Florida DC Brad White talks Gators defense after Orange and Blue Game

The first public exhibition of Florida football took place on Saturday in the Swamp in the form of the Orange and Blue Game. The annual intrasquad scrimmage showcased the program's new coaching staff and their on-field talent in front of an audience of just over 47,000 members of the Gator Nation.

Employing an unorthodox approach where the offense and defense were separate teams with a unique scoring approach for the defense, the game ended in a 45-45 tie on a missed final-second field goal. The final score was true to the gridiron action, which saw both sides of the ball make some big plays in what turned out to be a fun afternoon for the fans.

Defensive coordinator Brad White and his squad were on both sides of the equation, grabbing three interceptions while putting points on the board with some exceptional effort. On the other hand, they also gave up a few big gains that allowed the offense to hold the lead for nearly the entire second half.

Following the game, White spoke with the media about his corps' performance.

They hit you with some deep stuff — was that disappointing for your secondary?

"Yeah, you never want the ball to go over your head. This game's about explosive plays, essentially the last two minutes there, the second quarter. Listen, you got to get the ball down. Especially the most disappointing one was the first play, on the double move — that can't happen. There's only 44 seconds. You got to play the ball in front of you in the half.

"But you know what it is? It's good learning. It's good teaching for young corners. And so they'll learn you got to touch the hot stove, and you're going to look at the film and say, 'Okay, this doesn't make sense from a football IQ standpoint.'

"There's so much, it's not just about learning defense, it's about learning situations, and we try to put them in unique situations all through spring. You only have up to this game, right? You have 14 practices and then a 15th on the spring game, so you can only do so much. You're trying to get everything jammed in.

"So it's nice that some of those situations showed up. And then some situations that we have practiced, and you can say, look, when we said, like, it's rare for this situation to show up, but you need to be prepared for it. And all of a sudden, look, it showed up in the spring game that fast.

"Now, we could go through an entire season and not see a certain scenario that we had at the end of the first half. So it's good that they get that. It's not good that we gave it up. I thought they had played really well up to that point; I thought they dialed in. We talked, they settled down at halftime, obviously. We don't go into the locker room, but over on the sideline, 'Hey, listen, let's just come back out, let's play.'

"And proud of their effort, I like the enthusiasm throughout from top to bottom."

And then how big are the interceptions?

"So, explosives and turnovers, those are huge dictators of games. And if you can win the turnover, battle, if you can win the explosive play battle, obviously, we want them on offense, so that's good for us as a team, bad for us as a defense. And so, you're always, when you play a spring game, you're always going to be zero, cause someone had a big one and someone didn't.

"But you want to be you want to be plus in those categories. The turnovers were awesome, to get our hands on balls. There were times during spring that we had opportunities, and we dropped them, and we focused: "Hey, listen, those are missed opportunities to change a game.'

"And guys had had opportunities today. I thought DJ (Coleman)'s pick there was an incredible play on an RPO glance to be able to make that play was really special. But proud of all the guys — I thought the front did a nice job. They were running the ball a little bit there. And so we had a firm up. I thought the guys played strong. I thought the linebackers pulled their pins. You saw guys take steps in this game.

"A guy like Ty Jackson — from where he started in practice one to where he finished — I thought this week, by far has been the best week of stack practices he's had, even through offseason workouts, like the number of days that he stacked this week, just really proud of him. And I think the game's slowing down a little bit. We're going to need him, and we're going to need all these guys."

What are your thoughts about the rotations up front and how it kept guys fresh?

"That's going to be key. I mean, when it comes to the trenches in this league, especially now going to nine games, like, you're going to have to have depth up front and we're going to have to continue to build that. It's not just about, hey, being too deep at each position.

"You need to be two-and-a-half, three-deep up front because it's gonna wear on you. And bodies are gonna get injured. Guys are gonna wear down as the season goes. If you play them too many reps or early. So if we can keep guys fresh, we can hopefully have a chance to be dominant up front."

Was the pressure on the quarterback where you wanted it?

"We did a lot of just four-man front stuff today, because I want to see who can just win a rush without it being manipulated. And, yeah, I thought at times we did a nice job. It'll give us good film to go into the summer, in fall camp and build on it. It's not where we want to be. We still need to understand how rush lanes and pockets and how we work off each other, all those things.

