Florida football: Top five performers against Florida State

1. Jonathan Greenard

Entering the 2019 season, one of the biggest questions surrounding the Florida Gators was who would lead Florida’s aggressive pass rush with both Jachai Polite and Cee Cee Jefferson departing for the NFL.

While Florida fans had their eyes set on senior defensive end Jabari Zuniga, who accumulated 6.5 sacks in 2018, Florida’s answer came from graduate transfer Jonathan Greenard.

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After missing all of the 2018 season due to a wrist injury while playing at Louisville, Jonathan Greenard quickly found his groove in defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s scheme. In his first game as a Gator, Greenard tallied two tackles for loss and a team-high 1.5 sacks in Florida’s 24-20 victory over in-state rival Miami.

Three months later, Greenard entered the regular-season finale against Florida State with a team-high 12 tackles for loss and six sacks in nine games played. Having accrued five tackles for loss and two sacks in Florida’s previous game against Missouri, Greenard looked to have a similar impact in his final home game in the Swamp.

After having a quiet first quarter that saw the Seminoles put up a touchdown on their opening drive, Greenard began to deliver constant pressure to Florida State’s backfield from the second quarter onward.

Greenard’s biggest highlight of the game came on Florida State’s second-to-last offensive drive of the first half. During the drive the Seminoles inserted redshirt-freshman quarterback Jordan Travis to bolster their efficiency with the RPO. On the fifth play of the drive, with Travis scanning for an open receiver from the pocket, Greenard speared himself into Travis’s blindside, jarring the ball from the inexperienced quarterback.

Though the Seminoles recovered the loose fumble and Travis was able to walk off the field under his own power, replays of the hit still bring tingles down the spines of viewers.

Greenard and the rest of Florida’s front seven would continue delivering pressure to Florida State’s backfield in the second half. Greenard himself would sack redshirt-sophomore quarterback James Blackman twice in the fourth quarter.

Greenard ended his final game in the Swamp with six total tackles, three of them for losses, and accounted for three of Florida’s eight total sacks on defense against the Noles. With a likely New Year’s Six bowl game on the horizon, Greenard is now one sack away from accounting for 10 total sacks this season.