Colleges

Gators hope FSU performance wasn't a fluke

By Antonya English
Published January 1, 2008

ORLANDO - It was the biggest question mark entering the 2007 season, and for 11 games the Florida defense struggled to find itself while relying on 10 new starters.

But in the Gators' regular season finale against Florida State, Florida coaches finally saw a glimpse of what they were convinced was coming all along, although they had hoped it would be sooner.

The Gators held the Seminoles to 99 rushing and 188 passing yards, and shut out FSU in the second half of a 45-12 victory.

Now as No. 9 Florida closes out the season today against Michigan in the Capital One Bowl, a lot is riding on the defense. The Gators are hoping to find out that the performance against FSU wasn't a fluke, but the start of things to come. Florida desperately needs that defensive effort to carry over into this game - and ultimately the future.

"It's going to be a big-time challenge," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "I watched Michigan play a lot on film and their issue is a little bit like we had two years ago on offense. When their guys are hurt, they are struggling. From what I keep hearing everybody's going to be 100 percent, so there are a bunch of NFL players on that team, especially on offense. If they are all healthy, we're going to have our hands full."

For the first time in awhile, three of the Wolverines' biggest threats on offense are all healthy at the same time. Quarterback Chad Henne, running back Mike Hart and receiver Mario Manningham will be formidable opponents for Florida's defense.

Hart played in just nine games this season, but rushed for 1,232 yards, averaging nearly 137 yards per game. Florida held opponents to 99.3 yards per game on the ground, but at times had trouble with power runners like Hart.

"We've got to swarm the football," Florida co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison said. "You know when you look back at teams that you didn't do well against the run, it never really is a situation where they knocked you off the football, it's a situation where you didn't tackle. And when you're giving teams another set of downs and you're giving a team 5 yards instead of 3 yards, those all add up. And so we've worked real hard so far in postseason practices on swarming the football and running to the ball."

Throughout their struggles, the Gators' secondary was the weakest link. The Gators gave up 316 yards and 309 yards respectively to South Carolina and Florida Atlantic before the FSU game. But freshman Joe Haden is now healthy after an ankle injury that sidelined him in the FSU game and redshirt freshman Wondy Pierre-Louis is coming off one of his best games. Both have newfound confidence.

"The whole season we knew everybody had the ability, everybody had the talent, but we were just young and not sure what to do," said Haden, a converted quarterback. "But we've played a whole season now. The freshmen are not freshmen anymore and the sophomores and juniors have moved up. Everybody now is more comfortable in what we're asked to do."

They need to be. Because a healthy Henne is a bonus for the Wolverines. He missed three games and still passed for 1,565 yards. His primary receiver, Manningham, played in 11 games, gaining 1,096 yards, nearly 100 per game.

Henne said the Wolverines hope to counter Florida's advantage - its speed - with veteran players.

"The most impressive thing about their defense is their speed," Henne said. "Obviously they have tremendous speed. Yet, they are young, very young. And we're going to try to take advantage of that to compensate for their speed."

Florida had hoped that by now its youth wouldn't still be a part of the discussion. But the defense has yet to prove itself on a consistent basis. Which is a big part of what today's game is about for the Gators: Did they really turn the corner against FSU?

"We hoped it would jell faster," sophomore linebacker Dustin Doe said. "Coming into the season, we took it one day at a time, one game at a time. We knew we were inexperienced, but we didn't want to get down on ourselves and we didn't want to make excuses. It was in the back of everybody's mind, but nobody said anything about it. But we finally feel like we are at that point right now where there are no excuses. We've been through an entire season. We've been through ups; we've been through downs. I think now we're ready to be one of the best defenses in the nation. That all starts with how we well we play against Michigan."

Antonya English can be reached at english@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 31, 2007, 20:12:03]