Florida football: September report cards for Gators defensive players

Following the Utah game we were not sold on the award Cox was given for “SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week.” Cox had a lot of tackles in that game but he also struggled mightily to set the edge and allowed multiple huge plays as a result.

The difference is Cox has taken the advice of Billy Napier and Patrick Toney to heart and has been far more disciplined in the three games since Utah.

He had two QBs hits against Will Levis when Florida played Kentucky and was about the only guy for Florida making tackles against USF. Cox recorded nine total tackles in the game, some of which required him to run guys down from 10-yards behind the play because someone else could do their job.

Against Tennessee Cox had pressure against Hendon Hooker, but his overall stat line ended with just 0.5 tackles. Most notably, Cox had a chance at a massive sack on 3rd-and-10 late in the first half. Hooker escaped and Tennessee went on to score a touchdown.