Florida football saw glaring issues hinder its effectiveness on both sides of the ball in a 45-17 loss to Missouri, but with the Gators set for a Homecoming bout against South Carolina on Saturday, defensive coordinator Brad White and offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner spoke on exactly what needs to be improved ahead of Florida’s 12:45 p.m. kick.
“You want it to sting,” White said. “A lot of people just say ‘flush the tape, burn the tape,’ whatever, you can’t, man. You have to learn from it so you don’t experience it again.”
The biggest issue White’s defense had in Missouri — and through all five weeks thus far — was allowing explosive plays.
The Gators allowed longs of 47, 36 and 29 yards to three different receivers as Missouri quarterback Austin Simmons threw for 340 yards. Limiting those inadequate reps in man coverage that allowed multiple long passing touchdowns will be imperative for a Florida defense looking to rebound against South Carolina.
“We’ve got to eliminate those plays,” White said. “We won’t be a good defense until we do that, and then at that point, then you can start playing competitive football.”
Moreover, despite a strong run defense early on, Florida allowed Mizzou running back Jamal Roberts to break away for 77- and 80-yard rushes in the second half. As White explained: “It doesn’t matter that you played 30 good reps and two bad reps. If the two bad reps are really freaking bad, then it’s all bad.”
Another major improvement that needs to be made is the ability to face adversity and fight back when the going gets tough, but the defensive coordinator knows “it’s all talk until we do it.”
“When one thing goes bad, what we can’t do is we can’t melt, we can’t wither,” White said. “We’ve got to be able to respond in those moments.”
In his eyes, the way to get his defense back on track is getting it to play with an edge.
White said everyone understands they have to limit big, explosive plays, and that starts with playing with more violence and playing through the catch point.
“There has to be more of a dog mentality,” he said. “There’s too much survival mode right now and not enough hunting. We need to hunt … I told them, ‘I would much rather you go down fricking swinging and straining and playing hard than playing soft and playing like a coward.’”
That mindset and playstyle will be put to the test against a South Carolina team led by quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who White said is as talented a physical quarterback as he’s played against in his career, especially with how well Sellers runs the football. White even compared Sellers to NFL running back Saquon Barkley because of his extreme lower-body strength and ability to stay off the ground.
Florida's offense didn’t fare much better at Missouri either. It rushed for just 42 yards and found the end zone only twice.
Faulkner attributed the lack of efficiency to his offense being off-schedule and unable to find a rhythm all game. Quarterback Aaron Philo was forced to pass a season-high 34 times in the loss, and he completed just 21 of those passes. It was the most he’s had to throw all season by a large margin, with his second-highest number of passing attempts being 23 against Ole Miss.
“It’s tough when you drop back as much as we did and you’re off rhythm and [the] defensive line gets to pin their ears,” Faulkner said. “Overall, we’ve got to play better. We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to all do it better. It wasn’t just [Philo], it was all across the board.”
With the Gators trailing 27-10 by their first possession of the second half, they were forced to turn to a predictable passing game with a large number of drop backs. It didn’t help that Florida’s offense faced 10 situations of third-and-10 or longer, and an inability to stay ahead of the chains is what allowed the game to get out of hand.
Philo was sacked three times, and multiple long-down situations kept Florida’s offense at bay. Faulkner said once the Gators were forced to punt trailing 27-10 in the third quarter, the lack of rhythm and momentum snowballed from there.
But the offensive coordinator was adamant the Missouri performance wasn’t indicative of UF’s identity from an offensive standpoint, and the Gators aren’t shying away from accountability.
“There’s no hiding from it, no running from it,” Faulkner said. “We’re not running from it. We’re all in this thing together. There’s a lot of football left to be played.”
The need for improvement creates a potent mixture of owning the loss to Missouri but not dwelling on the past. Florida’s coaching staff has harped on the need to embrace the loss and ensure the experience isn’t repeated.
There’s a lot to clean up on both sides of the ball, but with a 4-1 (2-1 SEC) record and a top-10 win over Ole Miss, there are still plenty of positives to lean on as Florida looks to bring its best to Ben Hill Griffin for Homecoming on Saturday.
“We need to make sure that at the end of this week, that is the outlier,” Faulkner said. “We have played some good football, and you’re able to still draw on that, so I don’t think they’ve lost confidence in that. I think they understand that on any given Saturday in the SEC, you’ve got to bring your A game, and that’s the bottom line.”
Contact Curan Ahern at cahern@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @CuranAhern.
Curan is a senior sports journalism student in his sixth semester at The Alligator. He is currently a sports editor and football beat reporter for the Gators and the Jaguars. He previously served as a men's tennis and sports enterprise reporter, and he is pursuing a public relations minor.
