Brooks Austin EXPOSES What's REALLY Wrong With Florida - Can the Gators Fix It vs Texas?
Oct 16, 2026
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The old adage is like, you're either teaching it or you're allowing it.
And we're six weeks into allowing it.
We're six games into allowing this to happen.
Boys and girls, we got a special one.
The man Brooks Austin joins us.
Brooks Austin.
I'll add some couple letters in there for you.
Brooks Austin joins us here.
The film guy.
You did a great breakdown, Brooks, talking about the defense.
You know, it's funny.
I didn't say it.
I didn't tag you.
but i was like please brooks i need to know what's going
on with the defense so you heard the uh my
telepathy uh getting to you so i appreciate it you broke it down
and now i want to ask the hard
questions i got to know what you're feeling i
also i want to know what's going on with the offense
too i mean the defense has been atrocious
but it feels like the buster swagger has turned off a bit
as well we'll get into that the one thing i took away brooks
from it is and you've made it very
clear right it's hard to know what guy is going where
who's supposed to do what and a lot of the
we're trying to figure out what's the problem
do we not got enough dogs is it is it coach white
is it both what's going on what what's happening
and i didn't really come to much of a conclusion
which means i think you did a good job of showing us
and you kind of left it up to interpretation
a good book where are we at with it brooks well
and first of all breaking down defense like i
mentioned in the in the beginning
of the film study it's extremely hard it's extremely hard
because everybody teaches defensive concepts differently.
So I went into that without any purpose to point blame
because unless you are in the rooms,
unless you're the one installing the defense,
you don't really know where it went wrong.
You don't really know what went, like, what broke down, right?
Like, but here's what the overall theme was, right?
It was constantly something,
whether it be, like, our pass rush plan, for example, right,
where we're stacking two guys in one gap on a pass rush plan
Or we're trying to call a pick, which means the first guy
is going to like penetrate and try to take the eyes of the guard.
And then we're going to wrap somebody around into the gap that's
been created now because we've taken the eyes of the guard.
Well, they just they just run into each other
or they stack each other up or whether it be like, hey,
we've got man to man called on third and five or third and ten.
And if we rush the quarterback with six,
like we better squeeze the pocket.
Nobody can be selfish.
You can't pick a side on your rusher.
We really just have to squeeze and make him hold the ball
and then bring him down with inside the pocket.
And then all of a sudden, the linebacker
gets matched up on a running back
and he picks a side.
And then all of a sudden, we've got a massive void in B-gap
and when Norris Sellers takes off for a 15-yard gain.
And then the next play, you're in zone coverage
and we've either not passed it off correctly
or two guys thought they're going with the crosser
when in reality, the boundary safety
probably should be going with the crosser
in the field safety if you should be going
and closing the post or whether we're back in man
coverage and I think we're actually going
to exchange this meaning if he goes in I'm going
out with the switch release
but we both go in and now all of a sudden the running back wheel's gone
and then we get into an automatic rundown it feels
like it's short yardage situation and we're all
in cover zero in the red area
and then all of a sudden I lose my man and he's running butt naked
down in the back end like it's a combination of all these things
and they are constantly stacking
up and when they constantly stack up that's that's
when we look like a horrendous defense instead of
just a defense that can't seem to get off the field
um and i figured that's what it was going
to be i always look at box scores
on saturday afternoon like everybody else and then on sunday
I go to look at the film and when
when I looked at the box score on Saturday and I saw that
Florida had allowed seven South Carolina receivers
to have at least one
reception worth 15 yards or more, buddy.
I knew we were busting all over the place. Pause. I knew,
I knew it was eyes discipline all over the place.
I knew it was bad defense.
That's what I knew. And I didn't expect it to be all,
all the problems, right? Like, and I even said on our film study, like,
if we're a man to man coverage and we get beat by another guy,
I can deal with that.
what I can't deal with is constantly beating ourselves.
And I feel like that's what it is right now.
And I know the next question is going to be, well, how do you solve it?
If I had that answer, buddy, I'd be making $2.5 million
like all these other defensive coordinators.
I wasn't going to ask that because I think
if they knew how to solve it,
we wouldn't be here two weeks in a row either.
I would assume so, right?
