U-M'S NEXT OPPONENT: Gators’ defense coming of age
Time will tell, but Florida coaches and players hope that this time next year they will be point to the 45-12 win against Florida State in the 2007 regular season finale as a turning point for a defensive unit that struggled most of the season.
“I can’t say enough about our defense,” Gators coach Urban Meyer said after that win. “They’ve grown up. That was the first time I’ve noticed the defense growing up on us out there.”
Florida (9-3) plays Michigan (8-4) in the Capital One Bowl next Tuesday. The Gators, who arrive in Orlando Wednesday to start bowl workouts, allowed just 287 total yards and no touchdowns against the Seminoles. They’ll try to build on that showing against the Wolverines and keep the momentum going for 2008.
“The last couple of performances from the defense I’ve been kind of satisfied with it,” said linebacker Brandon Spikes, who had 10 tackles against FSU and is second in the Southeastern Conference in total tackles with an average of 9.83 per game. “But there’s always room for improvement so I think we’ll be ready next year.”
One of the most pleasant surprises against FSU was cornerback Jacques Rickerson, a redshirt freshman.
“This is, I guess you could say, one of the stepping stones for what is coming up sooner or later,” Rickerson said. “Most of us out there right now are young and we’re just losing like two seniors off our defense, basically our whole defense is coming back so this is kind of a preview of what’s going to happen.”
“Jacques played really well,” UF co-defensive coordinator Charlie Strong said. “We always have a joke, don’t go to sleep on a certain player. We always talk about don’t go to sleep on Jacques because we knew he would come at some point and he came (against FSU).”
Strong agrees Florida may look back at the FSU win as the start of an improved defense.
“You look at it, we played so many young guys and now that they’ve played enough games there’s no more youth and you just feel like now that we can get enough players established to where we can get two-deep,” Strong said. “What we all want to do now is get into next year where we feel like at a certain position where we’re weak, we should not be weak.
”You look at the linebacker position with (A.J.) Jones and (Brandon) Hicks, now they’ve played a lot. So now you’re looking at Jones, Hicks, Spikes, (Dustin) Doe, you have enough guys where you can play at least six guys at that position and even in the defensive line and in the secondary.“
Florida allowed FSU to convert just three of 12 third down plays. Stopping teams on third down had been a trouble area all season.
”That’s the key, when you talk about just getting stops,“ Strong said. ”Guys were able to get stops and get off the field on third down (against Florida State) and the more you do it, it is the confidence. It continues to build.“
Of course, Michigan isn’t the same type of team as the Seminoles. The Wolverines will pound the ball more and be more physical. But there’s little question the Gators’ defenders are looking at this game as a potential turning point for the unit.
A strong showing against Michigan could give the Gators the momentum they need heading into the offseason and summer.
”I was a little disappointed in February last year,“ Meyer said. ”Februarys around here, it’s all business, and it’s real hard. And I think the fact that the ’06 recruiting class came in here and experienced the national championship (the first year) then all of a sudden they’re getting thrown around the weight room like that, there were a couple of people saying, ’Why are we doing this?’ Now they know.“
Three losses taught the young UF team that success isn’t guaranteed. That makes a strong showing in Orlando all the more important.
”We went through a period where we got a little bit down on ourselves but we took something from each loss and we took something from each experience that I think made us stronger at the end,“ said Doe, the sophomore linebacker.
The Gators will find out if that’s true in about a week.
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