Gators' Grantham Talks Defensive Success Against Mizzou, Credits Players
It hasn't been pretty for the Florida Gators defense this season, however, in its 41-17 victory over the Missouri Tigers on Sunday, it seemed as though a switch flipped, resulting in its best defensive performance of the season, by far.
While he's been under fire due to the way the defense has performed, giving up an average of 33.33 points-per-game over the first three weeks of the season, defensive coordinator Todd Grantham's defense had the showing he and the team had always expected before the season began, and today, he credited the players for their efforts.
"I really think that came about because of our ability to have certain guys available, and by having those guys available it gave us flexibility to play guys in some natural positions," said Grantham on Tuesday.
"Really the guys did a good job of playing physical and then executing the game plan, and that allowed them to make plays. The credit needs to go to the players and the ability to have some guys available that gave us the flexibility to play guys where they need to be playing."
One of the players that were made available on Saturday that hadn't been was defensive lineman Kyree Campbell. Campbell, 6-foot-4, 295 pounds, entered the season as the team's projected starter at nose tackle, however, he wasn't made available by the team for the first three weeks of the season, resulting in players having to do more, some even playing out of position at times.
With Campbell's presence, Grantham says, it allowed BUCK linebacker Brenton Cox to get back to being more of an outside linebacker than a defensive end. This resulted in much-better production and impact players from Cox himself, and as a result, the Gators defense.
"We played with bigger-body guys and that physical presence allowed us to be pretty stout against the run.”
On Saturday, the Gators were able to hold the Tigers to just 17 points, three points by the starting defense with 14 points coming off of an offensive turnover and allowed in the final minutes of the game when Florida played many backups, including freshmen. The team allowed just 53 yards on 9 out of 11 of the drives taken by the starting defense.
The Gators allowed just 40 yards rushing on 23 rushes (1.7 yards-per-carry), the best run-defense performance by Florida thus far this season.
Putting players in a position to succeed has been a hot-button topic over the course of the season, and on Saturday, it appeared the team was able to do just that.
"It always goes back to, who's available, and how do you get your best 11 players on the field," Grantham said. "So you kind of take that and build your game plan around that. And, you know, we took the guys that were available in the last game and we're able to, you know, move some guys around to give us some physical presence and do those things."
Moving forward, look for the Gators to continue to try to put players in the best position to succeed, especially against the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday.