Actually, my next question was going to be,
we had a great debate about this earlier this week
because Brad White came out and we talked.
they asked him basically like you know simplifying it
and I think that question came about because
this defense isn't very different from last year meaning
the personnel that's on the team yeah and
it wasn't great but it wasn't bad either
the defense last year it was it was was sound and
so it looks completely lost out there right
everybody we're talking Miles Graham Aaron
Chiles veteran guys that have played a lot
of football just not looking like they know what
they're doing and so that's what it points back to right
but you can simplify things and process
of elimination, you look at, okay, well,
Brad's the only thing that's changed outside of a few
players. And so the question was, hey, are you going to simplify?
Because it feels like everybody's
a bit lost, a bit confused, and that's where you're seeing
the lack of confidence, you know, in the
defense. And he goes, no, we're going to stick to our guns.
And so my question to you, somebody who
watches film that's been around this,
is that the right attitude to have
right now? Florida fans don't like hearing that, right?
We want to win football games. We're not in
this patient mindset. That doesn't mean what he said isn't right, but
And also, you know, do you make an adjustment this early on
to try to salvage what is left of this season
to get the best out of your defense?
Well, I don't know if this is going to be positive
or this is going to cause more area for concern.
I don't think you're all that complicated in the first place.
Like, I don't think you're like one of these defenses
that's doing a whole bunch of stuff, right?
You're playing basic zone coverage or you're in man-to-man coverage.
it doesn't seem to me that to be that complicated whereas like I turn
on Tennessee's tape after
watching you guys that looks like they don't
really know what they're doing but they're doing
it all really well because it's all it's all disguised
and it moves late and it's late stems
and and if they show me this I'm triggering into the fit
and you're going to back me up and
they're allowed to do that I think
because they brought over like five or six transfers from Penn
State. So most of those guys have been hearing
this defense for a little while. And they
also have veteran football players like T. Lander and Arian Carter.
So I don't look at you and
be like, damn, they're doing
so much they need to they need to dwindle the package down just quite
a bit. I think if I were in that situation,
I would probably stick to my own guns too and say,
No, we just got to teach it better.
We got to get these guys to play a lot more confident,
which is the word you used, which is the right word.
It's not as much like there's some I there's
Some eye sins is what we would call those,
some eye discipline problems.
But there's also a lot of stuff where,
like, guys just aren't triggering
like they know and trust what they're seeing.
When something crosses my face,
and I'm a hook-curl player in zone coverage,
and it crosses my face, I need to go now,
especially if, like, there's
been a little bit of time that has occurred.
Like, there was a play in the red area
where Nick Harper runs all the way
from the outside wide receiver in a trips formation
and runs almost flat down the line of scrimmage
and then crosses the face of Childs
and Childs waits till the ball is thrown to actually like
react and like those those are the things
that we can't really do those are the things where we're
not we're not freed up instinctually we're not we're
not playing free um so those are the things
that I would look at I also do think there is like
a reality to the point where when I watch you
it's simplest to play man coverage
but I don't know if you're good enough in the defensive
backfield right now to go play man coverage on a down-to-down basis
so you have to like when
someone says let's simplify it well that would
be the only simplification the only simplification
would be is you got him you got him you got him instead
of playing zone coverage and passing
concepts off and squeezing when we're you know
and doing all these things that require to be a good
zone defense I just don't think you're good enough to line up
and go my five are going to cover your
five let's go play ball I don't think that's
the case right now a couple years from now probably
will be because no matter how much
the the negativity has arisen in the last couple of weeks
you guys are still recruiting your balls off
so you're gonna be all right um so i think those
things are are gonna fix a lot of the the problems
because bottom line man like jimmies and joes will
always ascend x's and o's my dad taught me that about
the game of football when i was five years
old and it is still to this day 25 26 years later 100 true
um if we got good players the scheme's
always going to feel good and i'm saying you i'm
not saying you have bad players i'm just thinking
that like we can't simplify it too much there's
not much left to simplify in my opinion look i
think you know there's just been a battle we florida fans we love
to argue what is the problem
a lot of blame and you know has fallen on brad white
and we're not here to necessarily take any
shots at players right a lot of that has to do with their upbringing
and maybe the past regime
not being coached or taught properly
so they're coming in with you know kind of behind the eight
ball a little bit and that's what you know we talk
about our guy Stephen Harris, it just felt like a lot
of guys weren't you know hitting their spots
or being where they needed to be playing with a dog
mentality, it's kind of interesting you mentioned
that I'm like, look, your Jos will outweigh the
X's and O's, and right now nothing's outweighing
it feels like anything uh because of how disastrous
it may be, look, I feel, I don't know if I feel any better I
do feel like we have a little bit more
of an understanding, I think for me
and you're talking like, hey, how do we fix it? It does seem
like, look, you gotta quit playing stuck, you gotta
play more freely, right now it feels like they're
almost playing not to make a mistake
and in turn making mistakes, and so it's like I'd rather you
rather play with instinct and have a blown coverage
because you made a play or you tried
to make a play versus just standing there in no man's land
and a play is still happening but you
ain't done a damn thing, so we're
not even playing 50-50 ball, like, hey, if you hit, if you make the
right call we gotta stop, if we make the wrong call they get
a blown coverage, you're not making a call
and we have no chance of making a stop
or even, it's just a worst-case scenario.
