By: Gentry Hawk -- August 14, 2023 Last season, the Gators’ secondary was arguably the least productive unit this program has seen in recent years. Players were constantly out of position and rarely in sync from a communication standpoint. Florida gave up 235.8 passing yards a game last year, ranking 84th among all FBS programs, according to the NCAA. The lack of depth didn’t help and made it difficult for the Gators to find continued success in 2022. New defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong and assistant coach Corey Raymond look to put an end to the Gators’ struggles after adding six scholarship freshmen and an experienced safety in RJ Moten. Communication in the secondary improving through fall camp | GatorCountry.com
The secondary was a little hard to watch last year. Another year under their belt, being coached up and adding some great additions should help considerably. I hope we have some ball-hawking disruptive kids causing havoc this year. Go Gators.
This will be music to a lot of our ears: Playing and lining up in press man has been something that many Gator fans have been waiting to see from this secondary for some time. Armstrong feels confident in this team’s ability to play more press man coverage in 2023. “Yeah, absolutely, cause you know, it’s disruptive, to throw the timing off for the quarterback, things like that,” Kimber said. “Being up in guys’ faces more can really just cause a lot of disruptions for the receivers and for the quarterback as well.” The addition of an experienced transfer has also helped the safeties in terms of communication and lining up correctly. Simplifying the defense is something RJ Moten does very well.
when your starting safety (T Dean) runs a 4.75 sec 40 (slowest at the NFL combine out of 18 safeties) and he couldn't tackle, they were destined to be hard to watch. I recall one writer saying that he was due for a break-out year last year. I think he's still due.
Gonna be hard replacing 12th year senior Trey Dean but I’m confident Raymond can find a way to replace his production!
