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UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 2, 2017

Randy Shannon

Gainesville, Florida

RANDY SHANNON: I'll give a statement first. This upcoming season we're looking for big things for us on defense. We're young, we're very young, but sometimes it's best when people say you're young, but we have a lot of guys that played a lot of football. We're going to miss one of the players on the football team, Marcell Harris, injured. He won't be able to play this upcoming season.

But like anything else, you have to have an opportunity for some guys to step up, and I always told the coaching staff, we're not the NFL, we can't go find nobody off the waiver wire, we can't go trade for somebody or pick somebody up; we have to coach whoever we have, and we've got a bunch of guys that we feel like have an opportunity to come in and help us out and play. I can't tell you who those guys will be. We'll have a great competition all across the board.

We have 11 guys that we'll put on the football field come on Saturdays or whenever we play, on Sundays, and have an opportunity to help us win. It's going to be very competitive this spring. We don't have a starting lineup. I couldn't tell you if this guy is going to be the starter or not. Me and Cece talked the other day, Cece Jefferson, we were just talking about, hey, opportunities, and then he said, well, Coach, I know how you are; if I'm not standing up to what I need to do on the football field, I won't be a starter. I said, no, you won't. You've got to understand, it's about what do you do at this particular time and not what you did in the past, and sometimes as coaches you rely on what guys did in the past and then in turn you forget about coaching other guys to make them become what they can be.

We're kind of excited about this upcoming summer and excited about the young guys we have to go out there and compete and have fun with them.

Q. I wonder if you could comment specifically on a couple of kids. You mentioned Cece there and Nick Washington. Nick is a senior, so obviously there's a certain amount of leadership I'm sure you're expecting from him, and is Cece to the point where he's not one of the young guys anymore, and especially since his role is changing a little bit this year and you've got some younger guys on the interior, are you going to depend on him to help those guys out?
RANDY SHANNON: You know, we're excited about Nick Washington. He's a young man that's been here for five years, going into five years. He's a very smart football player, played a lot of football for us. He's a guy that can get them lined up, play different positions for us, so he knows that he don't have to do anything above and beyond, but that do Nick. We always tell him, just be yourself, Nick. Don't try to be a motivator. Nick has never been a motivator type of guy. He's been the guy that pulled somebody aside, communicate, talk to him, and get guys lined up. So that's Nick.

And the Cece part, Cece his first year was able to play three different positions, and that's unique for a true freshman to come in and play three different positions. All we're expecting out of Cece is execute what we plan and master what your technique is at this particular time. Play at a high level. Never play down to your opponents that you're playing and never assume that because I'm Cece Jefferson I'm going to have a great day. You're always supposed to prepare and practice to have a great day, and those things will happen.

Q. When you were last the defensive coordinator at Miami, your defenses were pretty consistently ranked in the top 10. I'm wondering philosophy wise do you take anything from that last stint as the game kind of changed, or how do you view being a defensive coordinator at this point 11 years later?
RANDY SHANNON: The game has changed a lot, and each year you've got to find a way to find out what your talent is on defense. What we did in the bowl game probably won't be the same what we do in this upcoming season because it's different talent on the defense.

But you have to always have them guys playing fast. If guys can play fast without thinking a lot, then you're going to be very successful, and that's the whole thing we're doing as a defensive staff is trying to find what can we call so the guys will not have to think, that they can just fly around and have fun but play fast. So when you have maybe a guy that's running a 4.8, but if he's playing fast, he's going to look like he's running a 4.6, so those are the kind of things that we want our defense to do, just really to fly around but play fast at all times.

Q. You said you guys have a lot of young guys, but you have guys that have played. When you look at your unit and the fact that you guys lost eight starters from last year, six from the year before, 14 players in two years is a lot of turnover for most defenses, most coordinators. It would be tough to deal in that situation, and you guys do have a lot of underclassmen, but are you unique in that there is not a lot of inexperience?
RANDY SHANNON: It's unique because you have -- okay, you take a for instance. You look at the D-line, Keivonnis has played, Cece has played, Jabari has played, so that's three guys returning. You've got Khairi Clark and Brian. That's two guys inside that have played. Then you go to three linebackers, even though they're all freshmen or redshirt freshmen, they all have played. You take Chauncey, you take Nick, you take Duke. They all have played. Most of the times in football, a lot of times you look at returners and stuff like that. People keep forgetting about how many games they've actually played in or have started before, and the difference is when you have a true freshman playing in his first college game primetime, that tends to wear on you. But if you have guys who have been in like major games and that have really played some football, it really don't affect them that much.

Experience-wise, probably age, like being seniors and fifth-year seniors, we're very young. But like anything else, those guys accepted that we're not going to have an excuse just because we're young for our age-wise but we still play football at the University of Florida. So we're taking that approach, and those guys are really taking that approach, also.