It seems like what's happening.
I do think the box play lacks a lot of discipline, though,
to be honest with you.
And again, not going to call anybody out,
but there's one, and you mightn't even know this,
and you might be able to, like,
your light bulb will go off,
or maybe it's a Florida fan who watched them every day.
I feel like there's one defensive tackle
that has a false start or an encroachment penalty
almost weekly.
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And he stands over the ball.
There was also a play we showed against you.
91 um it's every every every single time
and i'm like well a third and 15 just became a third or
third and 18 just became a third and 13
and now the playbook changes and now we can actually get
into this empty screen that we're going to throw to our halfback
and now we get tackled for a 14
yard gain we would have been off the field bud
but instead now we have to continue the possession
um there's also things where like
and this has been a problem that john's been talking about
since week one where you guys
and week two where the penalties just seemed to keep to keep doubling
in size and and in importance
and there was a penalty against uh Missouri that I just felt like
I would have lost my you know what I would have lost it
in a team meeting room on Sunday
watching a linebacker who is supposed to be one
of our leaders just getting a personal foul five
seconds after the whistle for no reason he's
in there like just pushing an offensive lineman from
Missouri over and then getting in his face
and gives him one last shove literally after the
zebra had like walked over there and like tried to get him off
and then he then he gives him another
little push and it's like well all right buddy here's here's 15
and now ball's on the 35 now
the ball's on the 16 and like those those types of things man
so we we have bad eye discipline
We're kind of bad at tackling right now in the back end, too.
Like, there's some of that going on.
We're not punching at the ball when we get an opportunity to,
so we're not really turning teams over.
I don't know where you guys' forced fumble rates are right now,
but they're probably not as high as they should be.
We're not disciplined in the box.
We're constantly getting personal fouls.
We're constantly jumping off sides like, what is it, man?
It's all of it.
That's what it is.
So, now, that being said, I just blamed a bunch of players.
If it's everybody, then it's also the D.C.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Like, the old adage is, like,
you're either teaching it or you're allowing it.
And we're six weeks into allowing it.
We're six games into allowing this to happen.
So, yeah, they got to get it fixed, no doubt.
Well,
that's exactly what I was thinking when you were talking about it.
I was like, man, all the things you're mentioning, sure,
the players are executing those penalties and lacking discipline.
But when you're having it week over end,
and now you're starting to allow it.
There obviously is no consequence
for acting like an idiot on a regular basis.
So, sure, they shouldn't be doing it.
But there is no remorse outside of that internal penalty,
which, do they really care?
I clearly not, right?
So, what is happening behind the scenes?
And maybe that goes back to, well,
we just ain't got the depth to do it.
I don't know.
You know, to hold people accountable, that could be another problem.
That isn't the greatest answer that people want to hear.
But maybe you are kind of stuck with your hands tied behind your back.
Like, is that a common problem in teams that are making turnovers
that you've heard or seen or talked with other coaches before?
Look, I'm not saying he's Nick Saban,
and I'm not saying he's going to be Nick Saban.
But I think everybody who loves college football
has probably spent some time watching the Nick Saban documentary.
And one thing that stuck out to me was they went on this, like, heater
the first four games, and then they end the season 6-6
because of a lot of different reasons.
But one thing that also stuck out to me was, you know,
Greg McElroy, who is great in that miniseries on Saban, by the way.
He's tremendous.
Greg McElroy is sitting there talking about how, as players, anybody
on that 2008 and 2009 football team would have told you straight up,
our best football player was Rolando McClain.
