Mel Kiper's anti two-safety rant is great advice for the Florida Gators

One of the areas most Florida Football fans thought was going to be a strength in 2024 was at safety. Jordan Castell was a freshman All-American, Bryce Thornton took a ton of snaps in 2023, and the Gators grabbed three players out of the transfer portal to help strengthen the unit.

Three games into the 2024 season and the safeties for Florida might be the weakest unit on the roster. Part of the issue is personnel, but an even bigger problem is the tactics the personnel are being asked to employ.

And even though he wasn't talking about the Gators, longtime NFL pundit Mel Kiper has just the solution that could help Florida significantly on defense.

Florida Football: Two High Shell

Kiper was making an appearance on ESPN, and the topic revolved around safety play in the NFL. He then proceeded to go on one of the weirder rants an ESPN talking head has gone on in quite some time.

"I was at games where I'm thinking, hey, two-high? They're out in outer space, I couldn't even find them. They're playing with nine guys. Where are the other two? They're playing so far back they're out of the damn play. I'm telling you, we've got to change this thing. You can warn them, 'Guys, you've got to get up a little bit. You're too far back.' Competition committee, somebody's got to figure out what that depth is, but it's too far back right now. The NFL is being ruined by these two-high safeties."

If we are talking about a rule change to further restrict defenses, stop it. Nobody asked for more rules to make defense harder.

However...

If you replaced his statement with Florida Gators rather than NFL, we might be on to something.

Move On Back

Go back to last season and the infamous 4th and 17 against Missouri. Most people remember Mannie Nunnery being caught in no man's land as the culprit of the play. But go back and rewatch the play and pay attention to what Jordan Castell does on it.

On the play, Castell starts 20 yards off the line of scrimmage and is backpedaling on the snap. When the ball was thrown, and this is not an exaggeration, he was 35 yards off the line of scrimmage, and the closest wide receiver was still 15 yards in front of him.

We have made the point throughout the offseason that it feels like he was instructed to not let anyone behind him no matter what, that under zero circumstances can he let someone behind him.

The end result, which has carried over into the 2024 season, is a player who refuses to come downhill to make a play on the ball because all he is instructed to do is backpedal and keep things in front of him.

Even worse is that Ron Roberts seems hell-bent on pairing him with a second safety who has been given the exact same instructions.

Almost exclusively, Florida has insisted on having both safeties play 15 yards off the line of scrimmage and backpedal, so almost exclusively, teams have shredded Florida with passes in the middle of the field.

Cam Ward was 12/18 passing for 221 yards and three TDs on throws that were between the numbers, including 5/6 on throws between the numbers that were over 20 yards.

Marcel Reed was 6/8 passing for 83 yards and a touchdown on throws in the same area.

Even Samford QB Quincy Crittendon was 2/3 for 34 yards on throws over ten yards that were in the middle of the field.

So, on Saturday, one thing Gator fans should watch for is the placement of Florida's safeties. If fans in a basement can spot a gaping hole to attack, one would have to imagine Mississippi State is going to be looking for it too.

And if the Gators keep giving up 3rd and 8 slant routes in the middle of the field, they can't claim they weren't warned.