As UF defensive backs Major Wright, Joe Haden and Ahmad Black left the Gators' team hotel on Saturday morning, safeties coach Chuck Heater stopped them.
The trio was about to head out for a press conference to be peppered with questions about slowing down Oklahoma's vaunted offense in Thursday's BCS National Championship Game, but Heater wanted to give his players something else to think about first.
"[Heater] said, 'What are y'all about to do? Last year everybody was making fun of y'all,'" Haden said. "That's what happens in a year."
Indeed, the Gators' 2007 secondary was a joke, but what the unit has accomplished this season is no laughing matter.
Just a year removed from being the weakest link of a disappointing 9-4 squad, UF's cornerbacks and safeties have provided key stops and even touchdowns this season, a performance that warrants a large chunk of credit for a team rebounding to play on college football's biggest stage.
The Gators have tied a school record with 24 interceptions and set another by returning five of those picks for touchdowns. They've also allowed 84 less passing yards per game and surrendered nine fewer passing scores.
Those numbers would have been unimaginable a year ago after UF's last bowl game, but before the Gators' secondary could blossom into a playmaking unit, it had to hit rock bottom.
Carved Up
UF entered last season's Capital One Bowl as a big favorite against Michigan, as the Wolverines' defense was supposed to be easy prey for Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and the Gators' offense.
But it was Michigan quarterback Chad Henne and Michigan's offense that had their way. Henne passed for 373 yards and three touchdowns and the Wolverines piled up 524 total yards in their 41-35 win.
Henne's output, along with Kentucky quarterback Andre Woodson's 415 yards earlier that season, rank as the worst secondary performances in four years under coach Urban Meyer, who said he found it hard to imagine his pass defense would improve much at the time.
"I was very disturbed, like most people, when I watched that game," Meyer said of the Michigan loss.
The game was the last straw for UF's defensive backs, who were tired of being labeled as the team's Achilles' heel.
"That was one of the turning points," said Wright, a St. Thomas Aquinas High graduate. "The (defensive backs), we sucked that game. We took that as we can't have another season like that."
Wright said the players had one-on-one meetings with coaches to evaluate their play, their potential and how they could best serve the team, but before the secondary could get into X's and O's, it needed an attitude change.
Bouncing Back
Black, who leads the team with six interceptions and two touchdowns, said secondary members have had contests throughout the season to see who can make the most interceptions in practice.
It sounds like an ordinary idea, but competitions like that were nowhere to be found in 2007.
"This year, it's more fun," Black said. "We're winning ballgames. Last year, it was like, 'Just get through practice, whatever.'"
That mindset was a big problem for the young secondary, which featured three first-year starters, but this season's group - along with freshman starter Janoris Jenkins - has jelled by putting in extra time.
"To tell you the truth, last year I felt like our secondary was out there playing just to play," Wright said. "We never communicated much. This year we're out there communicating, we know the play before it even starts, we watch a lot of film, and we do a lot of stuff we didn't do last year."
The Final Test
Haden, Jenkins, Wright and Black could remain as a starting group for two more seasons, leaving a possibility for the group to become one of the best ever in Gainesville, but they'll have a chance to cement a legacy this week, when they face one of the most dynamic offenses in college football history.
Oklahoma has put up an NCAA-record 702 points this season and is riding a five-game streak of scoring 60 points or more.
Quarterback Sam Bradford, who topped UF's Tebow for the Heisman Trophy, has engineered those totals, tossing 48 touchdowns with just six interceptions, and he poses by far the toughest challenge the Gators' secondary has faced this season.
But there's a new-found swagger in Florida's defensive backfield. The Gators' defensive backs aren't fazed by the Sooners' gaudy statistics.
In fact, there is no one else they would rather face.
"This is what we wanted," Haden said. "We wanted it this way all season. With the way we've been playing and practicing, we're just confident in ourselves that we can get the job done."