He was a true freshman.
He was 19 years old.
And midway through the season, Nick Saban just flat out sat him.
Just, you're not playing anymore.
You're not, like, you're getting arguments with me in practice.
You're not listening.
you're not you're not taking coaching I don't care about
the outcomes of the football game
you're gonna sit and it made them worse
but in the long run it made them much better right they
Rolando ended up being the best football player
on those national championship teams and the first
one that they won on the defensive side of the football
so there is a little bit of this where
like when you first get there like doing it my way
is very very important winning is is paramount
but doing it the right way is also extremely important.
And yeah, I think they got away with some of this stuff
in the first four weeks.
And I at least give John credit for like recognizing
that we're not going, like we're going to get embarrassed
if we keep doing these things.
If we keep doing things like playing off coverage,
nine yards off the ball on third and two,
we're going to get our ass beat.
Like if we keep getting penalties,
we're going to get our ass beat.
If we don't get better at tackling,
we're going to get our ass beat.
And they didn't get better at any of those categories,
so we have to look at Coach on that one.
But at least he knew.
At least he wasn't just like walking around high on the clouds
being like, yeah, we're great.
We're about to steamroll everybody.
Like, I don't think that was the narrative from him.
So, yeah, I think there's a lot to clean up,
but I do believe in them.
Here's the crazy part.
I watched Kentucky for a long time.
They've been in this conference.
Brad White's been in this conference.
I've watched Brad White defense for a long time.
I never, ever, ever felt like they beat themselves.
They would get beat because they didn't have good enough players.
But I never felt like they beat themselves.
So this is also a new thing that's very interesting.
And I'm sure it's new to him.
I'm sure he's sitting there up at night scratching his head going,
what in the – what is going on, man?
I don't know.
And that's new.
So it's new to a lot of areas right about now.
It's interesting to take on the Saban situation
because I kind of mentioned that yesterday.
It's like Florida fans don't want to hear it
because it felt like it was trust
the process with Napier for four years.
But sometimes you've got to go backwards a little bit to go forward.
And that kind of, you know, we're hoping feels that's the direction.
It's like we're kind of having to eat ---- to realize,
to turn the ship here.
Quick questions on this offense,
and then we'll get you up out of here, man.
But what's happening?
We were putting up 98 games, Brooks.
Where's the breakdown?
Two things that have to go for the Buster offense to go
that haven't been going the last two weeks.
Obviously running the football and the screen game.
If we can't run the ball, and a lot of this is because Tramiel's out,
or Vernell's out, but if we can't run the ball successfully
and explosively, then we don't get the eyes dedicated to the box
to open up all these tight end to the flats,
to open up all these other things that come up, the deep overs, right,
to open up these portions of the offense that are really explosive
when the run game's going.
and then you add on to that that we don't really have
our best screen weapon right now
or haven't the last two weeks
and we get bundled up quite a bit um i also do think there's been
like we we've lost confidence in the quarterback i think
the confidence in the quarterback has lost
he's lost it a little bit in himself and anytime i see third
and seven quarterback draw calls with
a like Philo is a good athlete don't get me wrong
but if he were running the football against
me, I wouldn't be terrified as a defensive coordinator.
So anytime I see things
like third and seven quarterback draw
calls, I'm like, ooh,
they don't trust him.
They do not trust him to not turn the football
over in automatic passing downs.
That was a little bit concerning.
But I ultimately think
this offense, and Buster said this
after the Missouri game, and I was shocked he
said it. He said this offense is not
predicated and not comfortable
being in automatic passing situations.
That is not what we are set up to do.
So, I'm taking him for his word at that.
And by the way, I agree with him, and you do too, Sheldon.
If that's the case, then what do we have to do?
We have to be able to run the ball,
and we got to have great extension of the run game
to get into third and manageables.
And that, by the way, that's every offense except
for Ty Simpson last year on the road
at Alabama and Gunner Stockton this past weekend at Georgia.
In this conference, if you're constantly in third and five plus,
you will constantly suck
on third down.
It's just the way it is.
unless you have elite, like one-of-a-kind quarterback play.
And those are the only two examples I can think
of in my brain right now
that I immediately run to and I'm like,
oh, Gunner was 9 for 10 on third down.
Ty Simpson didn't miss a completion on third down
until the middle of the fourth quarter on the road against Georgia
a year and a half ago.
