Florida looks to improve defense against A&M

Through two games, the fourthranked Florida Gators have done just about anything they wanted on offense.

Their defensive performance is another story. They’ve given up 942 yards and 59 points in two games this season, and they’re looking to fix that today when they visit No. 21 Texas A&M.

“These past two weeks have been unacceptable for me, personally,” linebacker Amari Burney said. “You know, just talking with the coaches, my parents, watching film, it’s been unacceptable on my part just being a starter and not doing my job.”

The Gators (2-0) have been especially unhappy with their inability to get off the field consistently on third and fourth downs. Teams have converted 15 of 31 third-down attempts against them and 5 of 7 fourth-down opportunities.

“You can’t get complacent when the offense is scoring so many points and then we don’t stop them on defense,” Burney said. “The defense has to go out there and start making stops instead of just giving the team life back and let them score on us.”

Florida’s defense has allowed an average of 327.5 yards passing a game and will now face Texas A&M’s veteran quarterback Kellen Mond, who is coming off a 318-yard passing performance in a loss to No. 2 Alabama.

“It starts with the quarterback, I mean, because we played this quarterback … when I was at Mississippi State,” defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. “Just looking at the development of the quarterback and the way (coach) Jimbo (Fisher) has developed quarterbacks over the course of his career, you can see that they’ve really improved him from that standpoint.”

Mond and the Aggies (1-1) will try to get back on track after the 52-24 loss to the Crimson Tide. Fisher faced criticism for Texas A&M’s poor performance against Alabama in his third season with the Aggies after signing a 10-year, $75 million contract.