Florida Football: Five things that have gone right during the first month

Entering the 2023 season, there were a lot of doubters of Florida football. Every preseason prognostication had the program on death’s door, and some articles were written nationally that proclaimed Billy Napier would get fired before the end of the season.

As of now, that doesn’t look like it will be the case, and while the opening night was a disappointment, there are things that we had to hope would go right for the Gators that have come to fruition.

The following are five things that have gone right for Florida football through its first four games.

Florida Football Things Have Gone Right: Austin Armstrong

We will highlight a couple of individual players in the coming slides, but part of the reason for optimism in Gainesville is the new-looking defense under new defense coordinator Austin Armstrong.

It is hard to understate how much better and polished this unit looks compared to last season. Outside of the opening play against Utah, Florida seems to understand where it is supposed to be and when it is supposed to be there.

We have highlighted previously some of the stats that showcase this transformation. The most important of which is Florida is 17th in overall scoring defense. And that’s with multiple touchdowns being scored off of a short field.

Florida is 5th overall in yards per game, giving up just 244 yards to the opposition.

One massive reason for the turnaround is Florida’s ability to get off the field on third downs. Last year, the Gators were one of the worst in the country, getting third-down stops. They are 22nd nationally at getting third down stops, only giving up 3rd down conversations 31% of the time.