Todd Grantham evaluates Florida’s defense, identifies 4 areas that Gators will focus on
By Keith Farner
Published:
Faced with criticism following Florida’s somewhat leaky defense against Vanderbilt, defensive coordinator pointed to the big picture about despite the struggles with his unit, the Gators continue to win.
“I think No. 1 is that we’ve played really good defense around here and that we’ve been able to win a lot of games,” Grantham told reporters Tuesday night, per Swamp247. “The bottom line is you win games. Right now I believe today we’re the winningest staff over the last three years coming in new as far as number of wins. So obviously we’re doing something right.”
Grantham lamented that the Gators didn’t start well, and didn’t play with the kind of energy they need to overall, either at Vanderbilt, or this week against Kentucky.
Granthan dissected each possession against Vanderbilt, and said, “there were like nine plays for 218 (yards) and there were like 67 plays or 65 plays for 188. I mean, that’s like a low number, OK? So it’s like I told the guys: I said, ‘These nine plays, how do we fix those?’ If you just reduce it to half of that, you’re holding teams under five yards a play, which would put you as a premier defense in the country.”
Grantham listed four areas he wants to see the team take ownership in and improve defensively: player accountability, making plays on the ball on deep shots, tackling in space and recognition of tempo.
“The biggest thing that I told them is, No. 1, it’s always about player accountability,” Grantham said. “What I mean there is being accountable from Day 1 of the week to throughout the entire week to prepare yourself to play. I believe that’s how you want to play based upon the way I see you perform during the game. So it gets down to player accountability. That’s on time, that’s preparation, that’s the way you practice. That’s everything, not just on Saturdays. That’s Monday through Saturday.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
