The Gator game is nine days away, so it’s time to go behind enemy lines. CanesInSight sat down with my longtime friend Eric Esteban, Vice President of Media Relations for Fox Sports, a veteran of Scout.com, the Alligator, the Miami Herald, ESPN.com, the Palm Beach Post, Fox Sports Florida, guest lecturer at the University of Florida journalism school, and expert on the Florida Gators. A summary of his thoughts on the Gator defense is below:
On the loss of EDGE Princely Umanmielen to Ole Miss: Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I think it's one of those. This defense is going to be better. It's going to be better at all three levels. They're especially high on what they have coming off the edge. Tyreak Sapp returns, a name your audience is familiar with after his successful time at Aquinas. He played every game last year. Justus Boone is a name they're very high on off the edge. He was injured last year, but a guy who could be a leader on that side. And then I'll throw one more name for you coming off the edge: T.J. Searcy. Jalen Phillips prototype-frame. They're standing him up more. You're talking about a deep, talented group, and they're going to rotate guys. They're looking at a two-deep that they love.
On where he sees the defense improving: There's improvement at all three levels, and I don't think it's marginal, either. On the D-line, having those guys, they bring inJoey Slackman, who's a transfer (UPenn). Cam Jackson and Caleb Banks, two returning guys at defensive tackle. Everyone loves Desmond Watson (449 pounds) in college football. LJ McCray, those five stars look different in those rooms and finally Florida is getting a few of them in there. The arrow is pointing up on that room.
At linebacker, Shemar James comes back. He's the clear-cut leader. He's the one who's gonna be making all the calls out there. They kind of swapped out the other linebacker. Scooby Williams goes to Texas A&M, Grayson “Pup” Howard comes in from South Carolina. A guy that they're really high on. He's gonna be starting alongside Shemar James. I just love the makeup there. They might have two of the best freshmen linebackers in America, Myles Graham and Aaron Chiles.
Jordan Castell returns as a safety. He played every safety snap as a freshman last year. He comes back as a true sophomore ready to hold things down there. They brought some guys to really help him out. I love what they're doing across all the positions.
On the defensive line rotation: You're going to see up to eight bodies rotating on the D-line, which means a lot of these guys are going to be fresh. There's not going to be any dead legs and sagging, which you saw a lot last year. I think that that gets remedied. And that's really where it starts.
On what went wrong with the defensive backfield: What went wrong? What didn’t go wrong? If we're being honest, it's the talent. They just didn't have the talent and experience back there.
The secondary has been a key part of Billy's rebuild. Jason Marshall is a name your audience is familiar with. He's coming back as a senior. Last year, Jordan Castell was a true freshman playing at safety. You're sending this guy to Death Valley. He's playing against all these Primo teams. Yeah, that's going to happen. I think that gets remedied this year. Ron Roberts is who Billy Napier tabbed to come in this year from Auburn to fix all this. He comes in alongside (existing DC) Austin Armstrong. So you have another mind, another schemer in that defensive coaching room that is hopefully going to bring experience and get this defense back to where it was.
On the best player on the defense: It's gotta be Shemar James, middle linebacker. He's the one who has the highest ceiling at that position. There's a lot of talent up front at the EDGE, like I mentioned before, but my first inclination is Shemar James. This is the guy who's gonna have the comms in his helmet. He's the one who's gonna be barking it out. When he went down last year, the wheels really fell off the wagon.
On the potential NFL players in the secondary: Devin Moore. He's CB2 right now. He's a junior. If he's healthy, he's shown he could be as good as anybody else out there. He hasn't been healthy, but they are expecting him to be CB2. Some other names I love: Ja’Keem Jackson, Dijon Johnson, we got Jameer Grimsley there at the end of signing day. These are all very athletic guys.
On why the defense struggled so much: There were failures on that defense at every level last year. Whether that's just the way the season played out, injuries, motivation from guys who may be looking elsewhere. The defense just sagged as the season went on. So I think this year you're coming in renewed. New guys, new energy, young guys.
Last year, the defensive coordinator was Austin Armstrong. Bright, young mind. The players raved about him. They loved him. But he was also young. It was his first year as a defensive coordinator. So they bring in Ron Roberts from Auburn. Attacking defense, a guy who's coached at every level, every stop at the SEC, that gray-haired guy that you want on your sideline. I think that having that extra mind is going to change the way that they approach the defense with Armstrong still leading the way.
On the tackling: It needed to improve at linebacker, first and foremost. Shemar James went down, and what followed was not fun. Billy mentioned they just had a scrimmage where they had 122 plays and there were maybe 20 missed tackles. I don't know what that charts out to, but they definitely need to improve there along with many other parts of that defense.I think it's gonna happen.
On the addition of S Asa Turner from Washington: They looked at Jordan Castell and said, “We need to surround this young guy with a bunch of guys who have experience.” They went out and did exactly that in the portal. Asa's been everything that they wanted to see from him out of practice. An established guy, started all three of Washington's postseason games last year in the secondary. He’s gonna come up and lay the lumber. The other guy that they went and got is DJ Douglas from Tulane. He’s a little bit more of a free-range guy, but he’s a sure-tackler. You're gonna see those guys Week One and they're expecting them to be impact guys.
