Collins Urges Gators Defense to Get 'Above the Line'
Wednesday, March 25, 2015 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida fans can relate to what head coach Jim McElwain and his offensive staff have witnessed the first 10 days of spring camp.
The defense, at least for now, has the upper hand. It's been that way for five years now around these parts.
McElwain saw it at Tuesday's practice when the Gators turned up the intensity during third-down drills.
The defense won more than it lost.
"They got off the field, which is what they're supposed to do,'' McElwain said. "On the flip side of that coin, we've got to stay on the field offensively. Those are some of the Catch 22s that happen when you go through spring ball."
Of course, this revelation was accompanied by a 'wow factor' similar to news of the sun rising or Kim Kardashian tweeting about herself to those who have watched the Gators in recent years.
If the Gators have done nothing else, they have played defense at a very high level.
New defensive coordinator Geoff Collins wants it to stay that way.
"The expectations are fine with me,'' Collins said. "We have high expectations in our room. We want to be one of the best defenses in the country."
Defensive backs Vernon Hargreaves III and Marcus Maye add experience. (Photo: Tim Casey)
As the first assistant hired by McElwain after he was named Florida's head coach in early December, Collins left his post as Mississippi State's defensive coordinator to start studying his new team.
That allowed him an opportunity to watch Florida practice during its Birmingham Bowl prep under interim head coach D.J. Durkin, also the team's defensive coordinator the past two seasons.
Collins immediately realized why the Gators had been so successful defensively under former head coach Will Muschamp.
The Gators had recruited well and developed well on the defensive side.
In his short time in charge of the unit, Collins has focused on implementing his defensive scheme -- one with many similarities to what Florida used under Muschamp -- and bridge the gap between differences in terminology from the old and new.
"I had a good feel of how they all worked collectively, how they worked together, how much talent they had,'' Collins said. "We try to make the learning curve as easy as possible for those kids so they can play fast.
"We'll make a stretch call or whatever it may be, those kids understand and aren't having to have brand new learning. They already have the basics of it, and then we could just put tweaks in it. I think the kids appreciate that."
The strength of the defense is the secondary, where the only loss is safety Jabari Gorman.
With All-SEC cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III back, as well as experienced veterans such as safeties Marcus Maye and Keanu Neal, and nickel back Brian Poole, Collins and McElwain have been impressed at just how talented the group is.
"It gives us a lot of flexibility in what we do,'' Collins said. "One of the best things about them is that group is highly competitive, they love playing football and they're unselfish. They pull for each other. It's a fun group to be around.”
Besides teaching the players a new scheme, Collins is trying to get across his approach. In a perfect world, Collins said he would like to rotate 10 defensive linemen, eight linebackers, and 10 defensive backs on game day.
He urges the players to be one of those guys "above the line" -- a regular in the rotation.
The most pressing issue is a lack of depth at linebacker this spring with two projected starters -- Antonio Morrison and Jarrad Davis -- out rehabbing knee injuries.
Collins said Tuesday that the young group of Alex Anzalone, Matt Rolin, Daniel McMillian and Jeremi Powell have shown flashes and are playing faster each day.
To help the transition, Collins is adapting to some of the terminologies the players are used to instead of forcing his terminology into every aspect of the transition.
"It's kind of like teaching them a new language," he said. "It's easier for me to learn, you know, than 22 other guys."
While McElwain certainly expects the offense to close the gap by the end of spring and in the fall, there's no mystery as to why the defense has dominated some of the early practices. The experience factor weighs heavily.
The Gators hold their first scrimmage of the spring on Saturday.
"There's some really good players on that side of the ball,'' McElwain said. "And part of what they're doing is similar. There is a lot of the things come from the kind of the same tree, so to say, and obviously some of the nomenclature is a little different here and there, but overall it's a very similar style of defense.”
Collins said the Gators installed around eight new blitz packages on Tuesday. So every day is something new. The one area he wants the defense to improve upon is situational awareness.
That's what spring practice is for and the Gators are getting full doses of new information each day. Collins is also experimenting with several personnel groupings to help communication. He used the same approach at Mississippi State.
Collins knows he has talent to work with, which automatically raises expectations.
"The big thing, though, is to work with that every single day to make sure that those expectations are something that if we don't work at it, then it's not going to happen,'' he said. "That's the big key for us."
