GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Jonathan Greenard joked last week that he was gunning for CJ Henderson's spot, well Henderson may have to watch his back.

One week after recording three pass breakups, Greenard recorded an interception.

“It was fun, all the fans going crazy," said Greenard about the pick. "Sad because I didn’t get to the end zone, but at the end of the day I’m still on the stat sheet and it felt really good."

"We have so many injuries right now. He's stepped up," Gators head coach Dan Mullen said in his post game press conference. "He plays with great effort and great passion. He's becoming a leader in the defense. He's had to shine and hopefully now moving forward we start getting some guys back and we become a more complete defense."

Greenard has made his mission to fill in the holes left by those unable to play due to injuries.

“From a production standpoint I just want to fill in that gap because he [Henderson] was missing," he explained. "We got guys who can make plays, don’t put too much pressure, but guys that can do really good things for us. Just doing my job is all that I can do, it’s all about control and everything else from there will fall into place.”

The fifth-year defender has certainly stepped up, and opposing quarterback have felt the wrath of Greenard.

So far in 2019, he is second on the team with 22 tackles (11 solo), leads the team with four sacks, and has recorded one interception, three pass breakups and four quarterback hurries.

"Jon is kind of the bell-cow of the group," said defensive line coach David Turner. "I mean he has an advantage because he’s been in coach [Todd] Grantham’s defense for an extended period of time, and he understands it. But he’s kind of the bell-cow of the group, he kind of gets everybody going.”

Mullen has voiced the team's need for an 'Alpha Dog' to take control. Greenard has certainly made the case.

"I think Jon Greenard is better at being vocal," said Mullen." Now he's comfortable being on the team and making plays and being in games, is a guy that's not afraid to jump up and talk to everybody. So I think there are guys growing into it."

The Gators defense will need to take it to another level this week with Auburn in town on Saturday.

They certainly cannot afford any slow starts this upcoming Saturday.

In Saturday's shut out win, the Gators struggled to contain Towson's Tom Flacco, failing to tackle the quarterback when he took off on a run.

“We knew that the quarterback, he’s a really good player. I think the kid was averaging like seven yards a carry at his conference, in his division," explained Greenard. "They were no slaps at all by any means. We had to work for it. Sometimes, we kind of play down to our competition. No disrespect to them, but we knew that we had better players. But, overall, we just knew that sometimes we can play down. But I know when we play better teams in the future, that can’t happen, and I know we’ll play up then.”

Todd Grantham's defense has done well adjusting within a game, only allowing 17 points through five games in the second half and only seven points in the fourth

“The crazy part is honestly we see that, but we look at the details and small parts and missed assignments because we’re really tough on ourselves," said Greenard. "The results will come once we clean those up, and that’s what we expect of ourselves. We hold ourselves to a high standard, the school holds us to a high standard, the coaches hold us to a high standard. So, the small details, it’s not perfect, and that’s not what we want. For the defense as a whole and the team, we’ve got to step it up.”

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