Although Florida routed Florida Atlantic 66-21 in the Gators’ season opener last week, first-year coach Jon Sumrall said he wants to see some changes on defense.
The Gators (1-0) will try to make those adjustments on Saturday when they host Campbell in Gainesville, Fla.
The Fighting Camels are 2-0 for the first time since 2018 and are riding the high of Sunday’s 28-19 win against Western Carolina, which entered the game ranked No. 24 in FCS.
During his weekly press conference, Sumrall talked about what changes he’s seeking.
“The biggest is situational awareness and football IQ,” he said. “Like, if it’s third-and-1, you can’t play 9 yards off at corner. That comes with teaching. I thought maybe we were past that, but we can’t forget that all those little details matter.”
The Gators forced three turnovers against the Owls, including interceptions by DJ Coleman and Dijon Johnson, and stopped Florida Atlantic on fourth down three times. But they gave up 396 yards of offense.
Myles Graham led the Gators with 10 tackles.
“I thought they played hard. It’s not like the guys didn’t give good effort,” Sumrall said. “It’s just awareness of play sequencing, tempo, how to handle tempo, how to communicate when facing tempo. When to challenge and when to play off. There is a give-and-take.”
Campbell coach Braxton Harris also talked about defense in his press conference.
“Two numbers that stand out. We had 528 yards of offense, and they had 1 yard total of rushing,” he said of Western Carolina.
The Camels gave up 327 yards in that game — which was moved from Saturday to Sunday because of bad weather — and made several strides on defense after a 49-37 win at East Tennessee State on Aug. 29.
Charles Battaglia leads Campbell with 17 tackles.
“I was excited to see our defense come out and play from last week to this week,” Harris said. “I told you guys last week, this defense is going to get better from the first quarter to the second quarter, from the first half to the second half. That they are going to make huge humps from Week 1 to Week 2. It’s exciting to see those guys do that.”
