Ron Roberts has shut down Lane Kiffin before; now he aims to do it again with Florida

The defense for Florida Football has been an up-and-down unit in 2024. The group looked lost in the first four games of the season before settling in the next four games, before getting blasted by Texas, and before rebounding once again against LSU.

But as the Gators get ready to face Ole Miss, an opponent Florida normally doesn't see, there is at least one key member on Florida's staff who has gone toe-to-toe with Lane Kiffin's offense and completely shut it down.

Florida Football: Learn from the past

We were not shy in our critiques of Florida's defense over the first four weeks. Ron Roberts was added to the staff this year and has been the defacto defensive coordinator. The problem is that his style of defense was way too passive and soft, with safeties playing 15+ yards off the line of scrimmage, and Florida was getting gashed underneath.

Stylistically, Florida has been playing more aggressively since their first bye-week, and outside of the egg laid against Texas, the defense has been solid in five of the past six games.

Heading into Saturday's contest against Ole Miss, Vegas odds have the Rebels as 9.5-point favorites and the over/under set at 55.5 points. The implied translation is that Vegas believes Ole Miss will score north of 30 points in The Swamp.

However, Ron Roberts has seen Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin twice in recent years, and both times have managed to keep Ole Miss under 30 points. Last year, while he was the DC at Auburn, Ole Miss put up 28 points in a 28-21 victory over Auburn. Jaxson Dart threw for 202 yards, while Quinshon Judkins ran for 124 yards in that one.

If you offered Gator fans the guarantee Ole Miss will score 28 points on the dot on Saturday, some would take that guarantee with the hope that DJ Lagway is going to be unleashed for 30+ points.

But the deal all Gator fans would take in a heartbeat is the performance Baylor had against Ole Miss in the 2022 Sugar Bowl. Baylor won that game 21-7 and forced Ole Miss to throw three interceptions while holding the Rebels to just 2.6 yards per rushing attempt.

Billy Napier was asked on Wednesday whether he felt Robert's experience against Kiffin would serve as any kind of advantage heading into Saturday:

"Yeah, no, I think there's different, you know, that every system continues to evolve, different play callers, different coordinators. You know, I do think obviously those are two completely different staffs and group of players. So maybe there's some carryover, familiarity. Certainly, bowl games spend quite a bit of time. But just in general, I think they, you know, both sides have continued to evolve for sure."

As Kentucky and Oklahoma showcased, there are ways to slow down Kiffin's offense, but it is far from easy. Ole Miss leads the SEC in both success rate and explosive plays. Florida's defense has actually done a decent job of limiting explosive plays in 2024, something that was a massive problem in 2023, but their defensive success rate is still second worst in the SEC.

If Roberts can pull the rabbit out of the hat as he did at Baylor, Saturday could turn into a performance that will make even the naysayers of naysayers start to believe. If we get a repeat of what we saw against Texas two weeks ago, most fans will be looking for something else to watch by halftime.