On the nickel position: Sharif Denson and Aaron Gates are playing more of a star position, the Chauncey Gardner-Johnson role. Those guys have also had excellent camps.
On the loss of EDGE Princely Umanmielen to Ole Miss: Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I think it's one of those. This defense is going to be better. It's going to be better at all three levels. They're especially high on what they have coming off the edge. Tyreak Sapp returns, a name your audience is familiar with after his successful time at Aquinas. He played every game last year. Justus Boone is a name they're very high on off the edge. He was injured last year, but a guy who could be a leader on that side. And then I'll throw one more name for you coming off the edge: T.J. Searcy. Jalen Phillips prototype-frame. They're standing him up more. You're talking about a deep, talented group, and they're going to rotate guys. They're looking at a two-deep that they love.
On where he sees the defense improving: There's improvement at all three levels, and I don't think it's marginal, either. On the D-line, having those guys, they bring inJoey Slackman, who's a transfer (UPenn). Cam Jackson and Caleb Banks, two returning guys at defensive tackle. Everyone loves Desmond Watson (449 pounds) in college football. LJ McCray, those five stars look different in those rooms and finally Florida is getting a few of them in there. The arrow is pointing up on that room.
At linebacker, Shemar James comes back. He's the clear-cut leader. He's the one who's gonna be making all the calls out there. They kind of swapped out the other linebacker. Scooby Williams goes to Texas A&M, Grayson “Pup” Howard comes in from South Carolina. A guy that they're really high on. He's gonna be starting alongside Shemar James. I just love the makeup there. They might have two of the best freshmen linebackers in America, Myles Graham and Aaron Chiles.
Jordan Castell returns as a safety. He played every safety snap as a freshman last year. He comes back as a true sophomore ready to hold things down there. They brought some guys to really help him out. I love what they're doing across all the positions.
On the defensive line rotation: You're going to see up to eight bodies rotating on the D-line, which means a lot of these guys are going to be fresh. There's not going to be any dead legs and sagging, which you saw a lot last year. I think that that gets remedied. And that's really where it starts.
On what went wrong with the defensive backfield: What went wrong? What didn’t go wrong? If we're being honest, it's the talent. They just didn't have the talent and experience back there.
The secondary has been a key part of Billy's rebuild. Jason Marshall is a name your audience is familiar with. He's coming back as a senior. Last year, Jordan Castell was a true freshman playing at safety. You're sending this guy to Death Valley. He's playing against all these Primo teams. Yeah, that's going to happen. I think that gets remedied this year. Ron Roberts is who Billy Napier tabbed to come in this year from Auburn to fix all this. He comes in alongside (existing DC) Austin Armstrong. So you have another mind, another schemer in that defensive coaching room that is hopefully going to bring experience and get this defense back to where it was.
On the best player on the defense: It's gotta be Shemar James, middle linebacker. He's the one who has the highest ceiling at that position. There's a lot of talent up front at the EDGE, like I mentioned before, but my first inclination is Shemar James. This is the guy who's gonna have the comms in his helmet. He's the one who's gonna be barking it out. When he went down last year, the wheels really fell off the wagon.
On the potential NFL players in the secondary: Devin Moore. He's CB2 right now. He's a junior. If he's healthy, he's shown he could be as good as anybody else out there. He hasn't been healthy, but they are expecting him to be CB2. Some other names I love: Ja’Keem Jackson, Dijon Johnson, we got Jameer Grimsley there at the end of signing day. These are all very athletic guys.
On why the defense struggled so much: There were failures on that defense at every level last year. Whether that's just the way the season played out, injuries, motivation from guys who may be looking elsewhere. The defense just sagged as the season went on. So I think this year you're coming in renewed. New guys, new energy, young guys.
Last year, the defensive coordinator was Austin Armstrong. Bright, young mind. The players raved about him. They loved him. But he was also young. It was his first year as a defensive coordinator. So they bring in Ron Roberts from Auburn. Attacking defense, a guy who's coached at every level, every stop at the SEC, that gray-haired guy that you want on your sideline. I think that having that extra mind is going to change the way that they approach the defense with Armstrong still leading the way.
On the tackling: It needed to improve at linebacker, first and foremost. Shemar James went down, and what followed was not fun. Billy mentioned they just had a scrimmage where they had 122 plays and there were maybe 20 missed tackles. I don't know what that charts out to, but they definitely need to improve there along with many other parts of that defense.I think it's gonna happen.
On the addition of S Asa Turner from Washington: They looked at Jordan Castell and said, “We need to surround this young guy with a bunch of guys who have experience.” They went out and did exactly that in the portal. Asa's been everything that they wanted to see from him out of practice. An established guy, started all three of Washington's postseason games last year in the secondary. He’s gonna come up and lay the lumber. The other guy that they went and got is DJ Douglas from Tulane. He’s a little bit more of a free-range guy, but he’s a sure-tackler. You're gonna see those guys Week One and they're expecting them to be impact guys.
On the nickel position: Sharif Denson and Aaron Gates are playing more of a star position, the Chauncey Gardner-Johnson role. Those guys have also had excellent camps.