Q. One of your trademarks as a coordinator was taking safeties out of high school and growing them into linebackers and sometimes taking linebackers and growing them into defensive ends. I know you've done that with Kylan, might do it with Jeremiah. With the injury to Marcell, have you put any thought whatsoever because of the depth that you've put together at linebacker about maybe finding some ways to use Kylan in the way that you use Marcell scheme-wise?
RANDY SHANNON: No, not really.

Q. Is that something you could do?
RANDY SHANNON: You could, but not really. You really count him where he's at. The one thing that we'll do, so you guys will know ahead of time, we're going to play the best guys on the team, okay. And don't make this as a depth chart now. Don't look at this as a depth chart, nobody in here. If the day would start just by end of spring, we would say who's the best four guys. It would be Duke, Chauncey, Nick, and then you'd have to say, okay, Quincy Lenton wasn't in practice, Jeawon Taylor wasn't in practice, so the only guys you got is Putu and C.J. McWilliams, so really Putu. So you would say, okay, you've got three corners, so now you have to move somebody back to safety.

So we're playing the best guys at that particular time. And like I will tell you, by the end of this camp, it may be three corners playing, four corners on the football field. It may be four safeties on the football field. I cannot tell you. It's just whoever is the best fit and can give us a chance to win because sometimes you think about, well, here's the starting safety, here's the next safety. With us, it's who's the next best DB. Same thing with D-line. Who's the next best D-lineman not position wise. So we kind of roll whoever the next guy in that group, those are the guys we need to continue to get and get them a chance to play.

Q. Is it tough to put that on your defensive backs to where you want them to play potentially three different spots?
RANDY SHANNON: No, they won't play three different spots. It's just like for instance. If we have two corners doing very well and then we have a third corner doing very well and we have two safeties and one of these safeties is not really playing very well, why punish a guy who's doing very good. Just put him back at safety so you're getting your best guys on the football field. That's more what we'll do.

Q. Along those lines, what have you seen out of the development of Chauncey, and what's it like having a guy that has that kind of versatility in your secondary?
RANDY SHANNON: You know, he's a special guy. He's a really special guy that has played a lot of corner. He's played nickel, he's played safety in his early age and converted back to safety during the bowl time. Had a tremendous game, played well, did all the things we needed him to do, but also now we say who's our best guys like we was talking about. We couldn't have Nick and Marcell and Chauncey in the game on the bench, so we moved Chauncey this spring to corner to get the best deal there. So I think by him playing two positions has really helped him. He reminds me a little bit of like what Antrel Rolle when I had him at Miami that he can do multiple things, and that's with Chauncey, he can do multiple things, but you've got to have him tuned in to what he needs to get done. Don't try to make him do too much where he's not successful.

Q. Given the time they missed, what potential do you see for Jeawon Taylor and Quincy Lenton this year?
RANDY SHANNON: Well, they've been out a lot. They didn't practice this spring. They're going through rehab. Coming out of high school we had high expectations for them and we continue to have high expectations for them, but like anything else, we tell everybody on the football team it's just competition. Don't settle for being second, do not settle for being third. Always challenge yourself to be the best guy on the football field at that particular time, and those guys will challenge, and the guys behind them will challenge them. We're kind of excited about it because it's been -- from listening to those guys talk this summer is that everybody is helping everybody. Nobody is having an ego. Nobody is like a young guy coming in may want to take somebody's position, but he's listening, and the older guys are teaching them what they need to do to take their position because it's -- if someone gets hurt, who will be the next guy up. So don't take it upon yourself that this guy is taking my position. This guy is competing, and if I don't step up my game, then he deserves to take my job.

Q. David Reese indicated that he played hurt the last few games and wasn't at total full abilities. What's the next level for him this year now that he's healthy again?
RANDY SHANNON: Take that next step. Playing as a true freshman at University of Florida at linebacker in those type of games was tremendous for him. Now he's got to take that next step of learning what you did last year, now take the next step of increasing your knowledge, increasing what you can do. Every time a linebacker can increase what he built on learning-wise, he will be a very successful player. And he in turn has to be the quarterback for that front guy, make sure those guys are lined up and playing fast. Take a lot of pressure off them because big guys, like anything else, they play the game, they get tired. You've got to encourage those guys when they're tired and also get them lined up quick so they can put their foot in the ground and get vertical in certain situations.

Q. What's your expectation from the collection of freshmen cornerbacks and do you feel like these guys are going to be in the mix and need to be in the mix?
RANDY SHANNON: I really don't know, but when we go out recruiting, we try to tell everybody, and I tell parents this in the home. When we come out to recruit a young man like these freshmen that this whole group that we have here from D-line back to linebacker and secondary, we're telling them that we're bringing them in to take somebody's position. Now, vice versa, once you get here, we're going to bring somebody else to take your position. So it's the competition factor comes about.

