D.J. Durkin calls it good fortune.
As one of two holdovers from Urban Meyer’s staff in 2010 — Meyer’s final year at Florida — Durkin has spent the past three seasons as linebackers coach and special teams coordinator with the Gators.
But when defensive coordinator Dan Quinn left UF to take the same position with the Seattle Seahawks, coach Will Muschamp quickly promoted Durkin to fill the vacated role.
“It’s good timing, I guess, I don’t know,” Durkin said of becoming Florida’s defensive coordinator. “I’ve always tried to keep your head down and work as hard as you can, and deal with your players honestly and deal with other coaches honestly and just be who you are.
“And it really is, it is good timing.”
Durkin began his coaching career as a graduate assistant on Meyer’s Bowling Green staff in 2001. He also spent time as a defensive assistant at Bowling Green, as well as Notre Dame and Stanford before rejoining Meyer at Florida.
He has since made a name for himself by leading the Gators’ special teams, a unit that has been largely successful under his guidance. In 2012, Florida blocked six kicks, recovered four fumbles and scored two touchdowns on special teams.
Durkin hopes to bring the mindset that made his special teams unit so successful to his defense.
“You’ve seen the identity of our defense, what we as a staff have wanted to build here: We want to be a tough, blue-collar team,” Durkin said. “We want to play with unbelievable effort and enthusiasm in what we’re doing.
“That’s the way I coach. That’s my personality. That’s what I hope I’ve carried over to our specials teams, and it’d be the same thing with our defense.”
But Durkin has a tough act to follow. Quinn’s second season as defensive coordinator helped revitalize Florida’s defense.
In 2011, UF was minus-12 in turnover margin, which was 113th in the nation, and the Gators finished just 7-6. Last season, Florida finished plus-15, tied for the seventh-best margin in the nation and helping the Gators improve to 11-2.
“There’s no bigger stat in football than turnover margin,” Muschamp said. “That was emphasized again to our players [Monday] as we head into spring ball.”
Replicating those results could prove challenging. Florida’s defense loses seven starters from a year ago and will need to find the depth that fostered a vast improvement last season.
Juniors Sharrif Floyd, Matt Elam and Jelani Jenkins chose to forgo their senior seasons to enter the NFL draft. Seniors Omar Hunter, Lerentee McCray, Jon Bostic and Josh Evans are also gone.
The group combined for 11 interceptions and two fumble recoveries last season, as well as 367 tackles, which represented 48.4 percent of the team’s total.
Durkin remains unfazed with the challenge that awaits him and his staff.
“We’ve got a great group of guys, great group of knowledge that has mutual respect for one another,” Durkin said. “We’re all in it for the same thing. We have the same goals, same expectations.
“To me, it’s just a matter of facilitating things and organizing the way we’re going to do it, then getting after it.”
Contact Phillip Heilman at pheilman@alligator.org.
Defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin (right) speaks to coach Will Muschamp before Florida’s 33-23 loss to Louisville on Jan. 2 in the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans.
