The Florida Gators have hit their midseason bye week, coming off a tough home loss to LSU last Saturday night.

The Gators are 4-3, with 1 great win over current No. 15 Utah in The Swamp and 3 respectable losses, to LSU, No. 3 Tennessee and No. 19 Kentucky. Florida is 1-3 in SEC play and, with Georgia on tap next, appears set to fall to 1-4, which would be the program’s worst SEC start since 1979, when the Gators went 0-10-1 overall.

Florida plays Texas A&M in College Station following the Georgia game as well, which means a 4-5, 1-5 start to the Billy Napier era appears probable — unless Napier can buck the trend of Florida coaches losing to teams coached by Jimbo Fisher.

That doesn’t mean that Year 1 of the Napier era has lacked positives. Florida’s offensive line grades out as the SEC’s best unit, and while the Gators were bizarrely left off the Joe Moore Award (best offensive line) midseason semifinalists list, they have at least 2 surefire All-SEC players in that unit in O’Cyrus Torrence at guard and revelatory freshman Austin Barber at tackle. Florida’s running backs have also been tremendous, and rank 3rd in the nation in yards per carry and 2nd in explosive plays. 

It’s a different story on defense.

Florida has struggled terribly — so much so that the focus and future of Napier’s rebuild in Gainesville depends, in the main, on resuscitating respectable defense at a program that has finished in the top 10 and top 20 nationally in total defense more than any other program in the country this century outside of Alabama. The Gators are miles away from that type of defense now, but they aren’t without bright spots.

Ventrell Miller would be a 1st-team All American if Florida’s defense were remotely competent. He has been magnificent, and deserves better.  It’s hard to imagine Miller playing a bowl game, so Florida fans should cherish their final 5 chances to see him play live.

The Gators also have depth and quality at corner, with 2 defensive backs (Jason Marshall Jr. and Jalen Kimber) ranking in Pro Football Focus’ top 50 corners in mid-October. A 3rd corner, Avery Helm, slots in the top 150. That’s not bad for a defense that has to leave corners on islands constantly to try to stop the run.

In any event, Year 1 is about foundations, and Florida is building a solid one, on and off the field, under Napier. The defense? It needs work.

Here are midseason report card grades for each Florida defensive position group as the Gators prepare for the 2nd half of their season.

Defensive line: C-

There’s too much talent on this unit for it to be this “average.” The problems start at tackle, which has been the case since Taven Bryan departed for the NFL after the 2017 season.

Desmond “Mount” Watson has outplayed 5-star senior Gervon Dexter Sr., at least based on the Pro Football Focus grading system, which ranks Watson almost 100 slots higher among interior defensive linemen. In fairness to Dexter, he has played more than 150 more snaps than Watson, and he faces consistent double teams, as opposing teams respect his natural ability inside as a guy both with a quality burst toward the quarterback and the brute strength needed to contain and hold rushing lanes in run defense. The double teams on Dexter deserve better outcomes for the Florida defense, and that’s not Dexter’s fault. Still, co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Sean Spencer would love to see more productivity from Dexter. The best tackles impact the game schematically and produce statistically. Dexter is coming off his best game of the year, an 8-tackle, 1-tackle-for-loss effort against LSU. But he has made only 29 tackles this season, has a terribly low 2 tackles for loss on the year and has deflected just 1 ball despite his height and build. He can play better, and until he does, he won’t improve on his current late-2nd/early-3rd-round NFL Draft projection.

Tyreak Sapp and Chris McClellan, both blue-chip recruits, have been up and down, but McClellan seems to have the brighter upside on film. He gets a nice push and maintains good leverage, and he has a nice athletic burst that has led to 2 tackles for loss (tying Dexter!) and 1 sack. There’s upside here for 2023, but elite ceiling only if Dexter, who is a father now and may be satisfied with 3rd-round NFL slot money, elects to return.

At defensive end, the Gators have 2 solid performers in Princely Umanmielen and senior edge defender Brenton Cox Jr.

While Cox continues to take absurd angles at times in his effort to make big plays, some of that is likely coaching — when you are on a defense that struggles, big plays matter. Cox could make safe plays with better angles, and while he has improved as a run defender since arriving in Gainesville, his NFL money will only come as a 3rd-down pass rush specialist. Cox’s preseason goal was to break Alex Brown’s 23-year-old school record for sacks in a season (13), but he has managed just 2 through 7 games. He does lead the Gators in quarterback pressures, with 29, good enough for a top-20 ranking nationally.

Umanmielen is the closest thing Florida has to a quality edge contain guy since CeCe Jefferson walked off the field at the Peach Bowl in 2018. A 4-star recruit, Umanmielen has a great frame and terrific lateral quickness, and if he continues to work and improve, he could become an All-SEC-caliber player in 2023. At present, he easily grades out as Florida’s best defensive lineman, ranking 62nd nationally (and top 10 in the SEC) at defensive end, per PFF. He ranks 3rd on the team in tackles for loss with 5, behind only Amari Burney (6) and Cox (8). Umanmielen’s 11 quarterback pressures rank 3rd on the team as well.

