is a “young and exciting group” in the eyes of Elam, and he believes that UF’s backend has increased talent to go with a strengthened bond and an increased connection.
“I love the energy, I love the bond from this year compared to last year,” Elam said. “Everybody is aggressive and on the same page, everybody is communicating. That’s something we really fixed from last year a lot.”
Elam sits in early contention for a number of individual accolades, but his attention lies solely on navigating the Gators back up I-75 and into Atlanta.
“I’ll do whatever to win,” Elam said. “Somebody say cut off my finger to win, I’m going to do it.”
While the UF defense was brutally mediocre in 2020, finishing outside the top-75 in yards allowed per play and per game, Florida achieved unprecedented success in the Dan Mullen era last season. The Gators reached its first SEC Championship game in 2015 and came within a touchdown of bringing Alabama’s star-studded locomotive to a screeching halt.
Both Diabate and Elam believe that last year’s contest against the Crimson Tide offered an important lesson to the Gators and offered experience competing on the conference’s biggest stage.
“It definitely gave us a good level of motivation,” Diabate said. “That’s something we can think about every day. We were six points away. Personally, I think about Najee Harris crossing my face, I think about that all the time. That’s something that we’re never going to forget.”