So, like, unless you're that,
you're probably going to be some poop on third down,
which means you better be able to run
and you better be able to have extension of the run game.
You better get into third and manageable.
So, that's where I would start with the offense.
What has gone on the last two weeks?
I think, first of all, Missouri put you in a locker.
That's what that was.
That was a physical ass-whipping at the line of scrimmage
for Missouri's defensive line, first and foremost.
Secondly, we ran it okay against South Carolina,
but we got in a position where we had to start chasing.
We're down multiple scores all of a sudden,
and now it's like, well, crap, we don't only need to score.
we need to score now because we can't stop
a nosebleed over there guys so let's start to get
into our passing bag and like that's that's not ideal
that's not ideal yeah the game has definitely
started collapsing on all aspects of the game over
the last two weeks now there's obviously uh
the news on Aaron Philo being questionable
a lot of conversation about going to Tramell
possibly opening things up giving you a different look
your thoughts on on Tramell maybe getting
to start do you like it indifferent i i'm indifferent
because i haven't seen him with
live bullets you know what i mean like it's it's
so it's so easy to sit there and go well you look
good in in practice or he looked good in spring scrimmages
and that that's all fine and dandy
but it's not it's not i hate to say it's not real football
but it's not real football it's real
football for everybody not wearing a non-contact jersey
but we've seen it man like and this this
isn't just you guys this is everybody i think there's there's one
of two ways that this can go
Tramell gets an opportunity to play
and we find out why Aaron Philow won the position or Tramell
gets the opportunity to play
and they find out that they made the wrong choice from the jump
that's the only two ways to go right um and history
of football will tell us this and you
don't have to look very far Ole Miss found this out last year
when Austin Simmons went down they're
like oh my god this Trinidad Chambliss guy wow right like I
the only guy I've ever seen that
actually made the decision didn't have
the decision forced upon him due to injury uh was
nick saban in a national championship game that's
the only football coach i've ever seen thinking of
when you're saying it he's the only football coach i've ever seen
that's like hey we need to make a
change and even that it took like 12 weeks
of the dude out playing the other guy in practice
over and over and over again i
by the way i think tennessee's going through this right now in the
middle of the season Phazon Brandon wins the shot wins
the job in the regular season or in the fall
camp and in the spring and then they find out oh
my god he's shell-shocked oh my god he can't handle
the fact that we can't block for him
so let's put the other guy in and the other guy's like oh I got
nothing to lose I'm gonna go in here
and spin the hell up out of it I'm gonna throw it into all
kinds of tight windows and I would imagine George gonna turn it over
a little bit but George isn't
gonna eat sacks to not get out get the ball out
so like some of these things actually work to the
betterment of our total outcome of our football team
or it could be catastrophic I don't I don't
think there's an in-between there yeah I agree I look I think
the and I said I go there is a
positive here you're going into this game tennis
if we Tennessee Texas doesn't know what Trammell
brings and we've seen that it does look a little bit different
when Trammell is on the field Buster
has a little more of a different arsenal how he calls the plays
and if he's able to extend the
expand the pocket use his feet some more get the ball out quickly
then you get back to that run
that you want and what Buster would love to have,
which is obviously our bread and butter.
So it'll be interesting.
I agree with you.
I feel like that's what it is.
Either it gets proven or what I want is just to work out.
And then he goes, oh, we've had to do it the whole time.
Look, we heard it all offseason.
It was close, right?
I mean, I don't know if they were blowing smoke,
but if it was genuinely close, here's your chance.
Go prove that it was close, but not anymore.
Brooks, I –
That's what Jonathan and I said to each other this weekend.
and I said, Philo was obviously struggling.
He threw a really bad pick, and Jonathan and I looked at each other,
and I said, well, I guess we're about to find out
how actually close that quarterback battle was, you know?
So we're going to find out one way or the other.
And, look, it's a bad matchup.
I think everybody's a bad matchup versus that Texas defense.
It's really, really hard to run
the football against those guys, really hard.
So good luck.
yeah a lot of people are not I mean
also saying it's not fair to Tramel but look you're gonna
get thrown in at some time and depending
on the temperature you always don't get a choice so
you're gonna have to play him in some facet get up
and let's go Brooks tell me they can give you
a follow man I appreciate you always tuning
in hopping in with us and giving us a chat man
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