Defense Rights Itself at Tennessee
Sunday, October 5, 2014 | Football, Chris Harry
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Now, that's how you make corrections on defense.
Two weeks ago, the Florida Gators were statistically vaporized in a 672-yard shredding at the hands of Alabama. UF coach Will Muschamp and his staff used an open date and a week's run-up to Saturday's game against rival Tennessee to shore up communication issues and make some personnel changes in the secondary.
“We lost confidence coverage-wise,” Muschamp said.
Apparently, they found it again.
The result was a 439-yard improvement in Saturday's 10-9 defeat of the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium. The Gators put great pressure on Volunteers quarterback Justin Worley, sacking him six times, limited UT to just 29 yards rushing and forced a pair of interceptions, including a game-icing pick from safety Keanu Neal with 51 seconds to go.
“We had to come out and be on point on defense this week,” sophomore linebacker Jarrad Davis said. “We didn't know how the game would go, but we were going to do whatever we had to do and be physical doing it.”
A revamped seconday, with true freshman Jalen Tabor at cornerback and Duke Dawson at safety, was one of the starting points. A finishing point, too. Tabor, the five-star prospect from Washington, D.C., had a triple-crown corner blitz late in the third quarter, when he sacked Worley, stripped him and recovered a fumble at the UT 30-yard. The Gators scored eight plays later.
"He stepped up and made an awesome play," Davis said. "He played big the whole day. He was physical, he was tough and now we'll look for even more out of him."
The Tennessee offense managed just three field goals despite four trips inside the Florida 20-yard line. That fourth trip came after UF quarterback Jeff Driskel's first pass of the second half was tipped and intercepted by linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who returned the ball to the Gators' 13.
On the next play, UF sophomore cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III dove and picked off Worley in the end zone to cancel out Driskel's miscue.
"We were just juiced up,” said sophomore defensive end Bryan Cox Jr., another youngster who seemingly arrived on the scene, erupting for three sacks in the game. “I feel like when you're backed up, that's an opportunity for the defense to be great. There was no 'woe is me' or heads down. None of that. We were just like, 'OK, we're going to go out and get a stop.' We were very confident in our abilities and we just felt like we can get the stop every time we get out there."
And don't think that mentality -- and the overall play of the defense -- was lost on the quarterback who just may have lost his job after being benched for true freshman Treon Harris. If anything, Driskel was grateful for his counterparts having his back.
“It's tough when the defense is playing that good and you can't get anything going on offense,” Driskel said. “But we have confidence in our defense to make plays. Offensively, we have to pull it together.”
The offense should take a cue from the other side of the ball.
The Florida defense gave up more than 1,100 yards combined in its first two Southeastern Conference games; 450 against Kentucky, then then the debacle at 'Bama. The blown assignments that were supposed to be fixed after the triple-overtime escape against Wildcats manifested themselves in even more glaring fashion against the powerful Crimson Tide.
“A lot of people doubted us after the Alabama game,” Neal said.
Amid that skepticism, the Gators went to work, mostly by simplifying reads at the line of scrimmage (thus eliminating confusion with changing defense on the fly), honing their communications, and resigning themselves to just living with a call -- even a bad look -- by trusting in the players' athleticism and skills.
That trust was rewarded against the Vols.
“We had two weeks to prepare, so it's not like we're the '85 Bears. Let's not jump to conclusions here,” Muschamp said. “We have a long way to go, but again, like I said before the season, athletically I think we're going to be fine. We can't make mistakes like busting a coverage and not rolling to the middle of the field like we did against Alabama and some of the knucklehead things we've certainly done in four games.”
The three previous games, actually.
Not much "knucklehead" stuff went on Saturday.
“We had to give those guys some big applause at the end of the game,” junior offensive tackle D.J. Humphries said. “They're the reason we're here with the win right now. That was big time.”
