Gators Co-DC Sean Spencer breaks down his defensive line group

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In his first year with the Gators, co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Sean Spencer inherits a young but talented group for the 2022 season.

Spencer has a total of 10 scholarship players at his position, including a half dozen underclassmen with 16 combined game appearances in reserve roles. Despite the inexperience, there’s a lot of potential with Spencer’s group.

Nine of Spencer’s 10 defensive linemen were rated four-star recruits, with the exception being former five-star and top-10 overall prospect Gervon Dexter Sr. Seven of the 10 players were also ranked in the top 300 nationally.

Coach Chaos comes over from the New York Giants, where his defensive line registered 40 sacks in 2020. During Spencer’s last college stint, his units at Penn State made at least 40 sacks for five consecutive seasons.

“You get real good players, that helps you out. So, when you got those good players, you make a lot of sacks,” Spencer said this week. “Carl Nassib when I was at Penn State had 15 and a half sacks, so he was a really good player. But in my opinion, every guy has to touch on that ball, so each guy has a chance and an opportunity. Whether it’s schematically or physically, those guys can excel to their potential.

“And I think once they buy into that it’s the group and if you do what you’re supposed to do — if you’re on left side and you hold point, and this guy does an up-and-under move and you’re standing where you’re supposed to be — then we got a chance to sack as a group. So, we all celebrate together.”

Dexter will get the sack party started for the Gators this season. He was named a preseason All-American by Sporting News and Walter Camp along with preseason All-SEC by Athlon, Phil Steele and the media at SEC Media Days.

Dexter hasn’t let those accolades and mock draft projections go to his head, putting in extra work this offseason as he transitions to playing more defensive end under Spencer.

“I think he’s a student of the game,” Spencer said of Dexter. “He’s constantly in my office trying to perfect his craft. One time I asked him, ‘Could I borrow my office so you could get out of here one or two times?’”

Spencer admittedly doesn’t like comparing players but made an exception for Dexter when discussing him on Tuesday. Spencer likened the 6-foot-6, 312-pound junior to a pair of first-round picks he coached with the Giants.

“I’m careful making comparisons, but I will. He reminds me a lot of a combination of Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence. Not as big as Dex, but kind of more Leonard’s body type. And he can do some things in the short area with his quickness, and he’s got good length and all those things that he can really create one-on-one pass rush moves,” Spencer said of Dexter. “But I don’t like to compare. Those two guys are first-round picks, so that’s a lot it to put on him. But as I talk to him, I do say there are many similarities between you and those guys right there.”

Florida must replace starting defensive end and third-round pick Zachary Carter along with defensive tackles Daquan Newkirk, Tyrone Truesdell and Antonio Valentino.

Who else will step up on the defensive line along with Dexter? He has two players in mind.

“I would say Jalen Lee and Princely [Umanmielen],” Dexter said. “Both of those guys came in with me and I feel like I just watched them grow up. I just like both of them. They haven’t been able to see the field as much, but I can see how they’ve grown because I came in with him. Those are two guys who can play.”

Lee and Umanmielen both made their first career starts in the Gasparilla Bowl last season. Umanmielen saw action in all 13 games and collected 17 tackles (nine solo), 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble, while Lee appeared in eight games and had nine tackles for the year.

“Both of those guys had really good springs,” Spencer said of Lee and Umanmielen. “Obviously Princely played a lot of football last year. Jalen not as much, but he did play some. He had a rotational role there. We expect them to ascend from where they were prior. In the spring, they had a level. I want it to go up a notch. I’m excited about both guys.

“I think Jalen Lee is a technician. He’s on the tape all the time as the example of how to do things. The thing is he’s not as big as those guys. He’s not as big as Big G or Des, right? So, he has to be exact in his technique, and he works on that. And I think Princely is really a guy who has not even reached a ceiling of where he can go.”

A young defensive lineman to watch this season is Tyreak Sapp, the highest-rated recruit at the position behind Dexter and one of the top signees in the Gators’ 2021 class. He arrived on campus late last fall and did not make any game appearances.

However, Sapp showed up in the Orange & Blue Game, forcing a fumble on his tackle for loss.

“He had a heck of a spring, right? He had a heck of a spring,” Spencer said of Sapp. “Just unbelievable football player, great energy, work ethic, always. He’s a guy that I use as the example a lot of times in the meetings to show ’em how we want to practice. He’s got great a skill set, powerful kid. We’re excited about him.

“No one rises to low expectations, so the expectation is set for him to be one of those ascending players. But obviously, we keep it grounded with that. We’re not going to use that every day. I want him to be consistent just like I’m going to be in teaching.”

Another promising player at Spencer’s position is redshirt freshman defensive end Justus Boone, who was ranked No. 136 nationally by On3 in the 2021 class. He has changed his jersey number, switching from 91 to 12, and bulked up during the offseason.

Boone also stepped up from a leadership standpoint.

“One of the great things I saw in the end of spring was Justus Boone got on one of the players before I did,” Spencer recalled. “He turned around and he said, ‘That’s not what we do. We expect more.’ And when you start to get them talking like that, man, it can be special.”

Defensive tackles Jaelin Humphries, Chris Thomas Jr., Desmond Watson, Chris McClellan and Jamari Lyons round out Florida’s D-line. After being removed from the roster in June, Thomas rejoined the team Thursday and Gators coach Billy Napier called his return “a big deal” for depth purposes.

Watson, who was listed at 415 pounds in the spring, continues to work with the staff to get his weight down. He has needed to take breaks from position drills during the first week of fall camp.

“He’s working at it. He’s very persistent in getting himself in playing shape. That’s kind of all we are concerned about. We just want him to be in great playing shape,” Spencer said of Watson. “He’s really bought into doing what he’s supposed to do off the field to get him himself right to play. And it’s just more about conditioning, because if you watch the guy he can move at that size. I mean, it’s pretty incredible. It’s like it’s a wonder that he can move like that.

“So, he can hold points and do things like that, but what we’re trying to do with Des is just not make him a guy that’s just a two-gap stop guy. We’re trying to make that guy a complete football player. So, I don’t treat Des any different than I treat Big G in terms of what I expect him to do on the defensive line.”