In the wake of a season-ending injury to Jaydon Hill, Gators cornerbacks coach Jules Montinar is working to get younger players such as Corey Collier Jr., left, and Ethan Pouncey up to speed in preseason camp. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
Offseason of Change, Opportunity Continues for Gators' Secondary
Friday, August 13, 2021 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The recurring theme emerged as soon as they walked off the field following their disheartening loss to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl and continued throughout the spring and now into preseason camp.
The Gators vowed to move on and fix what ailed the secondary during a 2020 season of contrasts: a record-setting offense led by Heisman-finalist quarterback Kyle Trask often neutralized by a record-setting defense that surrendered 30.8 points a game.
The offensive records that fell a season ago were celebrated, the defensive records vilified.
"We're trying to bring back DBU,'' junior cornerback Kaiir Elam said. "Not just the saying — we're actually trying to prove every single day and every single practice. We're not the Gator Standard if we're not a top-five defense. That's just that."
The Gators likely would be content with a top-10 or top-20 defense this season after finishing 83rd overall last season by surrendering 428 yards per game. The pass defense ranked 100th (257.5 ypg), with only Arkansas State (33) allowing more touchdown passes than Florida's school-record 28.
As the Sept. 4 season opener gets closer, the UF secondary remains arguably the most uncertain position group for head coach Dan Mullen and his staff. Four veterans from last season – cornerback Marco Wilson and safeties Donovan Stiner, Shawn Davis and Brad Stewart Jr. – have departed, creating ample opportunity for newcomers and untested young players.
That reality was muddied this week when Mullen announced that junior cornerback Jaydon Hill, projected to start opposite Elam, suffered a season-ending left knee injury in a non-contact drill. Hill played in 12 games a season ago and started five, but the door was open for the 6-foot, 182-pound Hill to make a bigger impact.
"Massive disappointment,'' Mullen said. "He's worked his tail off to earn everything he's gotten here."
The day before the team's first practice of camp, Hill shared his outlook on being a potential target of opposing teams with Elam on the other side of the field.
"I want that,'' he said. "I like for that to be the case. I want teams to come at me. That's what I've been working for."
Redshirt freshman cornerback Avery Helm is a player who has a chance to make a statement for playing time with a strong preseason camp. (Photo: Courtney Culbreath/UAA Communications)
Instead, Hill must turn his energy toward the rehabilitation of his torn ACL – he suffered the same injury to his right knee in high school – and focus on getting back on the field in 2022.
While the loss of Hill in Sunday's practice put a damper on the first week of camp, the Gators have options via the transfer portal and underclassmen vying for an expanded role. First-year cornerbacks coach Jules Montinar, who joined the program in the spring after Mullen revamped the coaching staff by adding Montinar and veteran assistant Wesley McGriff to replace Torrian Gray and Ron English in the secondary, is busy taking a look at as many combinations as possible.
The competition is wide open according to Mullen.
"There'll be a bunch of guys,'' he said. "You're still in training camp. There's going to be a lot of opportunities for guys coming in. There's going to be some of those young guys that might just get a little more opportunity than they were expecting at this point."
Two newcomers at cornerback with experience are transfers Jadarrius Perkins (Missouri) and Elijah Blades (Texas A&M). A 6-foot-1, 182-pound junior, Perkins spent two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and the spring at Missouri before entering the transfer portal and landing with the Gators earlier this summer. Meanwhile, Blades announced his arrival at UF this week on social media. He played in six games at Texas A&M in 2019 and sat out last season to recover from shoulder surgery.
Veteran defensive back Trey Dean, a senior expected to start at safety, also has experience at cornerback. Dean was part of Florida defenses that finished 28th in the country in 2018 and ninth overall in 2019. He is determined to finish his career on a unit that rebounds from the disappointing performance of a year ago.
"Last year's in the past,'' Dean said. "Our secondary as a whole is a really great unit. Ain't no doubt in my mind we can be the best secondary in the country, especially with a lot of people added to it. We're going to be able to create depth and become stronger."
Fourth-year defensive coordinator Todd Grantham's charge is to turn the talent into production on the field. Grantham said the Gators are in much better position to succeed this season after getting to go through spring camp and then stay on campus throughout summer conditioning unlike last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, providing the opportunity to build synergy and chemistry.
While Grantham said a large factor in a defensive turnaround will start with the time-honored quest to pressure the quarterback with the front seven and make him uncomfortable, there's no question the secondary has to cover better and communicate more efficiently for the defense to improve as a whole.
The Gators made significant changes to make that happen.
"We've added two coaches on the backend,'' he said. "We went through a pretty extensive thought process and researched. Coach McGriff is a guy I've known for a long time. He's a very good teacher. He's very good [at] confront-and-demand to make sure guys do it the right way.
"Coach Montinar, he's been in this system before, both at Alabama and Georgia. He understands systematically how we play things and why we play things a certain way. He brings a lot of energy to the field with his players, holds them accountable and the guys like to play for him. We look forward to showing improvement."
