Four explosive plays accounted for more than half of Missouri's offensive production against Florida, exposing a defensive problem that coordinator Brad White knows cannot continue if the Gators hope to compete in the SEC.
Florida surrendered two long touchdown passes and two runs of more than 70 yards in its 45-17 loss, overshadowing stretches of otherwise effective defensive play. White emphasized that missed assignments, inconsistent pursuit and breakdowns in coverage must be addressed, while acknowledging that the coaching staff also needs to evaluate its approach.
White also discussed potential schematic adjustments, the importance of more aggressive play in the secondary and the challenges of containing South Carolina quarterback LaNorris
Sellers and receiver Nyck Harbor. He provided insight into Jayden Woods' development, Bryce Thornton's absence and the mentality he wants his defense to embrace moving forward.
Here's everything White had to say.
What were the biggest takeaways from Florida's defensive struggles against Missouri?
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's a huge surprise. It's explosives, right? We can't give up explosives, both in the pass game and then the run game. The two late runs, they can't happen.
One is a backside pursuit. The ball's bottled up. If we just pursue the way we should pursue on the backside, it should be a negative play. Credit the running back, spun out of it and made a really good play there.
And then the misfit on the next one. Again, I had the exact same call to the exact same run earlier in the game for a 1-yard gain when you fit it up right. But again, those are details that we've got to stay on top of as coaches.
We've got to make sure, and that's football, too, right? Sometimes things get out, but it doesn't get to that point if the explosives in the pass game hadn't happened earlier.
Those are sort of inexcusable. On the early snap play, to not just take the vertical, and then to get beat on the go ball down there in the fringe red, we've got to eliminate those plays. We won't be a good defense until we do that. And then, at that point, you can start playing competitive football.
Was there a miscommunication on Missouri's first long touchdown pass?
No, it wasn't a miscommunication. It was just a player didn't do his responsibility.
How does Florida mentally recover from a loss like Missouri?
Yeah, that's a great question. I think you want it to sting. A lot of people just say, hey, flush the tape, burn the tape, whatever. You can't, man. You have to learn from it so you don't experience it again. But at the same time, what you can't do is you can't get your dauber down.
I mean, that's going to happen in life. You're going to have good days. You're going to have bad days. Do you want them to happen? Nope. Should they happen? You hope not. But when they do, you've got to be able to respond. And so that's the talking point in the building. Hey, we've got to respond. We've got to get back to playing good, confident football.
When one thing goes bad, what we can't do is we can't melt. We can't wither. We've got to be able to respond in those moments. There's been flashes on some of the sudden change. I've been pleased with how we've played when we've had to come out on our side of the 50.
We need to play with that same urgency that's happened a couple times this year, and we forced field goals. We forced two missed field goals and forced just two field goals, point-wise. So six total points in what I think is either five drives, maybe, where we've started sort of on our side of the 48 going that way.
We've got to play with that same urgency earlier, when the offense is backed up. We've got to play with our ears pinned back and confident and make plays. And it's all talk until we do it. I can stand up here and talk all day. It doesn't mean anything. We've got to go out there and we've got to do it.
Did White anticipate Florida's struggles in the secondary?
Not to this extent. I mean, we've got to play better as a whole unit. That's the reality of it.
Do you understand what we have to do? Every team has strengths and weaknesses, and you continue to develop. Shoot, sometimes you look at teams where you thought it was a strength at the beginning of the year, and actually, you look at the end-of-the-year tape and it was a weakness, and vice versa.
So what we've got is seven guaranteed games left. Before we talk about any specific unit, we all understand what we've got to get better at. We all understand we've got to be able to limit the big plays, especially through the air. And there's a lot of components to that that we've got to get addressed and fixed.
Are schematic and personnel adjustments on the table for Florida's defense?
Everything's up. Again, you talk scheme, personnel groupings, how you go about it. Anytime you're not playing well or you're getting exposed in a certain area, even if you're playing well, if you're playing well and you're getting exposed at the same spot, to just continue to do the same thing wouldn't be real smart.
