GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Now that signing day is over the Gators will turn their attention to spring practice to begin preparation for next season. One position that will have some figuring out to do is the secondary, both on the field and on the sideline.
New cornerbacks coach Torrian Gray joins safeties coach Ron English to further improve a talented and young secondary that only gave up 180.77 yards a game last season and a total of 16 touchdowns.
Entering last season the biggest question with this group was depth and inexperience. When Marco Wilson went down, that concern only escalated. However, the Gators made it through the season and even excelled thanks to guys stepping up and filling the voids.
This season is expected to be even better. Florida heads into the offseason with much-needed added depth as they finish up a great recruiting class to go along with the experience they bring back and coach Gray is ready to jump into the fold.
“Definitely excited to coach the guys that are in the cornerback group,” Gray said. You’ve got Marco Wilson, C.J. Henderson, those guys are obviously the bell cow. Familiar with those guys before I left.
“And to see the guys we just got, that give us some depth, the freshmen guys. Chris Steele, Jaydon Hill, Kimbrough. I can’t talk about a certain name yet. But Trey Dean. It’s a very talented, talented group. I’m extremely excited to be able to work with these guys.”
When you add newcomer to the class Kaiir Elam to the mix at corner to go along with the last bit of depth in Brian Edwards and C.J. McWilliams you have a much deeper and even more talented group of corners for 2019.
At safety Hill and Kimbrough could help bolster a solid group that features Brad Stewart, Donovan Stiner, Shawn Davis, Jeawon Taylor, Amari Burney, John Huggins, Quincey Lenton and as for right now David Reese as well as he is still listed as a defensive back.
Most of the starting spots around the secondary are filled already, but one is wide open. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson had his best season as a Gator last year at nickel but elected to head to the NFL following the Peach Bowl victory, leaving a void in an important spot.
Now Mullen, Gray and English have to find his replacement, and it seems like they already have someone in mind.
“Trey's a guy we're going to looking to move to the star position potentially to fill that void that Chauncey's leaving us moving forward which leaves an opportunity at corner for us to have guys that we need to go get reps for,” Mullen said Wednesday.
With Wilson’s return from injury Dean’s movement makes sense. However, Wilson isn’t quite 100 percent yet and could be limited to begin spring ball. That leaves reps to be had and opportunities for young guys coming in to step up.
“Chris has done a really good job since he's been here and especially with the opportunity to enroll early for him is going to get him invaluable experience,” Mullen said.
“When you look, especially with Marco still going to be coming back in spring, and not a hundred percent, he's going to have an opportunity to very much run with the 1s.
“If you would have asked me this time last year do you think Trey Dean's going to start ten games or 11 games for you as a true freshman at the corner position? Probably would have said, boy, that would be a stretch for us, but the opportunity he would have would be there for him to get that experience and get ready to go play.
“I think Chris walks into that same situation right now where, because of some injuries, because of how we're going to move some things around, with the departure of Chauncey at the star position for us, that Chris is going to have that opportunity to get reps that are going to prepare him to be ready to go play.”
For the most part the secondary will look fairly similar to how it did last year on its nose. The added depth is what the Gators were looking for and they executed that plan extremely well.
The big storylines and players to pay attention to this spring are Dean’s transition to nickel, Wilson’s return from injury, Steele’s development and how the rest of the new enrollees transition to the college game.
Gray walks in to a secondary that has already built up a great reputation even though they are young and the new guys are in for a rude awakening if they are not ready to live up to that billing.
“I know when I went down to watch the guys work in the weight room I was really impressed with just their intensity and their effort and those type of things like that,” Gray said of his first time seeing the group. “I was like, 'Wow, this is pretty neat to be able to see those guys work down there.'"