Again, behind those 2 players, Florida doesn’t have a talent problem. Justus Boone, who Florida coaches believe in and think will blossom into a great player, was a 4-star recruit. Antwaun Powell-Ryland Jr. was Mr. Football in the State of Virginia, a 4-star recruit with offers from Oklahoma, Southern Cal and Mack Brown at UNC. Lloyd Summerall III, who played the most snaps of his career against LSU, was another high 4-star player. But for all the recruiting wins, the Gators’ defensive line isn’t producing enough. How much of that is due to a lack of consistency and how much to bad linebacker play is explored below.

Linebackers: D- (Ventrell Miller, A)

Miller, who should be an All-American, is the primary reason this group avoids a failing grade. He deserves his own grade, which is an A. Miller has been magnificent: His 49 tackles rank 2nd on the team, and he has 4.5 tackles for loss despite rarely being used in a run blitz, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery, 5 quarterback hurries and 10 pressures, good for 4th on the team. Miller grades out as the SEC’s 2nd-best linebacker, behind only Georgia’s Jamon-Dumas Johnson, per Pro Football Focus. He’s a terrific leader, and considering he’s playing on a hobbled foot — which required pain injections to get him to the bye week — it’s astounding what he’s doing. How big an impact does he make? Florida’s run defense allows a full 1.2 yards more per carry when he’s off the field than when he’s on it. That means Miller is worth a yard every snap in the run game.

Burney merits a shoutout in this group as well. He has 5 sacks, to lead the team, and it was his huge interception that sealed the Gators’ win over Utah, the team’s high-water mark to date under Napier. Burney’s 6 tackles for loss also rank 2nd on the team, behind only Cox. Burney struggles in coverage against tight ends, a fact exploited by Utah ruthlessly and by LSU throughout the Tigers’ 45-35 win in Gainesville. But Burney has played better football as a senior, and he is a reasonably nice story.

The rest of this unit has been a disaster. It doesn’t fit run gaps well, it misses tackles too frequently and it is poor in coverage. As a result, Florida ranks 110th nationally against the run (with a game against Georgia’s elite run game on deck) and 96th in yards allowed per carry. The Gators also rank 71st of 75 teams I rank in my success rate metric, meaning opposing run games stay on schedule way too often against them. Florida’s defensive line looks worse than it is because Florida’s linebackers aren’t up to the job. And right now, the best help comes in experience, with guys like Shemar James, Scooby Williams and Diwun Black, all big-time recruits, simply taking their lumps.

Cornerback: C+

This is the most difficult of Florida’s defensive units to grade. In  the end, this is also the best performing of Florida’s position units. Three of the 5 biggest plays of the year on defense came from Florida corners, including 2 interception returns for touchdowns. The second, a Jaydon Hill interception of Brady Cook against Missouri, helped the Gators capture their first SEC win in 365 days.

Hill, however, has been Florida’s least effective corner, giving up a high 85.7 passer rating against and allowing 13 catches on 18 targets against for 208 yards. To be fair, the worst of that was the LSU game, when he allowed 6 catches for 120 yards and 1 touchdown on 7 targets, resulting in a passer rating against of 158.3 (the scale goes to 160). But he has to be more consistent.

The other Florida corners? They rank, at worst, 152nd in the PFF cornerback grades, and Marshall and Kimber rank in the top 50. Kimber has been good enough (21 targets, 9 catches) that teams have largely stopped targeting him — LSU threw at him just once in a game where Jayden Daniels threw 32 passes. Marshall, the 5-star corner who was a Freshman All-American last year, has been a productive sophomore, grading out as Florida’s top corner, and while he isn’t Kaiir Elam, he has been a capable corner who shuts down a boundary. Opponents have targeted him just 15 times this season, the lowest figure among Florida’s corners.

The other thing to consider with the Florida corners? They are often left on islands, without safety help, as the Gators need to bring extra hats to the football to stop the run. It would help, of course, if the Gators’ corners also helped in the run game, instead of taking terrible angles, like Hill did here:

But the Florida corners have been solid, considering the schematic disadvantage they play with every Saturday.

Safety: F

Rashad Torrence II is among the SEC leaders in tackles, pacing the Gators with 55. He also ranks 2nd on the Gators in tackling percentage, behind only Miller. After Torrence, it’s best for Gators fans to watch Florida’s safeties play in a dark, padded room. It’s that maddening. Trey Dean III, a Super Senior, has had his worst season from a PFF perspective, ranking 593rd in the country among safeties (last among safeties who have started a game in the SEC).

No Florida safety has produced an interception. Only Torrence has multiple pass breakups. Further, Dean continues to play because his backups, Miguel Mitchell and Donovan McMillon (who has been outstanding on special teams but looks lost in the secondary), aren’t ready for consistent snaps. Of course, at some point, it’s fair to ask whether it’s better to just bleed with young talent, especially the likes of Mitchell and 5-star Kamari Wilson, then it is to roll out Dean every Saturday. What’s the old quote? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

Florida’s recruiting haul next year will substantially improve the Gators’ secondary in the years to come. At a program that once had a legitimate claim to “DBU,” that’s as necessary as it is encouraging.