Steve Sarkisian Breaks Down What Makes Florida Gators So Good

The Texas Longhorns look to kickstart the conference portion of their 2025 schedule off on the right foot when they take a visit down to Gainesville to take on the Florida Gators, who currently find their season sliding away with a 1-3 start, as they look for a big-time win themselves to course-correct their season.

Much of the attention will be placed on the two young quarterbacks under center for both teams, with Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning and Gators quarterback DJ Lagway. And for good reason, as both quarterbacks were highly ranked prospects coming out of high school and were predicted to be among the best college quarterbacks ahead of the 2025 season.

While the focus is on the offenses, one of the biggest factors in determining the outcome of Saturday's game will be the performance of the two defenses. As the Longhorns' defense is heralded as one of the top units in all of college football, and as Steve Sarkisian pointed out, the Gators' defense should prove to be a tough challenge for Texas' offense.

Sarkisian Discusses Florida's Defense

Florida Gators linebacker Myles Graham (5) tackles South Florida Bulls quarterback Byrum Brown (17) during the first quarter. | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

As Sarkisian talked about at a SEC teleconference availability on Wednesday, pointing out the strengths of the Gators' defense, starting with defensive coordinator Ron Roberts, who heads into his second season as the Gators' defense coordinator.

"First, it starts with Ron Roberts, the defensive coordinator," Sarkisian said. "I think he does a great job. Been doing it a long time at a really high level. They play together really well. You know, they've got a very stout defensive front that allows them to play a lot of split safety defense, and then coordinating that front with the back end."

Roberts is in his second season as the Gators' defensive coordinator, where he has helped improve Florida's defense from before he got there in 2023 to his first year in charge in 2024. As Florida's defense improved in many categories from including sacks, tackles for loss, forced fumbles, pass breakups, interceptions and turnovers gained, all of which increased by double digits.

Sarkisian also mentioned two of the standouts of the Gators' defense, singling out Florida's linebackers, who, as Sarkisian elaborated, are responsible for a lot of the communication and outcomes of the defense.

"Obviously puts a lot of pressure on the two linebackers, and their ability to play the run and the pass, I think it's probably what makes them special," Sarkisian said. "Because there's a lot of times they don't have the outnumbered in the box, and those guys have to get off blocks and make tackles, but at the same token, they're required to essentially play man coverage on tight ends and running backs, and they do a great job of that. And so their versatility to do both and to tie the front with the back end speaks to not only the physical ability of those two guys, but the football IQ that they play with."

Florida currently has two linebackers in its top five leading tacklers on the season. Second-year linebacker Myles Graham leads the charge with the most on the team with 24 tackles (13 solo) and two pass deflections. Junior linebacker Jaden Robinson ranks fourth on the team in tackles with 14 tackles (nine solo), two pass deflections, and a forced fumble.