The Florida defense had reached its low point.
The year before, an experienced unit led the Gators to a national championship and gained a reputation as one of the toughest defenses in the country.
Plenty of roster turnover morphed the 2007 version into a group of young, talented players who were still searching for an individual and collective identity.
Michigan handed UF its fourth loss of the season in the Capital One Bowl after Chad Henne threw for 373 yards and the Wolverines piled up 524 yards of total offense on their way to a 41-35 win.
Eight players who started on defense that day are still on the team, and three of them — Brandon Spikes, Joe Haden and Major Wright — are still starters.
But it was time for a unit that allowed opponents to score 25.5 points per game to make a change.
Not in personnel, but attitude.
“I don’t think (that motivated them). I know so,” UF coach Urban Meyer said. “You could see the edge coming out of that bowl game that day.”
How would the members of the defense allow themselves to be defined for the rest of their careers?
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swag (adj.) : the way one carries oneself; style, confidence or appearance.
"My weakness was basically I didn't have the swag." — UF cornerback Joe Haden
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None of them did.
Swag is an attitude that comes with success.
It grows with every sack, interception and goal-line stand.
The 2008 defense was a year older and too proud to take the beating week-in and week-out the way it did during the previous 9-4 season.
“(2007) helped us a whole lot to never want that to happen again — being the reason that you lose a game, you feel like it’s all your fault,” Haden said. “The offense would put up 45 points a game, and we would still almost lose. So with the defense, we know how it feels to be on the highest high — not letting teams score — and we know how it feels to be low, when everybody is just looking at you like you’re the worst defense in the country.”
In 2007, players got playing time on defense because there was no one else ready to step in if a guy faltered. That all changed when the team reported for practice the following spring.
No one’s job was safe, everyone was being pushed by the guy behind them on the depth chart, and experience was starting to become a strength rather than a weakness.
“There was something that needed to be corrected, but a lot of it was the youth of that defense, it really was,” defensive line coach Dan McCarney said. “You see, fortunately right now, a lot of those guys who didn’t play really well three years ago have played really well these past two years.”
Going through growing pains together focused a young team for the next season, a shot at redemption.
The team responded by cutting its points-allowed total in half, giving up just 12.9 points per game on the way to the Gators’ second national championship in three years.
The offense was explosive, but the defense became one of the team’s greatest strengths, holding the highest scoring offense in college football history to 14 points in the BCS National Championship Game.
The tone was set on a jarring hit in the first five minutes of the game, when UF safety Major Wright leveled Oklahoma receiver Manny Johnson on a deep sideline route.
“(Opening up the game with a big hit) lets the receivers know that I’m here,” Wright said.
That’s swag.
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hype ( adj.) : ready to go, prepared.
"It gets us hype before every game."
— UF linebacker Ryan Stamper
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The Florida coaching staff is legendary for its motivational tactics.
The Florida defense is legendary for feeding off of them.
Before almost every game this season, the coaches have tried to plant some sort of chip on the collective shoulder of a defense that many thought would go down as one of the greatest ever.
Before playing Tennessee in the third game of this season, UT coach Lane Kiffin’s offseason comments were put up all over the locker room.
Prior to facing Kentucky, it was a running back with a big mouth.
And ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit even became a source of motivation, when he “called out” Brandon Spikes and the defense leading up to the LSU game.
“Our coaches always say that stuff to try to motivate us, they say stuff like, ‘They called you out!’” Stamper said. “Sometimes they probably say stuff the other team didn’t say just to motivate us, but it works.”
Stamper said UK’s Alfonso Smith really did talk smack about the defense, but he didn’t recall anything negative being said before playing under the lights at Death Valley.
The defense played with something to prove just the same, holding the Tigers to three points in front of a crowd that had watched 32 straight Saturday night home victories in Baton Rouge.
With Alabama on the horizon for this weekend’s Southeastern Conference Championship Game, defensive coordinator Charlie Strong has been challenging his players to “bring their big boy pads” to Saturday’s game.
“He’s going to keep repeating it, ‘Major, what are you doing? Bring your big boy pads!’” Wright said. “I know that coach, I got my big boy pads.”
Strong keeps repeating catchphrases — telling his cornerbacks that tall wide receivers are “going to eat peanuts off your head” is another one — and his defense keeps repeating wins.
Now 22 in a row.
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juice (n.) : respect, power.
"Brandon Spikes is a great player. He brings a lot of juice to the game."
— UF safety Ahmad Black
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It’s easy to develop swag.
It can be even easier to get hype before a game.
But juice is something very few teams ever obtain.
Juice means opposing quarterbacks are handled with kid gloves by their coaches, forced to dump the ball into the flat and told not to challenge Florida’s lockdown corners.
Juice means the coach of one of your rivals runs the ball down by 10 points with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter because he would rather try to keep it close than win.
UF’s defense, which is loaded with future NFL talent, is allowing fewer than 10 points per game, best in the nation.
Brandon Spikes and Co. have the juice.
Meyer has often repeated a phrase that Spikes, the team’s defensive leader, has coined.
“It’s what we do,” Meyer says.
The saying means nothing, really.
It’s the team’s way of saying, “Whatever incredible feat happens on the field is nothing new for us.”
The Gators’ defense expects to go out and dominate the same way opponents expect to be dominated by them.
Juice is the universal recognition of dominance.
Before the season, Strong had some words of advice for a unit that had aspirations of going down as the best in college football history.
“If you’re going to sell those tickets, you better be ready to cash them,” he said.
It’s doubtful anyone will be asking for a refund from Strong’s defense come Sunday.