Well, not just the secondary, but these big up-front guys that we have in has made a little change with some of these D-linemen that we have because they're pushing themselves a little more because the talent that we brought in at defensive line kind of scares the guys who's older. Same thing at linebacker; we brought us some athletic linebackers that are about 215 to 220. They're kind of athletic like the guys we have, so it's stepping their game up, and then you bring in this group of freshmen DBs who are all big, tall, long, rangy guys that have a lot of speed, because that's the one thing they can do, they've got a lot of speed, is now making the other guys like Putu and make sure that Nick is on top of his deal, Duke is on top of his deal, make sure those guys are playing successful. So it's kind of helping us out in a way of guys not being satisfied, that they have younger guys coming in that are pushing to make them take their position.

Q. Given the depth, though, do you need one of them to emerge potentially?
RANDY SHANNON: I hope all of them emerge to be honest with you. But if we can get any of them to emerge, we'll be fine.

Q. The middle of the defense lost a lot of key guys. What's your confidence level with what's returning?
RANDY SHANNON: We've got guys returning. I mean, we've got two guys that played defensive tackle last year that are starters coming back. Luke Ancrum is a returner. We've just got to get some younger guys to come in and just play. Here's the thing at D-line. You do not need guys to play 40, about 70, 80 plays, you really don't. If you can get your older guys to give you about 40, 45 plays and the younger guys to give you 15 plays, eventually they'll get up to about 80 or 90 plays, but it's got to be the selective time when you play them so everybody is fresh, and then they can play at a high level.

Q. With the loss of Brantley and Ivey last year and with Clark and Bryant kind of taking that next step, can you talk about their development over the summer, where they are as far as stepping into that role?
RANDY SHANNON: Well, I mean, they had a great spring. Tremendous. Khairi Clark has done a great job since the first time we were here of maturing. He's kept his weight off probably for the first time in a long time that he's actually worked to keep his weight off and being flexible, being quick twitch. Taven Bryant has done a tremendous job this off season of getting bigger, getting stronger, and just learning what we do. The one thing these guys have really concentrated on is learning the defense and not just playing football because if you learn the defense, you would know the strengths and weaknesses of what each defensive call is, and they've done a tremendous job up front of learning that and that's made them a better player this spring. We're just going to build on what we did this spring and carry it over into the summer, and that's the only thing we're concerned about is what they do in the summer, and then once summer is over, then we take that next step.

Q. (Indiscernible.)
RANDY SHANNON: We practice at a different level, so everybody is going to get about -- in a day's practice, everybody, even the young guys, DB's, linebackers, D-linemen, will get a minimum of maybe 35 reps. Minimum. So they're going to get a lot of reps this summer.

Q. Coach, what's the biggest improvement you want to see from your defensive as a whole from last season headed into Michigan?
RANDY SHANNON: Well, the biggest thing we have to do is just build on what we did, but also, we have to be able to -- when adverse situations come, you know, accept the challenge and knock them down. Don't just settle for -- if somebody gets on a roll, stay with them what we're doing, don't panic, and we're looking at what we did on defense, we did a lot of great things, but sometimes in games and when we lost, it was like when something happens bad, everybody starts taking chances and not playing what we do, so it's our job as a defensive staff to make sure that this summer, this camp that we put them in tough situations where something is going to go wrong and make sure that they, hey, let's go, we're okay, let's keep playing, everything is going to work out because one play is very, very valuable in a game, but it's like anything, if somebody gets a 60-yard run, a 40-yard run, as long as they do not score a touchdown, you have a shot. That's all you want. You want to line up and play again, and I think that's one of the biggest things that we're going to emphasize this camp is, hey, when somebody gets a big play, okay, let's line up and play, calm down and play the game because the next snap it could be a turnover. Next snap could be a bad snap. It could be anything that can happen negative for offense, but we have to get our minds right and make sure that we're playing what we need to get done.

Q. Is there any kind of mindset you want to bring to the defense?
RANDY SHANNON: No, it just depends on what we can do. It's always -- with me, it's got to find out what we can do. We'll run some defenses in practice. We'll run different fronts, different coverages, and then when that's all said and done, when it gets about maybe that 10-day period out, then we've got to say, okay, what can we do as a defense where those guys can fly around. Who's our best 11 guys that can help us get to where we need to be at, and then that's when we'll decide on what we can do. I don't know -- I'll put it this way: We played -- God, I hate to say this, we played Virginia Tech one year, and it was at Virginia Tech, and they was like 2 in the country. But we had corners -- we had some real good corners, so the first 18 plays we blitzed. Seven-man blitz, six-man blitz, one-man blitz, we just blitzed. By us doing that at that particular time, we got a lot of negative plays. Well, that's because we had real good corners, so we was able to do certain things like that.

You have to figure out what you can do at a particular time to know what you're going to do as a defense. You run everything. You run two high, one high, zero blitz, one high blitzes. You do everything in practice and a lot of volume of it, and then you figure out, okay, this is what we are, this is what we can do.

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