Diabate Discusses Performance vs. Vanderbilt; Another Freshman Shines for Florida
One of several freshman defenders to post a breakout game this year, Florida Gators' BUCK pass rusher Mohamoud Diabate took advantage of his new opportunities on Saturday.
Diabate has been a chess piece moving across the Gators' defense on his 95 snaps this season, with time across the defensive line - primarily the BUCK pass rushing position - at inside linebacker, and both STAR nickel and outside cornerback. But following BUCK end Jeremiah Moon's season-ending foot injury, Diabate primarily played as a wide pass rusher on the line of scrimmage.
And he flourished.
The 6-2, 220 lb. end recorded three sacks on eight pass rushing snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. His 37.5% pressure rate led the team, and comparatively, Florida's leading pass rushers Jonathan Greenard and Jabari Zuniga have a season-long pressure rate of 14.3% and 14.7%, respectively.
"I feel great about it," Diabate said after Florida's shutout, 56-0 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday. "It was a pretty good performance, so I'm proud of myself for it."
Diabate was quick to give credit to his teammates for setting up his big plays. "I feel like coach Grantham called a great game," stated Diabate. "The rest of my teammates, the [defensive backs] had great coverage and Greenard off the other side, all that stuff helped me do what I was able to do.”
But in "crunch time" - Vanderbilt was moving the ball downfield and threatening to erase Florida's shutout of 35 points at the time - Diabate was the one setting plays up for his teammates.
Diabate was unaware that he had caused a fumble as he took Vanderbilt quarterback Deuce Wallace down.
"I heard everyone cheering and I thought they were just cheering for the sack," said Diabate. "Then, I saw Greenard running and I was like 'Oh snap, let me run too.' So I got up and I started chasing him but he was going pretty fast so I couldn't get him. I just turned to the sideline celebrating.”
Diabate continued breaking down the sack. "I wasn’t really thinking about a strip-sack, but then, when I came off the end, he wasn’t looking – you know, he’s a right-handed quarterback, so I was on his blindside. So, I was just like, ‘Let me take a swipe at it.’ I just thought I’d sacked him, and then I looked up and saw Jon running, and I was like, ‘Wow.’”
His breakout performance falls in line with several other true freshmen for the Gators this season.
Cornerback Kaiir Elam has started three games this season, including the Vanderbilt game, and recorded an interception in back-to-back games against UT-Martin and Kentucky earlier in the season. Jaydon Hill and Chester Kimbrough have also flashed throughout the year with, allowing a combined 41.7% of targets (12) to be completed. The duo has also broken up three passes, and totaled 10 tackles across four games apiece.
Another BUCK end to breakout has been Khris Bogle. The 6-6, 216 lb. had two productive performances against UT-Martin and Tennessee, posting 1.5 sacks, three QB pressures, and six "stops" - a stat PFF defines as a tackle that constitutes a "failure" for the offense - in those performances.
Right guard Ethan White has had quite the story from his time at Clearwater High School through his first year at Florida. He enrolled in the spring weighing 393 lbs. as a three-star guard prospect. By fall camp, White was slimmed down to 337 lbs., and he started his first career game against Vanderbilt. White allowed only one QB pressure on 46 pass blocking snaps.
Head coach Dan Mullen was happy with Diabate's performance, and acknowledged the success his 2019 signing class has found so far.
"Yeah, pretty good," Mullen said of Diabate. "Well, let me see here, he had 3 sacks. That’s a pretty good day, right? When you’re talking next guy up mentality, okay, we’ve done that all year. I know we play a lot of young guys, we try to rotate a lot of guys, like I want to do. We played a lot of guys today, we played them early which was, one thing I want to make sure, we got guys into the flow of the game right away and we were able to do that both offensively and defensively, and I think it paid off for us as the game went on.”
