Five games into the 2026 season, there are very few ways to make Florida’s defense look good. They rank 104th in points allowed per game, 107th in yards allowed per game, and 128th in passing yards allowed per game.
To their credit, no one for the Gators is trying to defend the product on the field. Whether or not they are looking for the correct solution is up for debate.
Florida’s defense has been a massive liability through five games
Defensive coordinator Brad White was asked about the defense's struggles during his press conference on Tuesday. White feels that among the issues right now is a lack of physicality on defense, especially when it comes to Florida’s secondary fighting for the ball when it is in the air:
We’ve got to be violent. It’s things that we need to continue to be better at. If we want to get anywhere close to where we want to get to, when the ball’s in the air, there has to be more of a dog mentality. That is my ball. There’s too much survival mode right now and not enough hunting. We need to hunt.”
One of the popular theories is that White’s scheme is far too soft and that is contributing to some of Florida’s issues. DJ Coleman pushed back on that narrative:
“I feel like we have to play with more aggression on defense. I feel like we're playing kind of passive. I mean, some people might think it’s the scheme, but I feel like it comes from us.”
Obviously Coleman isn’t going to throw White under the bus five games into the season, but there is a hint of both things happening. On Missouri’s first touchdown, Florida was in Cover 3. Drake Stubbs was playing the middle third and jumped to an underneath route while a seam route ran in behind him.
That’s not due to a lack of aggression; it’s Missouri knowing that White loves Cover 3 and dialing up a play to exploit his well-known tendencies.
On the second touchdown, J’Vari Flowers was playing eight yards off the line of scrimmage and was still burnt by five yards before the ball was even in the air. No amount of “dog mentality” could have recovered once that ball was in the air.
Now, one might say those are not Florida’s starters, and there are fair questions about whether Cormani McClain and Ben Hanks III are byproducts of this scheme, or whether Florida is forced to play soft because those two would get burnt even more if they were asked to be more aggressive.
The problem is the data is more complcated than that.
Florida’s defense is in line with a normal Brad White defense
Right now, Florida is 10th in the SEC in havoc rate from their front seven. These are plays where the front seven records a tackle for loss, forces a fumble, deflects a pass, or makes an interception.
But despite being near the middle of the pack in front-seven havoc, Florida’s defense ranks 15th in the SEC in success rate (defined as share of plays gaining at least 50% of needed yards on first down, 70% on second down, or 100% on third/fourth down).
Translation:
Things are too soft on the back end, and teams are having down-to-down success even though the Gators are creating their fair share of negative plays up front.
White can muse about aggression from his secondary all he wants; the problem is that the data indicates that this unit is in line with the defense squads he had at Kentucky.
2025: T9 in front seven havoc rate and 13th in success rate (out of 16 teams)
2024: 9th in front seven havoc rate and 14th in success rate (out of 16 teams)
2023: 7th in front seven havoc rate and 11th in success rate (out of 14 teams)
2022: 13th in front seven havoc rate and 2nd in success rate (out of 14 teams)
2021: 6th in front seven havoc rate and 11th in success rate (out of 14 teams)
Outside of 2022 being the outlier, what we are seeing right now is a typical Brad White defense. A similar trend emerges when comparing passing success rate and passing explosive plays. Florida is in the middle of the pack in allowing explosive passing plays and is next to last in passing success rate. That’s in line with most of White’s defenses at Kentucky.
We say all this to say that our offseason fears about White have mostly played out, and nearly halfway through the 2026 season, it shouldn’t shock White that this is what his defense looks like, because this is what his defenses have almost always looked like.
Kentucky was bottom four in the SEC in defensive back havoc rate the past three seasons, so if he is musing about wanting more fight from his secondary, it’s just a continuation of what he did in Lexington.
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