GAINESVILLE, Fla. – True freshman linebacker
Mohamoud Diabate won't forget his first start.
Neither will Vanderbilt quarterbacks
Deuce Wallace and
Allan Walters.
Wallace, making his starting debut as well, was sacked twice by Diabate. Meanwhile, in his first career appearance, Walters, the Commodores' scout-team quarterback forced into action because of injuries, got dropped by Diabate in the third quarter and fumbled.
Jonathan Greenard caught the ball on a bounce and raced 80 yards for a touchdown in Florida's 56-0 rout.
Diabate's three sacks were the most for a Florida player in five years, last accomplished during the 2014 season twice:
Bryan Cox Jr. at Tennessee and
Dante Fowler Jr. in the Birmingham Bowl. In fact, those are the only three games this decade a UF player has recorded three sacks in a game as the No. 10-ranked Gators (8-2, 5-2) prepare for Saturday's visit to Missouri (5-4, 2-3).
Replacing injured
Jeremiah Moon (foot) in the lineup, Diabate took full advantage of the extra playing time.
"He works really hard,'' teammate
Donovan Stiner said Monday. "He's a really smart guy, so he's really coachable. He pretty much does everything that Coach Grantham tells him. He got his shot and he made the best of it."
Diabate has appeared in all 10 games this season, but he didn't take snaps in crunch time until Moon went down with a foot injury in the loss to Georgia. At 6-foot-2, 213 pounds, Diabate still has room to grow physically. However, he is a disciplined student who arrived at UF with plans to major in chemical engineering.
Shortly after enrolling in January, Diabate
outlined his outlook heading into spring.
"Some of my goals I like to keep personal," he said. "Publicly, I just want to work hard. I don't want the coaches to ever question my effort or question if I love playing."
Diabate appears to be passing that test.
He made his presence known Saturday on the Commodores' second drive, sacking Wallace for a 10-yard loss on third-and-five from the 50. In the second quarter, Diabate dropped Wallace for a 7-yard loss on third-and-7. His biggest play came in the third quarter when he drilled Walters on his strip-sack and Greenard did the rest on the way to Florida's first defensive touchdown of the season.
UF defensive coordinator
Todd Grantham has watched Diabate improve as the season has progressed. Now everyone has.
"I think I was asked a couple of weeks ago about him, and I talked about his acceleration, burst and speed and athletic ability and said as he develops and continues to get stronger, he is going to be a really good player," Grantham said. "I think that kind of showed up in the game in the sense of he has the tools to have explosive-type plays, impact-type plays."
Diabate's handy work against Vanderbilt came on just 19 snaps.
"I'm just proud of the way the guy's worked and competed and has really stepped into the fire,'' Grantham said.
With Moon sidelined for the rest of the regular season, Diabate will continue to get significant reps as the Gators try to reach 10 wins for the second consecutive season under head coach
Dan Mullen.
Diabate earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors for his breakout performance against Vanderbilt.
"Mohamoud's a great example for guys,'' Mullen said. "I talk about this with our team: everybody gets worried about 'how many plays did I play? Who went in the game first? This guy played the first series and I didn't play until the third series? I only got this many snaps. I only got that many snaps.' Worry about the plays you're in the game. Don't worry about the plays you're not in the game. He played one of our fewer snap counts of guys on defense."
Diabate definitely made his count.Â
Â
