Florida Gators Defense Continues to Correct Course

With all of the talk around the quarterback, its easy to overlook how far the defense has come along with this season

The Gators defense has been on a roll since the first few weeks of the season / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Much of the noise surrounding the Florida Gators last season was how poor the defense was and the effort on the field. As a result, head coach Billy Napier was forced to let go of two staffers on that side of the ball and find suitable replacements to help correct this problem. 

Unfortunately for Napier and his team, this narrative continued to follow him through the first four games of this year. The Gators were just 2-2 to begin the season, and it looked like they were going down a similar path defensively having given up an average of 27.3 opponent points per game. 

The only reason that number wasn’t higher is because they played against Samford, who only scored seven points. When pitted against Power 4 opponents, it gave up 41 points to Miami, 33 to Texas A&M and 28 to a poor Mississippi State team. 

Additionally, the defense only generated eight sacks through their first four games of the season – including a zero-sack outing against Texas A&M and one sack versus Miami – and forced only three turnovers (two fumbles and one interception).

Since then though, the Gators have been on a different level. The defense has racked up 22 sacks over their last seven games, which brings their season total to 30. These 30 sacks have them tied for 23rd nationally in total team sacks. This is also the most in a season for the Gators since the 2021 season where they had 37 and this team still has two games to go.

As for the turnovers, they now sit tied for 37th in the country for the most passes intercepted with 11 total on the season. The players on the back end of the Gators' defense have turned into high-flying ball hawks following their first bye week of the season. They’ve come down with 10 interceptions in these seven games, which includes three-interception games against Georgia and Kentucky each. 

One area that has only marginally improved since the first four games are the points. They’ve gone from allowing 27.3 points to 24.6 points per game. However, of the 172 points allowed during this period, 83 of them were surrendered to Georgia and Texas. 

The one common factor among these two games was that DJ Lagway was missing for most or all of both, which led to the offense quickly coming off the field on almost every possession and tiring out the defense. 

Still, though, that doesn’t mean the defense hasn’t been dominant in keeping their opponents out of the endzone. In fact, the Gators currently hold the No. 12 red zone defense in the country. They are only allowing opponents to score 74.3 percent of the time once they hit the 20-yard line. This is also an important stat as it is how they beat Ole Miss last weekend. The Gators' defense held the Rebels' offense to zero scores in three trips to the red zone, including two fourth-down stops. 

So, while the Gators' defense maybe didn’t have the best of starts, it’s not how you start, it's how you finish and they're finishing pretty strong.