After the loss to South Carolina, we had serious question marks about what was happening on the defensive side of the ball. The offense was starting to wane a bit as well too, but the defense for the Gators was getting shredded by anyone with two legs and a pulse.
If fair is being fair, lost in Florida’s defeat to Georgia was the fact that the defensive side of the ball did its job and did enough to deserve a better fate than the one they got.
Florida’s defense stepped up against Georgia
Georgia QB Gunner Stockton was held to a ho-hum 13/23 for 101 yards and no TDs. The Bulldogs did have success running the ball and averaged 5.2 yards per carry, but even with that, they only found the end zone twice and only scored 20 points of their own.
If you had told Gator fans ahead of the game that the Bulldogs offense would be held to 20 points, most would have sprinted to take that deal.
For the second straight game, the key was Florida being more willing to blitz. The Gators blitzed on 55% of Stockton’s dropbacks. As we noted after the Texas game, that number is significant because defensive coordinator Brad White hadn’t had a game where he blitzed more than 50% since 2023.
For what it’s worth, Jon Sumrall wasn’t looking for his defensive unit to get its flowers after the game:
“And it was improvement defensively. It wasn't enough. Still has to be better than what it was, because they scored more points than we did. So sometimes defensively, as we grow as a program, we need to figure out a way to win some games, 8-to-7 maybe. That may be a reality, but we have to get there faster.”
But to Sumrall’s point, Saturday was a massive improvement compared to what we were witnessing in the front half of the season. With four games to go in the 2026 campaign, if Florida can build upon these past two weeks and continue to grow, there is a pathway for this defense to do some really good things, especially given the opponents Florida is going to close the season with.
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