Allowing 445 passing yards certainly isn’t good.

For a highly-regarded defense like Florida’s, maybe it could be considered an anomaly. But allowing 445 passing yards one week after surrendering 369 yards to Kentucky at home should be a warning sign.

And head coach Will Muschamp sees those signs clearly. The fourth-year head coach explained Wednesday that the secondary’s performance has been simply unacceptable and the coaching staff is looking to shake things up.

“We’re looking at lot of different guys in different spots,” Muschamp said. “We can’t continue to do the same things. The mistakes that we’ve made back there in some situations are inexcusable. “It’s on me. We’ll get it fixed.”

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The Gators secondary led by All-American cornerback Vernon Hargreaves was looked at as a young, but talented group of players heading into the season. Following the early departures of key guys from the 2013 secondary – Cody Riggs, Loucheiz Purifoy and Marcus Roberson – Muschamp was forced to inject some youth into his secondary.

At this point in the season, it appears the current group of guys just aren’t playing up to Muschamp’s standards. Florida has allowed 287.7 passing yards per game this season, good for 12th in the SEC.

“We’re not playing very well in the slot. Brian [Poole] played the first game there and played well. Marcus [Maye] hasn’t played as well as we need in the slot,” Muschamp said about some of the current starters.

The poor performances by some of the secondary has forced Muschamp to consider alternatives at those positions. According to the head coach, some of the Gators’ heralded 2014 secondary recruits could become a bigger part of the secondary rotation sooner rather than later.

“I think that Jalen Tabor and Quincy Wilson continue to improve at corner,” Muschamp explained. “We need to give them some more opportunities. Duke Dawson is a guy, athletically, that we’re bringing on as quickly as we can, too.”

“The issue with young players…in order to gain confidence they have to practice well. They got to practice well on Monday, but then they got to practice well on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,” Muschamp added. “So what happens to you as a coach with a guy that’s never been out in front of 90,000 people he goes out and has five busted assignments in critical situations on a Tuesday practice, what’s he going to do in front of 90,000 people?”

Unfortunately, as Muschamp as witnessed, busted assignments have had far too great of a presence in the Gators’ secondary this season. Against Kentucky, true freshman wide receiver Garrett Johnson took advantage of two busted assignments by Jabari Gorman and Keanu Neal by scoring two long touchdowns for the Wildcats.

Despite Muschamp claiming these communication breakdowns were “easily correctable” they appeared again in Florida’s next game. This time against Alabama and star wide receiver Amari Cooper, who burned the Gators for 201 receiving yards and three touchdowns, one of which came on a 79-yard reception that left Cooper wide open in the middle of the field.

Muschamp believes installing some competition at the secondary positions will do the players some good.

“I think it always helps when you have competition at a position. It’s the human condition of understand I have to go out and play well.”

But just who will be on the chopping block up until the Gators take on Tennessee next week? Well, pretty much everyone except Hargreaves.

“That’s what I’ve told them.”