Grantham: Florida Gators 2020 Defensive Issues Are ‘Irrelevant Now’
It's springtime in Gainesville, and for the first time since 2019, the Florida Gators will get a chance to improve its football program developmental-wise.
The team needs it, particularly on defense, and Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham didn't mince words on Wednesday when asked about the loss of development time last year, clearly moving forward to this season and its importance to his young athletes.
"I want to talk about this year and moving forward," Grantham said frankly on Tuesday. "We have spring practice now. The issues and reasons before are really irrelevant now in the sense that it is what it is. We’re going to play good this year, and with the young players we have we’re going to continue to develop and grow."
Florida is in a new position. Last season, the team was forced to close down its facilities shortly prior to spring football beginning due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. This meant that the young players who were poised to begin their first collegiate season were robbed of months of development time, something that shouldn't ever be taken for granted.
"I think when you’re a young player, particularly maybe a guy that came in, for example, (freshman cornerback) Jason Marshall is coming in this year. Well, he’s getting a lot of reps right now," Grantham said of the differences from last year to this year.
"Whereas the guys that came in last year at this time really got nothing until we started in August. So my focus is on the young team that we have right now and getting better. That’s what I’ll talk about.”
Florida is clearly moving forward with its young players at the core of its defense. Players such as Marshall, an SI All-American, will be getting key repetitions throughout spring that can propel him to earn some early playing time this fall. The development of the young players can lead to success, especially with a defense devoid of depth.
But, with all of the young players in the fold, does that mean the veterans can take it easy, not necessarily needing the practice time this spring? Not at all says Grantham, it's still important for older players to get the reps, albeit less than younger guys, they can get.
“That’s kind of the beauty of spring. I’ve talked about the young players; they’re starting at ground zero. But in your development, you can also have guys like Zach Carter, Ventrell Miller, even Mohamoud (Diabate) to a certain extent, Kaiir Elam," says Grantham.
"Those guys have played a lot of snaps for us, but once you watch the tape there are still things those guys can continue to work on to become the players they want to be. So if everybody’s moving up and working to improve themselves as a player individually and we take a team approach, then our team is better.
"So that’s a part of spring where you might give Zach a third of the reps say a young guy gets, like Justus Boone or Princely (Umanmielen). But yet in those reps he can work on things that maybe we’ve discussed to make him a more complete player, which makes your team better.”
Both Miller and Carter are returning for their fifth, and likely final season with Florida. While they are core leaders within a pack of, essentially, puppies on defense, they can still learn plenty with the reps they do receive during the spring, working to get better and improve on last season.
While Grantham did want to move forward, he still offered some keys to what the defense as a whole must improve on heading into 2021, affecting the quarterback and playing "hard" against the run.
"We’ve done that in the past and we’ll continue to work to do that this year. Like I said, we have a lot of young players that will continue to develop and reach those goals.”
As the spring presses forward, Grantham, the Gators defense, and the team as a whole will continue to press forward, putting 2020 in the rearview mirror.
