Austin Armstrong, Ron Roberts evaluate the state of Florida's defense

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It makes Austin Armstrong sick to think about last season. In his first year as Florida’s defensive coordinator, his unit got off to a strong start but struggled mightily during the last half of the schedule.

Armstrong feels better, however, thinking about next season. He is reunited with his mentor, works with two more new coaches on the defensive staff and has a roster that is older and more experienced than a year ago.

The Gators were young on defense in 2023, with true freshmen accounting for 25% of all defensive snaps. They also faced three top-10 teams and No. 19 LSU — with Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels — in the last five weeks.

“I think you can’t really succeed until you fail,” said Armstrong, who is 30 years old. “When you’re young and you’re successful, you’re boy wonder. When you’re not, you’re boy blunder. That’s just part of it. The same people that praise you are the same people that clown you.

“It made me want to work harder for our players. That’s what stands out for me is we had an opportunity to really do something significant. We did a lot of good things last year, and it makes me sick that we couldn’t finish for these players. I think about it a lot.”

During the first six games, Florida allowed just 16.8 points per game and ranked in the top 10 nationally in opponent third-down conversations. UF had ranked 129th in third-down defense in 2022.

After the halfway point of the season, the Gators gave up an average of 528.2 yards and 41.2 points in their last five SEC contests, including the most yards allowed in program history (701) at LSU. 

The way those games ended eats away at Armstrong, who recalled being ahead against Arkansas and Missouri in the fourth quarter and losing third-quarter leads vs. LSU and Florida State.

“We have to coach them better and put them in position to be successful,” Armstrong said. “We can make all the excuses about having a young team and such, and that’s true. At the end of the day, it’s a results-driven business and we had an opportunity in all those games.

“You can just name them off. It kind of makes you sick a little bit, the inability to finish those games. At the end of the day, that’s my responsibility. And it’s our responsibility collectively as a staff. I’m excited for the work that we’ve put in to help to get that right.”

Florida coach Billy Napier overhauled his staff on that side of the ball, tabbing new secondary coach Will Harris and defensive line coach Gerald Chatman. He also hired Ron Roberts, his former DC at Louisiana, away from Auburn to be the executive head coach for defense, co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

Armstrong served as a graduate assistant coach under Roberts at Louisiana in 2018. The two had weekly conversations over the years as Roberts mentored Armstrong, who describes him as his “football dad” and called Roberts one of the best defensive coaches in America.

“We couldn’t have gotten anybody better than him,” Armstrong said. “It’s kind of good for me to have a guy in the trenches with you again that you have a close, personal relationship for five years. He’s made me better throughout my career and the guy doesn’t get enough credit. A lot of modern defenses he’s gotten over the years. A big part of our system that we managed directly from him. He’s one of the fathers of modern defensive football and to have him in this building and to have him at my right arm at all times helping us, I couldn’t be luckier.

“The ability to talk ball, work through issues. We had a unique relationship; he was kind of like a football dad a little bit. We weren’t together after the first year, but we’d talk on the phone two or three times a week and we threw ideas against the wall with each other or had like opponents or issues. To have him here to help … there’s mistakes that he’s made that he’s able to guide me on to not make. And to have the humility to work together, ‘Hey, let’s do something special’, that guidance you can’t put a price tag on. I can’t thank him enough.”

Armstrong still calls the plays, but he and Roberts will work together on building the installations, scripts and game plans. Roberts is confident in Armstrong’s ability and believes he will grow from his experience last year as a DC in the SEC for the first time.

“I mean, he’s brilliant,” Roberts said of Armstrong. “He’s brilliant. He’s very smart, you know, he’s gonna have a future to do whatever he wants in this profession. He’s gonna be tremendous. I’m just happy to be here to have the opportunity to help in ways. And that’s one thing you get with a chance to be older. You’ve seen some things. I’ve already made my mistakes, you know?

“Obviously (last year) was his first experience in the league, boom. His second year, you kind of see where everyone is going, it kind of clears up the plan in the offseason, what you’re doing. Maybe the players were young at positions, this and that. I mean, there’s all kinds of reasons. We weren’t where we needed to be. But it’s alright. We are going to grow from it, learn from it and move on.”

Florida’s co-defensive coordinators are both encouraged by the unit’s returning players — including seven starters — as well as the additions from the 2024 class, with multiple impact transfers and five-star EDGE LJ McCray. Roberts sees a roster that can compete in the SEC and a staff that can maximize the talent.

“This is probably one of the best staffs I’ve been around in a long time. I’m real excited about it,” Roberts said. “We’ve got experience in the room. Will Harris has been a coordinator. Gerald Chatman has been a coordinator. We’ve got four guys who have been sitting in that chair before (as DC), so it’s been really nice. We’ve had some good conversations that I probably haven’t been able to have in a while.

“We’ve got talent on every level. We’re big, we’re physical up front. We got athletic linebackers; I think we got good leadership. I think we got tremendous edge players. I think we got corners that can run, cover, we got some safeties in the room that are good athletes, move in space and stuff. We’ve got all the tools. We just gotta make sure they understand we have the pieces to the puzzle.”