Dakota Mitchell Details His Fit at Florida Gators STAR Position
In Sports Illustrated's debut recruiting rankings, positions that you won't usually find on other sites such as nickel cornerback and edge rusher could be found to provide a better projection based on modern football schemes.
Florida Gators 2021 commit Dakota Mitchell cracked the top ten nationally at his position - nickel cornerback - coming in at No. 8. The nickel cornerback, known as the STAR at Florida, is considered one of the most important positions on the field within the Gators defense given its multitude of responsibilities.
"A guy that can blitz, a guy that can cover, a guy that can set the edge in the run game," defensive coordinator Todd Grantham described the position in August. "You've got to be able to do a little bit of all of that to play that position because that's kind of where the game has went, is being able to have a versatile player there from the stance of a guy that can have corner/safety skills and kind of mix that all together."
Safeties coach Ron English, who has primarily recruited Mitchell from Winter Park (Fla.), has already told Mitchell to prepare to play STAR at the next level, which is what he wants to do.
"I love playing nickel because I can stay in the box, and I can move out whenever I need to," Mitchell told Sports Illustrated-AllGators. "Coach English was saying when I get to Florida, I need to be ready as soon as I get there because that's what we're going to be working on most of the time."
Mitchell has played deep safety and nickel cornerback, as well as wide receiver and running back, for Winter Park. Time spent on offense has taught him intricacies of that side of the ball, which Mitchell says he applies at nickel cornerback to act as a ball-hawk in coverage and understand where slot receivers will run their routes.
"When I play offense, I'm a ball-hawk," said Mitchell. "Whenever the ball is in the air, I react real quick and stuff, I've got real good hands... When I'm on offense I know how to get by defenders. So when I do that, I bring it to defense. I know what a slot receiver's going to do now, because I've played it and I know it."
Offensively, Mitchell says he'll focus even more at slot receiver this season rather than on the outside, which should only continue to sharpen his understanding of what will be ahead of him in college.
The STAR position at Winter Park this season, however, is a little less traditional.
Instead of hovering slot receivers or tight ends, Winter Park's STAR operates more like a Robber in the middle of the defense. He has man coverage responsibilities, but there are paths for Mitchell to act as a free defender within the scheme.
"[Winter Park has] got me in the middle of the field, and I'm just reading [the No. 3 receiver]," said Mitchell. "If he does a route or something I might take him man-to-man. If 3 goes away, I look at the quarterback. I just back up, I'm like a free-hitter and a free-player, basically."
That flexibility allows Mitchell to read the quarterback's eyes and make plays in coverage based on where the quarterback directs the play. It also provides Mitchell with the ability to rush the passer, something he'll do in Florida's STAR role off of the edge.
"It's kinda fun because it's different," Mitchell continued. "We got blitzes, we've got calls where I can blitz from the outside, blitz from the inside. But if its a run play, we usually send a linebacker, so the linebacker can go and then I replace the linebacker. I'm just in the middle, I'm head-to-head with the quarterback."
Florida has begun to recruit more exclusively at the position as of late, securing a commitment from Mitchell and signing Tre'Vez Johnson in the 2020 class. Before that, the coaching staff moved players such as Trey Dean III, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Amari Burney, and Marco Wilson from previous positions to the STAR, yielding mixed results.
Dean has moved away from STAR, while Wilson and Burney, both juniors, will spend some time there along with other primary spots. Meaning, when Mitchell is enrolled and Johnson has gotten more up to speed on his responsibilities, the STAR room could belong to the two of them.
"That gets me hype, and gets me ready," said Mitchell. "I'm just ready to ball out, really. I just want to compete and get a starting spot as soon as possible. But, really, I'm just ready to compete with everybody."