clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Gators Defense Very Confident

By FLATigersFan

...Or at least safety Tony Joiner is.

In this article, courtesy of our friends over at the Florida Today, the junior safety had plenty to chat about regarding the rough, tough Gators defense.  Following two very good performances against Southern Miss and UCF, performances that only allowed a combined 7 points in those 2 games, Joiner is very confident in their ability to be one of the nation's best:

"We feel we really do have the best defense in the nation," Joiner said. "That's how we feel, that's how we are going to play and that's what we're going to look forward to doing, week in and week out: Shut a team out."

In regards to getting more shutouts this season:
"We really can (do it again)," he said.

Against Tennessee this week?

"Yes," he responded.


And for comedic purposes:
Joiner also said it was time for the Gators to return to the glory days of the '90s when UF relished the opportunity to go on the road and win in hostile surroundings.

"That really is where we want to get," Joiner said. "We really want to get into somebody else and take their cheese. Make a sandwich in the kitchen. Ham and cheese with a little turkey, mustard and mayonnaise."


Mmmm...sounds tasty.

Anyways, in football terms, I'm glad to see that at least one member of our defense is very confident, and I hope to see this is the overall opinion of the defense.  You need that attitude to be a national contender and I think this would be a great step to becoming one like we had in the mid 90s.  They are a very good squad and I have said all along that I would take our front 7 right now against any other team's group.  They're just that perfect mix of experience and talent and I don't think you can look past that.

In terms of the Tennessee shutout, No.  I think that the only way this Gator teams shuts out the Tennessee Volunteers - an offense that has looked pretty good overall - in Knoxville would be for the Vols team bus to break down and no other alternate form of transportation be provided.  It's not going to happen.  It's a great thought though and I would be very excited to see it happen.

All in all, Joiner could be right.  The only problem is that we have only seen examples of the talent of this group against two Conference USA teams.  Lets see how they perform against Tennessee in Knoxville before we as a fanbase make any kind of assumptions.  Other than that, I hope to hear more about the Gators being a great defensive team in the future.