Todd Grantham on his unit's performance against Kentucky

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Todd Grantham on his unit’s performance against Kentucky: ‘We got our tails kicked, you can’t hide that’



Saturday night proved how far Dan Mullen’s Florida program has to go before the expectations of the Gator fan base can realistically be met. Coming off an impressive 53-6 win over Charleston Southern in the season opener, expectations were immediately raised in Gainesville, with some erroneously projecting the Gators to compete with Georgia and South Carolina for the East title as soon as this season.

One week later, following a 27-16 loss at home to Kentucky, things have changed drastically in Gainesville.

While Mullen shoulders the blame of his program’s failings, the unit that disappointed the most last weekend was Todd Grantham’s defense. The Gators gave up 454 yards to a Kentucky team with an unproven quarterback in Terry Wilson, allowed the Wildcats to convert on nine of 13 third-down attempts and gave up an incredible 303 rushing yards at home.

During his Monday press availability, Grantham did not shy away from the issues experienced from his unit over the weekend.

“We got our tails kicked, you can’t hide that. We always talk about playing to a standard, playing to an identity and we didn’t do that,” Grantham said to the media. “We always talk about stopping the run and affecting the quarterback, we didn’t do either one in the game and didn’t give ourselves a chance to win because of that.”

It’s one thing to admit and identify the issues of the unit but correcting those issues is another concern. The longtime SEC defensive coordinator believes he knows how to fix his unit but it sounds like it may be up to his players to buy-in fully before things can change in Gainesville.

“The biggest thing is looking for solutions and the thing with that is there is a certain level of physicality you have to play with up front,” Grantham continued. “You have to be able to set the edge, you have to be able to strike blockers and really trust that you are going to stay in your gap and the other guy is going to be in his gap. So when guys start freelancing, you create seams so that’s something you have to work on.”

Fortunately for the Gators, Colorado State is coming to town for a get-right game before facing an SEC gauntlet: at Tennessee, at Mississippi State, at home against LSU, at Vanderbilt followed by Georgia in Jacksonville. While most of those games may have appeared to be wins after Week 1, if the defense doesn’t shore up its issues soon, Florida could be in a real battle in each and every single contest listed there.
 

Tay Bang

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Fortunately for the Gators, Colorado State is coming to town for a get-right game before facing an SEC gauntlet: at Tennessee, at Mississippi State, at home against LSU, at Vanderbilt followed by Georgia in Jacksonville.

Not quite the usual Gauntlet
 

G8trwood

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He should have said, WTF, Charlston ran 220 on us and kicked everyone’s arse, But decided to have light practices instead cuz the players weren’t into it
 

maheo30

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I didn't like the Grantham hire. But, I'm not sure it was all his fault. What is he supposed to do about guys like Polite getting destroyed? Same with Moon. Even Slaton, as big as he is, was moved around on a consistent basis. When your defenders are being beaten that badly, I don't know what a DC can do.
 

Silverback Gator

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I didn't like the Grantham hire. But, I'm not sure it was all his fault. What is he supposed to do about guys like Polite getting destroyed? Same with Moon. Even Slaton, as big as he is, was moved around on a consistent basis. When your defenders are being beaten that badly, I don't know what a DC can do.
And I thought we would be stout on DL/DB. :(

Grantham should have known we weren't ready but I guess it's hard to guage our defense when it's playing our offense. We probably looked good in practice but it was against our offense so who knows.
 

t-gator

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Csu is coming to town for a "get right " game lol. We'll be very lucky to win this one.
 

78

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A Dwag to me is someone who not only coached there, but played there as well. This guy's your typical carpet bagging journeyman. Coached at his alma mater, Virginia Tech, longer than anywhere.

I remember thinking how disgusting Rodman and the Bad Boy Pistons were after they sent my Bulls packing in the East finals in '90. Rodman, Laimbeer, Isiah. Hated 'em all.

Well, lo and behold, I became a huge Rodman fan when he helped us to 72-10 in '95-96.
 

Silverback Gator

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A Dwag to me is someone who not only coached there, but played there as well. This guy's your typical carpet bagging journeyman. Coached at his alma mater, Virginia Tech, longer than anywhere.
I'm not saying Grantham will do poorly here, I hope he does extremely well. But he'd better identify the players we need and hit the recruiting trail. He's making a million or so a year? Life saving neurosurgeons make less.
 

78

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I'm not saying Grantham will do poorly here, I hope he does extremely well. But he'd better identify the players we need and hit the recruiting trail. He's making a million or so a year? Life saving neurosurgeons make less.
Diddo that.
 

FireFoley

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Filthy, stinking, flea-infested dawg. It disgusts me seeing him on our sideline.

I think he is a terrible DC and always have. But the head coach is in charge of the entire team, so it is on him. And if I am not mistaken it was Cousin Eddie that brought "Joe Lee Dunn Jr." with him and was not forced to do so by Stricknine!!!
 

BMF

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The DL's been beating up on our sh*tty OL for too long, thinking they're good. Well, they found out they're sh*tty too.

All we can hope for is that the DL got a wake up call and change their attitude. Otherwise, it's going to be a longer season than we thought it was going to be. If we can get to 6-6 it will be a miracle. If Mullen wins 7 games with this bunch, he should be a serious contender for SEC COY.
 

alcoholica

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He was honest about the ass kickin, so he got one thing right this year
 

Gator Fever

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I didn't like the Grantham hire. But, I'm not sure it was all his fault. What is he supposed to do about guys like Polite getting destroyed? Same with Moon. Even Slaton, as big as he is, was moved around on a consistent basis. When your defenders are being beaten that badly, I don't know what a DC can do.

Yep even though Slaton pushed the guys back many times they still positioned him to create the gap they needed usually.
 

TN G8tr

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He owned it, now fix it.

Not a fan of his at all, but at least he wasn't talking about how "kewl" things are.
 

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