So everything's always being evaluated. How we're coaching it is being evaluated. From us as coaches, are we saying it right? Are we teaching it right? Are their eyes in the right spot? All of these things. So yeah, everything's up for adjustment.
Does Florida have enough confidence in its cornerbacks to play more man coverage?
Well, yeah. I mean, again, if you go in and you look, some of those explosive plays happened in man coverage. Two of the wheel routes to No. 19 happened in man coverage.
So it's not, but yes, there's give and take in all of it. And we pressured on one rep, and we got home and affected the quarterback. Even that one, we got picked because you get into man things, and now what are you going to get? You're going to get man-beaters. You're going to get picks and rubs.
So yeah, there's a combination. We've got to be able to play both. And if you do get a man-beater, you get rubbed, guys are going to have to win their one-on-ones sometimes. We can't just say, hey, listen, we're going to remove you from all culpability. If we play this defense, you don't have to tackle, you don't have to cover, everybody else is going to do your job. Well, then we'll just play with 10.
But that's not it. You signed up to be on the field and one of the 11. Then we've got to do our job, and we've got to coach it better.
And scheme-wise, we've got to weigh what we can do and what we can execute on a consistent basis. Because here's the deal. It doesn't matter. You take the run game, for example. It doesn't matter that 30 of the 32 runs were like 2 or 3. It averaged 2 or 3.
It doesn't matter. You give up two explosives, that number goes to whatever it was, 5.8, because you gave up an 80 and a 77. So it doesn't matter that you played 30 good reps and two bad reps. If the two bad reps are really freaking bad, then it's all bad. So we've got to be able to play consistent football.
And when a guy, because you can't play perfect, but be in a position that if somebody does make a mistake, it's not an explosive. It's a 10-yard gain. It's an 11-yard gain. It's a 9-yard gain. Some kind of overlap to protect.
Can White draw on his first season as Kentucky's defensive coordinator to turn things around?
I mean, yeah, you can always lean into experiences that you had, no doubt. But every team is different. How teams are constructed, wired, personalities, it's just a little bit different.
But yes, those first five games of that '19 season, we had three of them in SEC play that were a little bit up and down, and then played good down the back half.
Do you want it to get to it? Yeah, that's the goal. But that team did it. This team's got to do it, and it starts on Saturday. They've got to put together consistent performances, and we as coaches have to put together a good game plan, good coaching points. We've got to keep them dialed. We've got to keep it to where they can feel confident and execute at a high level.
So I think for the most part, kind of like a lot of the game, there was a lot of good in it, right? But the second long run, we missed the gap, out it goes, right? So there's a level of, I'm not going to say perfection, but on those kind of fits, we can't miss. You just can't miss when it's a loaded-box defense and everybody's got a gap. You can't miss your gap.
But on the whole, I think they've played good football. Do we need them to play elite football? Yeah, at times. We need guys to play at a really high level when maybe other guys are struggling.
What makes South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers such a difficult matchup?
Yeah, I've had, whatever, if you want to call it the misfortune of playing him twice already. He is as talented a physical quarterback as I've played against in my career.
In terms of when he runs the football, I always tell the guys he's kind of like Saquon Barkley. He's a guy that's like a 600-pound squatter, huge legs. Guys fall off. If you watch the tape, very rarely does he actually go on the ground. He comes to the sideline and guys hit him, where guys could fly or they fall on him. Usually the defender's on the ground, and he's standing over him.
He had one where there was a safety blitz, scot-free, hits him in the back. They rip his helmet off and they blow the whistle dead, and he's just still standing there. He is big, he's strong, he's fast, he's got a live arm, talented wideouts outside to throw to.
The piece that I don't think people talk about enough is Fuller as a running back. He is really talented. Their run game, it's why they're one of the top, I think maybe the top, in SEC play.
