Grantham optimistic success will come by sticking to same game plan
Florida’s double bye could lead to some personnel changes on defense, but not a change in philosophy or scheme.
UF coach Dan Mullen vowed to reevaluate the unit following the Texas A&M loss and spent extra time in the defensive staff meeting that Sunday.
Despite the eye-opening struggles through three games, it’s clear that third-year DC Todd Grantham believes in his X’s and O’s.
“It’s no different than when I was at Mississippi State when we were 10th in the country and last year when we were 10th. We really haven’t changed,” Grantham said. “At the end of the day, it's about getting lined up and playing with physicality. We talked about doing your job and consistently giving effort on each play.
“We really haven't changed anything and what we're doing. I personally think we actually have made better answers than say two years ago to certain things. We’ve just got to continue to work and let that success come about.”
While the coaches have remained confident in the defense’s ability to start performing at a higher level, the numbers haven’t showcased that early in 2020.
The Gators are currently ranked 13th in the SEC in total defense. They've given up 100 points in three contests, a glaring 495 yards of total offense per game and allowed nearly 29 first downs per game.
Florida's defense only gave up 23 touchdowns through 13 games in 2019, and this year’s unit has already surrendered 13 scores in 12 quarters.
A handful of starters from the past two seasons are still on the team in Shawn Davis, Donovan Stiner, Marco Wilson and now Kyree Cambell, who will make his 2020 debut Saturday. Obviously losing Jabari Zuniga and Jonathan Greenard has hurt the pass rush, while the absences of David Reese II in the run game and CJ Henderson in coverage hasn't been easy to replace either.
Overall, this defense has seemed to lack the identity and physicality of Grantham’s previous units.
“We want to play to the standard that we have the last two years,” he said. “(The double bye) allowed us to go through kind of a self-scout deal, look at things we’ve done, the players that we have available, which we always try to do to say, ‘What are the best match-ups for us to be successful?’
“And really try to implement the players we’ve got relative to that. It’s really about a match-up, trying to get our best 11 relevant to the situation on the field to be successful.”
According to Grantham, he’s preached the importance of players improving their physicality, giving better effort and executing their assignments. That’ll be key against a Missouri team that can confuse opposing defenses with odd formations and a plethora of shifts at the line of scrimmage.
“No. 1, we have to improve our physicality, and I don’t just mean in the front. I’m talking about across the board in everything we do. That means tighter coverage, contested, physical at the point, just really improve our physicality as a defense in general,” Grantham said. “And then the next thing is as opportunities present themselves, we’ve got to make plays.
“And the last thing is play with energy and effort. ... I’ve been pleased with the two days of practice that we’ve had. And just try to emphasize the physicality, making plays when they’re there to make, and just doing our job and always playing with the effort and physicality that we've kind of set for the last two years to be successful. As we do those things, plays will come.”