Florida dispatched Campbell on Saturday to move to 2-0 on the season. It’s actually wild to think that it is the first time since 2021 that the Gators have started a season 2-0, and this upcoming Saturday, the Gators will have a chance to start 3-0 for the first time since 2019.
But before Florida takes the field with Auburn, there is one area on Florida’s defense that continues to be a point of discussion and will need to step up to keep the Tigers at bay.
Florida’s secondary still has lingering questions ahead of Auburn
In the end, Campbell threw for 148 yards passing off 21 of 28 passing attempts. That’s just 3.9 yards per attempt and just 7.0 yards per completion. The DBs for Florida were far more aggressive and for the most part that limited any real threat from the Camels.
Depending on how much stock one wants to put into it, Pro Football Focus graded out Kanye Clark, Cormani McClain, and Ben Hanks III, all three of Florida’s starting corners, as the three lowest-rated players on Florida’s defense. All three were graded out below 60, which is PFF’s version of an F.
Clark’s grade was a bit harsh considering he didn’t give up a completion. Both Hanks and McClain were both targeted five times and from we can tell there are three plays they combined got dinged on the most.
Two of the completions against we are assuming Hanks was charged with were both from Campbell’s first drive. The first completion was a tough catch on the sideline, though Hanks was glued to his man. The second was the tunnel screen that Campbell broke loose. Hanks couldn't have stopped the completion itself, but he could have done better tackling on that play.
McClain’s one notable completion against was a 16 yard completion where he was tight with his man, but he made no real attempt to come back to the ball to make a play. The Campbell receiver did and made the catch.
Again, it is a good catch by Campbell. The question is whether or not McClain could have done more to disrupt the play.
And we juxtapose Hanks and McClain with J’Vari Flowers, who had three PBUs by himself and, on the one reception against, went for negative yards. In fact, Florida’s defense as a whole had 10 pass breakups on Saturday, just none from their starting corners.
So with a massive game against Auburn on the horizon, where Florida’s corners will be tested, this will become one of the bigger storylines all throughout the week.
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