So huge challenge in terms of being able to stop the run on a consistent basis, down in and down out, no explosives. But then when he gets out of the pocket, really dangerous.
You saw the run against Kentucky when they had him for a sack in the backfield. He escapes it, and then he goes for 70-whatever to set up a score. So yeah, huge challenge.
What does White want to see from Jayden Woods moving forward?
I don't necessarily want to say I want to see this more from Jayden versus anybody, other players. I want to see our guys continually improve. That's what I want. Every single one of our guys, I want to see him improve from the week before, and it doesn't have to be some monumental thing where the outside world even sees it.
We know, hey, look, from an edge setter, how did I do? Was I a better edge setter this week? Did I lose an edge? Did I get too high? Was your rush plan, did you execute your rush plan?
And I think there's some still for him. He's still a young rusher where he might get a little bit antsy, especially early in games, that he sort of abandons the plan early because he had a feel like he wanted to do this or, oh man, I forgot that was the plan.
That's where we need to grow. Hey, listen, no matter what the environment is, we're going to stick to the plan. And then if we need to deviate, hey, let's come to the sideline. Let's talk about why we're going to deviate, because maybe we need to make an adjustment behind if we are going to deviate off this.
What challenges does South Carolina's rushing attack present for Florida's defensive front?
Yeah, I mean, obviously, between the running back and the quarterback, now the read game is very much in play, and you've got to be disciplined. The line does a nice job creating some vertical seams for those backs to hit. And scheme-wise, there's enough moving pieces and formations and motions. I mean, there's motion all the time.
So our guys have got to be disciplined to understand where their gap fit is up front. I think we talk so much about the back end because we see the good things that the D-line does, and they have. They've been a fairly consistent group for us.
But even on Saturday, I thought some of our alignments were too loose. Some of our block destruction was off on Saturday, where our hand placement was. We got too peeky in secondary gaps, right? And people don't realize, hey, D-linemen, you get peeky in your secondary gap, right? Well, it was the linebackers, they should have just made it right, or the safety should have got it down, or the corner, whatever the case is.
And it all stemmed from not being right up front. So there's some things up there that we need to get tightened up, and we will. Again, that's a group that cares, and Coach Chat and Coach Saxon and Coach Patterson, they do a great job, unbelievable, with those guys. And they take pride in their work. If they make a mistake, they take it personally.
How much did Bryce Thornton's absence affect the secondary's communication?
Anytime you lose an experienced starter, I think there's an element of, hey, yeah, you're missing that guy.
I thought we've got guys that can communicate back there, but they need to be louder. That's been a big emphasis point this week, man. We've just got to be louder. We've got to be demonstrative in how we communicate in the back end. We can't just assume that somebody knows it or that somebody knows the check.
Man, even if you're wrong, just be loud because then everybody on the back end, the whole cliché, right? If everybody's wrong, we're all right.
But yeah, obviously, you never want to be without a good player, but that didn't have a bearing on the game. The plays that needed to be made were one-on-one challenged players and fitting two runs. That wouldn't have had anything to do with him.
How does Florida plan to defend South Carolina receiver Nyck Harbor?
Yeah, he's a really talented player. It's a mix of things, right? It's a mix of coverages and who's on him. You've got to do a little bit of both.
Ultimately, when the ball's in the air, you've got to want it more. And when you're going against 6-foot-5, 230, that can run, and then he puts his arms up and it feels like he's 10 feet, you've got to be a dog. You've got to play through the arms. You've got to play through the catch point. We've got to be violent. It's things that we need to continue to be better at.
I think if we want to get anywhere close to where we want to get to, when the ball's in the air, there has to be more of a dog mentality. Like, that is my ball.
There's too much survival mode right now and not enough hunting. We need to hunt. And so again, that's just words. Guys have to play confident.
Again, I believe in everybody in that room. Like I told them, I would much rather you go down freaking swinging and straining and playing hard than playing soft and playing like a coward.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Brad White identifies what went wrong for Florida's defense
