Billy Napier addresses what could be 'historically bad' defense at Florida

Florida has lost three games this season, all to ranked opponents, but the Gators have been fairly competitive in each loss. If not for a defense trending toward historically bad again, first-year coach Billy Napier could be in a significantly different spot midway through the season.

A local reporter questioned Napier about those defensive results, wondering whether it’s ‘shocking’ how bad the defense is despite having some probable NFL players on the unit.

“I think statistically there are a lot of areas where we need to improve,” Napier said. “I don’t know what you want me to answer to that, but we’re right in the middle of it. There’s nobody that’s ignoring the problem. I think we’ve got a group of people that really care about doing their job better and that’s what they’re going to try to do.”

Here are some of the raw statistics for that Florida defense.

The unit ranks tied for No. 108 nationally in total defense, giving up 429.3 yards per game. It ranks No. 108 nationally in run defense, allowing 185.0 yards per game on the ground. Florida checks in a little better at No. 90 nationally in pass defense, giving up 244.3 passing yards per game.

Finally, the Gators have allowed opponents to score 28.1 points per game, good for No. 81 nationally.

All of that has Florida at just 4-3 on the season prior to its annual showdown with No. 1 Georgia in Jacksonville following the team’s bye this week.

Historically bad defense hindering Florida

That Florida’s defense remains bad in 2022 probably shouldn’t be overly surprising. Previous defensive coordinator Todd Grantham fielded one of the worst defenses in school history in 2020 and 2021, perhaps one of the main reasons Dan Mullen now has the word “former” in front of Florida coach on his resume.

Grantham’s defense gave up 30.8 points per game in 2020, the most it had allowed in a season since 1917.

So far this season every opponent has scored at least 17 on Florida, including Eastern Washington and Missouri. LSU scored 45 most recently, Tennessee 38, South Florida 28.

If the Gators don’t get it together soon, Napier will be facing far more scrutiny than he cares to in Year 1.

He assured fans nobody on staff is overlooking the problem, so we’ll see what he and the Florida defense can come up with in the way of answers during the bye week. Georgia looms with an offense currently scoring 41.7 points per game.

The Bulldogs will enter the annual rivalry against the Gators as 21.5-point favorites, according to current lines listed by VegasInsider.com.