Florida Football: Defense has no excuse to not be better in 2023

2022 was a house of horrors for Florida football on the defensive side. The metrics across the board were pitiful, and Patrick Toney departed for greener pastures after just one season.

But while the Gators may still be working on grabbing top-tier elite talent across the board, one can’t say that new defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong has zero chess pieces to work with heading into 2023.

Florida Football: Only way is up

Last year’s defense was bad, and one of the retorts was, “Well, Florida just didn’t have the talent to work with, and Patrick Toney was handcuffed.”

Except his defensive tackle was drafted in the 2nd round. Both his middle linebackers were drafted. His starting safety, despite his flaws, could very well make it on the Jets 53-man roster.

The same goes for his defensive end, which played most of the season before being kicked off as he is gaining steam to make the Packers’ 53-man roster. One of his starting cornerbacks is a potential first-round pick in 2024.

There may have been depth issues to prevent Florida from being a top-level defense, but don’t pretend the cupboard was so bare as Florida had at least seven starters on defense that could make an NFL roster this season or next.

That brings us to Armstrong and his task to revive this unit from the dead. While all the previously mentioned players except for one are now gone, the Florida Gators will take the field against Utah with a potential starting unit that will have five players that were top 100 prospects in high school (Kamari Wilson, Shemar James, Chris McClellan, Jason Marshall, and Jalen Kimber) along with two more that were top 200 prospects (Justus Boone and Terjada Mitchell).

That is on top of the groundswell of talented freshmen entering the program, like Ja’Keem Jackson and Kelby Collins.

The Gators may not have a top-five SEC defense yet, but there is zero excuse for Florida football if it is a bottom-five SEC defense in 2023.