"A lot of people don't realize the continuity that it takes to pass rush with four up front. And I think people just naturally understand in the secondary — safeties, corners, nickels working together and how they have the communication.

"But it's the same up front. It's not four individuals, just trying to rush a man. It's four individuals rushing together as a unit. If they have a five-man protection and the back gets out, they've got six escape windows for that quarterback, and we only have four guys.

"So we have to understand how we rush, how we fill gaps, how we overlap, and so that's a work in progress.

How much growth have you seen in terms of understanding and applying what you've been teaching?

"You know what, like any spring ball that've ever been a part of, I think there's been ups and downs, I think there's days you come out, you're like, man, they're really getting it, and then there's days you're like, man, I feel like we took a step back or two steps back.

"And again, when you go against a good offense, a good offensive staff that can make adjustments, like you can come and you can feel like, man, we got this thing dialed in and the next day, like you're scratching your head, like, do we need to change the defense, guys?

"But you just realize it's kind of like a heavyweight fight and everybody's going to land their punches and that's the fun part. And you want a team like that, those are the successful teams; if it's very one-sided, either way, you're going to have to be dependent on that.

"But in a season that's going to be rugged, like, there's going to be games where the offense has to carry. There's gonna be games that the defense has to carry, there's going to be games. Every game, especially is going to have to show up. So, that complimentary football piece is important."

What did you think of the scoring system today with the defensive incentives?

"I thought it was great. It was nice to be able to have the entire defense on one side of the football, right? And so then, especially while we're still coaching and if you split them in two, and I'm not on both sides, I can't make some of those correction points.

"And so I thought it was great. I thought it did what it needed to do in terms of keeping it competitive. I thought the guys were in it the whole time.

"I did not enjoy the balls going over our head, but we'll get that thing fixed. But I thought they played hard. The turnovers were good. Third-down stops were good. And I like their physicality. Some of those check downs that the offense and you got two guys going on a vice tackle. That's what you've been preaching, that's what you've been trying to rep and to see it come to fruition with guys.

"And sometimes at the end of the game, it was two young guys. You're like, 'Okay, that's what I'm talking about.' Like, they're getting it. So we're not there by any means, but it's something to build on."

What are your overall thoughts on your unit coming out of spring?

"I think we've got a lot of work to do, but I do think we've made a step. And I think the step that was made was... I think there's confidence in the players, and the guys in the system, in the coaches in terms of how they're coaching it. And that's half the battle, where they believe that we can be a good defense. Are we there yet? Nope, you are not anywhere close to being in the elite defense that we want to be.

"But there have been flashes throughout spring that they can lean into and say, 'Okay, this is what it's supposed to look like. This is what those Florida defenses in the past that have struck fear in offenses... this is what it looks like.' But then we'll have moments where we're like, 'Okay, we're not taking a step back, guys.' So they understand both sides of the coin.

"We've got a lot of work to do in summer, fall camp. I'm glad that the first game's not tomorrow. I'm glad we got to wait, but it's time to evaluate spring, sit down with the players, right? Talk about what they did well, talk about what they need to do better, going into summer, what they need to work on individually, what we need to work on as a unit. And we'll just keep putting one foot in front of the other."

Do you feel better about the D-line now? What have they done to make you guys feel better?

"I think that we still have a ton of work to do, but I think some of the question marks that we had on guys that maybe had been unknowns, or just to see guys that, hey, listen, needed to elevate their game, you've seen them take steps in terms of that elevation and that and they've shown flashes of, yep, they can be a difference maker. They can be somebody that helps you win SEC games.

"And so you get what you can in terms of when you come in new film, whether it's here, whether it was a transfer, whatever, you garner all the information you can, you make your vows, and you watch them through winter workouts, you watch them through Gauntlet.

"You're like, 'Okay, you can do this well, I don't know.' But then you put pads on and you're like, 'Okay, this guy does like to strike. Hey man, maybe he's got more twitch than I thought he had.'

"And it gives you hope, it gives you confidence, both as a player and a coach. And then as a whole unit, they look around, they're like, 'Okay, the secondary — I trust that those guys are going to get home.' They've been shown that they can do it. But we're by no means anywhere close to where we need to be to be elite in this league."

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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida football's Brad White talks about Orange and Blue Game defense