Three alarming stats about Florida Football's defense in 2024
![Florida Gators executive head coach and co-defensive coordinator for inside linebackers Ron Roberts looks on at the Orange and Blue spring football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, April 13, 2024. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4898,h_2755,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2F213%2F01j8fmjp13x1pfzn4p3f.jpg "Florida Gators executive head coach and co-defensive coordinator for inside linebackers Ron Roberts looks on at the Orange and Blue spring football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, April 13, 2024. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]")
Entering the 2024 campaign, Florida Football's defense was supposed to improve. Billy Napier shuffled his entire defensive coaching staff, and there was enough talent on paper to suggest that things would improve.
With Ron Roberts now in charge of the defense, Napier's third defensive coordinator in three years, it has not. In fact there are some areas where the Gators have somehow taken a step backwards.
The following are the three most alarming stats about the defense so far in 2024.
Dead Last In SEC In Explosive Plays
One of the major themes for Florida last year was that they were fine on most plays, but the plays they were not fine on ended up going for huge yardage.
Even still, Florida was 8th out of 14 in the SEC plays given up for over 20 yards. Their downfall was they were dead last in the SEC in giving up plays over 30 yards, with 36 plays last year going for at least 30 yards.
Through four games this year, Florida is next to last in the SEC in plays given up over 30 yards. The more alarming stat is they are dead last in the SEC in plays over 20 yards and it is not even close.
The Gators have given up 24 plays over 20 yards through four games. The next closest team in Vanderbilt at LSU at 18 plays.
Georgia, meanwhile, has given up just two.
Dead Last In Third Down Conversions
Two years ago, third-down conversions were a major theme under Patrick Toney's defense. Last year, the Gators weren't bad at getting teams off the field on third down, ranking 6th in the SEC with a 35% conversion rate.
Well, the third-down woes are back again, as Florida has been giving up third-downs at a rate of 46%. That is also dead last in the SEC and 123rd in the country.
Tackling Woes Are Back
One of the reasons why Florida gave up so many explosive plays in 2023 was they couldn't tackle anyone. With a missed tackle rate of 15%, Florida missed just under ten tackles per game in 2023.
While we thought tackling would be better after some viral clips from the spring, Florida currently has 49 missed tackles on the season for an average of 12.25 missed tackles per game.
Somehow, the amount of missed tackles per game has increased to start the 2024 campaign.
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