Florida’s offense has the buzz, but Brad White’s defense has the intrigue

A ton of chatter throughout the offseason has centered around what Florida’s offense is going to look like in 2026, and for good reason. Buster Faulkner has quickly become a name that most Gator fans have learned, and the possibilities for the offense are endless.

What has received less chatter is what the defense is going to look like, and Brad White has not been talked about nearly as much. One of the big mysteries is whether or not Florida’s defense is going to look like what Kentucky ran over the past few years while White was the DC there.

He’s not ready to reveal his hand just yet.

Florida’s defense is still a mystery box heading into 2026

White had a press conference on Wednesday, and he was asked what his defensive scheme would look like this year:

"We'll see Saturday." 

Alrighty then. 

He did go on to explain that he plans to mix and match and plans to be a multiple-front defense:

“I think honestly, when you look at college football these days, there's a lot of teams - you're going to be multiple, you're going to have three-down fronts, you're going to have four-down fronts. So we'll have the ability to go to both. I think having that ability allows you to be flexible in your personnel.”

In White’s own words, we’ll see Saturday.

The reason why Florida’s defense feels like more of a mystery compared to the offense is because of the reputation White and his defenses at Kentucky gained over the past few years. At their core, Kentucky tended to play safe zones on the back end and rely upon a dominant front four to have success. Kentucky had success against weaker teams, but they were frequently shredded when they played ranked opponents.

From 2019 to 2025, during White’s time as DC at Kentucky, the Wildcats allowed 19.5 points per game against unranked opponents. That jumped to 30.2 points per game in the 27 games Kentucky played against ranked opponents.

To further drive home the point of Kentucky’s style during White’s time there, defensive havoc rate is defined as “Disruption rather than pure prevention, using source-provided havoc events to track how often a defense creates snaps that push an offense off schedule.” Only once during White’s tenure did Kentucky finish in the top half in the SEC in havoc rate.

Florida brings a new era for Brad White

But the caveat for White and Florida fans is that Jon Sumrall has made the claim during the offseason that Florida isn’t just going to copy and paste what Kentucky ran. There is also an argument to be made that White may have wanted to run different stuff, but had to follow along with what Mark Stoops wanted. 

It is also fair to state that Kentucky didn’t have the talent pool of Florida, so the Wildcats were punching above their weight as it was.

We just know the last time White was in The Swamp for a real game, he was on Kentucky’s sideline as DJ Lagway shredded the Wildcats. We are hoping things look different for 2026.

We’ll see Saturday.

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