Breaking Down Florida's Secondary

Probably the most glaring Gator weakness or area that can be exploited by the Noles is in the secondary. With freshman cornerback Joe Haden (ankle) questionable for Saturday’s game against Florida State, Florida is looking for even less-experienced players to step up in the secondary. Florida coach Urban Meyer said redshirt freshman corner Jacques Rickerson is working with sophomore Wondy Pierre-Louis at the starting corner spots. Rickerson has been a gamble for most of the season and when called upon to start against Kentucky earlier this season, he was beaten numerous times. "They should be playing tighter coverage.We are trying to get them to play tighter, but then you also have to worry about them getting beat on a deep ball," Meyer said. Meyer said he and his staff are confident that Rickerson will be ready to step up if Haden cannot go.

UF is giving up 254 yards per game through the air. To help clear up some of the mistakes from this year, Meyer had his secondary walk through the cover 2 scheme at Monday's practice.When you see guys hitting the seams it’s because we’re not carrying their verticals in cover 2,” Meyer said. “We spent a lot of time on that. We had a great walk through on Monday.

Florida secondary coach Chuck Heater realizes it's not pretty watching the Gators' pass defense right now."The upside, next year ought to be a lot of fun," Heater said with a light chuckle. "But getting there is the hard part. But you don't get there unless you go through this. You can't in any way duplicate the process of development, and it is what it is. You've got to go out there, you've got to jump in the water and you've got to swim and you've got to almost drown sometimes and you've got to keep going. So that's what's happening."

So the question is will Drew Weatherford be able to execute the right reads. If so, Preston Parker, Greg Carr, and De’Cody Fagg, pose a threat to UF’s shaky secondary with their size and athleticism. Parker stands at 6 feet, Fagg at 6 feet, 4 inches, and Carr towers at 6 feet, 6 inches.

Key Stat: Florida is last in SEC in pass defense.