Florida’s defense was about as big a train wreck as one could imagine halfway through the season. Think of any statistical category you want, and Florida was probably near the bottom of the country in that. At the core of Florida’s problems was a mindset to sit back and rely on static zones to get stops.
But then, against Texas, Jon Sumrall said screw it and made Florida blitz way more than defensive coordinator Brad White has done in his life, and it worked. Florida’s defense wasn’t necessarily great against Georgia and Oklahoma, but it did enough that Florida could have had a better fate if the offense did its job.
And on Saturday night, after a disaster of an opening drive, Florida’s defense put on a clinic against one of the more high flying offenses in the country and was a massive reason why the Gators went on the road to get the upset.
Florida’s defense clamps down to pull off the upset
For the purposes of positivity within this piece, we'll ignore the opening drive. After the opening drive, Florida kept asking questions of Kentucky that they simply couldn’t answer. Despite Kentucky being a bit of a high-flying offense, they were 83rd in sacks allowed this season. And even though Florida only picked up two sacks on the night, their pressure was relentless on Wildcats QB Kenny Minchey.
We don’t have the blitz rate stats on us as of this writing, but we are willing to assume it was north of 50%, especially in the second half. And it’s worth noting because, as we have pointed out before, Brad White had almost never blitzed at 50% when he was at Kentucky himself.
What gives us hope for White and Sumrall as defensive leaders is how the final sequence of the game was handled. Oftentimes, teams sink into a shell, which frankly would have been a Brad White special. And oftentimes, those soft shells are exploited in a two minute drill. But on 3rd and 4th down, Florida brought pressure and were rewarded with getting a four-and-out on Kentucky’s last gasp drive.
Throwing in the Gators generated a safety, along with the strip-sack from Jayden Woods, and it was the defense as much as it was the legs of Aaron Philo that helped deliver the win in Lexington.
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