Defense wants to dominate again
Jefferson vows unit will step up from last season
GAINESVILLE The Florida Gators’ defense needed answers — and fast — but CeCe Jefferson had no idea what to say.
Jefferson, one of the unit’s leaders, was shellshocked and speechless.
Three consecutive firstquarter touchdowns by archrival Georgia last October had put the Gators in a 21-0 hole and left a vaunted defense in shambles. When all eyes turned to Jefferson, he was a man without a plan.
“It happened so fast,” he said this week at SEC Media Days. “Then they’re looking to me as a leader. I kinda didn’t know what to do myself. I was kinda stuck.”
It would get only worse for Jefferson and a unit long among the nation’s elite.
A week after the 42-7 thrashing by the rival Bulldogs, the eventual SEC champions, Gators went to struggling Missouri and were trounced 45-16.
This time, Jefferson, a three-year starter, morphed from a man without a voice into a hot mess.
“I feel like I had a lot to do with losing that game,” he said. “I take that one personally. That wasn’t my best performance.
“After that game, I cried for so long.”
Jefferson also came to a decision: he would return to UF for his senior season rather than enter the NFL draft.
“After that Missouri game is when I kinda realized like, ‘CeCe yeah you ain’t ready,’” he recalled.
The 21-year-old is now ready to make the most of his final chance and help put UF’s defense back on familiar footing.
The 2017 Gators ranked outside the nation’s top-15 defenses for the first time since 2007 and allowed 27.3 points per game.
The blowout losses against Georgia and Missouri, along with a 38-22 season-ending flop at home to struggling Florida State sealed a 4-7 finish to a season that featured a shocking string of defensive collapses.
Texas A&M tailback Trayveon Williams still cannot believe how the bottom fell out for the once dominant Gators.
Williams, one of the SEC’s top tailbacks, finished a 19-17 win Oct. 14 in the Swamp with season-low 18 yards. The explosive Aggies managed just 263 yards.
“That defense went out and slowed us down,” Williams said at SEC Media Days. “I can definitely say it does shock me because when we played that was a great group of guys. I’m surprised those guys had the derailing that they did.”
Entering the Georgia game, the Gators also were faced with some highly unusual circumstances. Head coach Jim McElwain was expected to be fired soon after the game.
“There was a lot of stuff going into that game,” linebacker David Reese said. “We kind of knew the situation before the game. But there’s no excuse for the performance we had, but it was just a lot.”
The Gators now have a new head coach, a new defensive coordinator and a group of players eager to prove performances like the one at Missouri are unacceptable.
“It was a very tough time because that’s not the Gator standard,” Jefferson said. “We, as a unit, we knew that we had more talent than most of those teams and we could have put on a better display than we did. It was an embarrassing feeling and one that myself and this team doesn’t want to feel again.”
Jefferson injured his shoulder during the spring game and has not been cleared for contact. Once he is, Jefferson, who had a team-high 13.5 tackles for loss last season, should thrive as a pass rusher in Todd Grantham’s 3-4 scheme.