When Jon Greenard transferred to Florida he was a relatively unknown prospect. He had played for Todd Grantham at Louisville and been productive but was coming off an injury that cost him the 2018 season.
What Greenard did in that one season will have his name talked about in Gator Nation for years.
Greenard stepped in right away and commanded respect in the locker room, becoming a leader in a room of new faces almost immediately. He led the SEC with 9.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss while tallying 52 tackles, including 27 solo stops, three forced fumbles, four pass breakups, and a fumble recovery he took back 80 yards for a touchdown. He was named a First Team All-SEC player by the league's coaches and the Associated Press.
Greenard was the first big success story the Florida Gators had come out of the transfer portal and soon started a run of other successful transfer portal pickups.
The latest in that line are two more defensive linemen — Auburn transfer Daquan Newkirk and Penn State transfer Antonio Valentino — who have garnered similar respect and praise among their teammates and coaches.
"When we added Jon Greenard, you know, to the outside backer room. At that time we had some young guys at outside backer, Jon came in and we had a top-10 defense and he showed those guys how to play, really became our leader," Grantham said of Greenard before comparing them to the two new players on the team.
"I look at these two guys being the same in the sense of they’ve got talent, they’ve got stoutness, they’ve got the ability to make plays, they can hold the point, they can make plays 1-on-1. But also their work ethic, their character, and all of that become contagious, and I think that that can breed into the habitual traits that we want from that unit and that group, so that’s the thing I think is great about having two veteran guys that have played snaps and have some maturity to them.”
Dan Mullen's philosophy when dipping into the transfer portal market is simple and honest. Recruiting out of the portal is much different than high school. In the portal players have been through a college program, they may only have a year or two left and those discussions are brutally honest. It may be as simple as hey, we have a need at your position, we have young players there but need a veteran. That was the case for Florida at defensive tackle and nose tackle. The Gators have some young talent at both spots but would have been green in 2021 without the addition of the two veterans.
Another talking point that Grantham brought up when speaking on the defensive struggles from the year was synergy. At times in 2020, the Florida defense looked like a group of 11 independent contractors rather than a team. Communication, or lack thereof, was a common theme. Having two veterans anchoring the interior line, along with redshirt senior middle linebacker Ventrell Miller, has helped that. Newkirk and Valentino have also ingratiated themselves with the linebacker by securing their guy and keeping the backers clean
"We didn’t have the luxury of having them two big boys in front of us last year," linebacker Mohamoud Diabate said. "Me and Ventrell, Burney, Ty’Ron Hopper, when were not able to flow freely and use our speed to our advantage and not have to work about getting off a block every run, then you guys will see the improvement in our play for sure. I’m very happy our coaches are able to get those two, because they’re going to be a big part of our defense.”
Can Valentino and Newkirk have the same kind of numbers that Greenard, an edge rusher, had? On paper, probably not but their impact on the defense as a whole could bring Florida's defense back up to the Gator standard.
