What Marco Wilson’s return Saturday means for Florida’s defense

What Marco Wilson’s return Saturday means for Florida’s defense
By Will Sammon
Aug 21, 2019

Chad Wilson saw the video moments before everyone else and was surprised.

Chad was told his son Marco Wilson would be jogging. Marco wasn’t jogging. Three months after undergoing surgery for a torn ACL, Marco was running.

“When I think of jogging,” Chad said, “I’m thinking not full-out strides like that. I was thinking, ‘Man, geez, you have a pretty good stride going there.’”

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Seconds after Chad finished watching the short video, it was shared on Instagram. From there, it quickly circulated on Twitter. The clip was a milestone for Marco.

“That was just the first time I started to run,” he said. “It felt weird compared to right now. I can run normal now.”

Wilson surprised more than just his father on Dec. 24 last year during one of Florida’s bowl practices at Mercedes-Benz Stadium when he ran — with a full practice uniform and helmet on — from one sideline to the other across the 50.

“People thought he might be playing in the bowl game,” Chad Wilson said with a laugh. “I didn’t say anything. I just let people run with that and have fun.”

How could some of those Florida fans be blamed for wishful thinking? Wilson had 10 pass breakups as a freshman in 2017, which ranked tied for sixth in the SEC.

Wilson didn’t have the opportunity to further bolster his resume as a first-rate defensive back in the SEC last year after his impressive debut in 2017. His season ended Week 2 on Sept. 8 against Kentucky in The Swamp. Though it took him only three months to run, nearly a full calendar year has now passed since he last played in a game.

Wilson will return to the field Saturday when No. 8 Florida opens the season against Miami in Orlando.

He was missed. Without Wilson, Florida was forced to play then-freshman Trey Dean alongside stalwart cornerback CJ Henderson. When Dean wasn’t playing, former three-star prospects C.J. McWilliams and Brian Edwards saw snaps. Dean held his own at times, but opposing teams targeted the side opposite Henderson more frequently — and found more success doing so than they probably would have otherwise, had Wilson been healthy.

A few takeaways from the chart above …

• Context is important when explaining the yards per pass attempt differential. Wilson’s number is higher, in part, because the defense he played on was worse. The Gators’ defense wasn’t good in 2017, and they vastly improved in 2018 with a fiercer pass rush among other tangible enhancements. Florida’s defense allowed a whopping 8.0 yards per pass attempt in 2017, its worst mark over the entire decade — the Gators didn’t allow more than 6.5 yards per pass attempt in any other season. Florida allowed 6.2 yards per pass attempt last year. The figure should further dwindle because of Wilson’s presence and this being the secondary’s second year under defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.

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• Wilson is elite at deflecting passes. Despite seeing 43 fewer targets in 2017 than McWilliams, Edwards and Dean combined saw in 2018, according to Sports Info Solutions, Wilson had only two fewer passes defensed (a defender “breaking up a throw at the catch point”). Such a knack will come in handy in the red zone, just as an inability to thwart attempts was costly at times last year.

• It’s not shown on the chart, but it’s worth pointing out that although he probably played more snaps, Henderson saw only one fewer target in 2018 than he did in 2017. His overall numbers improved. His completion percentage against went from 50 percent to 38 percent, and his yards allowed per pass attempt dropped from 7.7 to 5.28. As good as Henderson’s completion percentage against was in 2018, Wilson’s number from 2017 was a tick better.

Florida won 10 games without Wilson last year, so adding him to a veteran defense, from an abstract point of view, offers an obvious source of optimism for improvement. From a practical standpoint, Florida’s defensive players suspect Grantham will be calling more blitzes and will be more aggressive now that he has Wilson to pair with Henderson. Dean remains one of Florida’s best 11 defensive players, so he moved to nickel safety, where he should thrive as someone capable of blitzing, tackling and covering as needed.

Talk to any defensive player or coach at Florida, particularly those associated with the secondary, and the same thing is mentioned as a benefit from Wilson’s return: Confidence.

“It changes everything,” safeties coach Ron English said. “It changes everything, because Marco’s a real dude. Oh, it’s confidence. Guys know, I think they feel like we can be the best secondary in the country. And when you have two corners like that and some safeties with experience that can play and have made big plays in big games to change things, that’s a pretty sweet deal.”

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Wilson is ready to do his part. Cornerbacks coach Torrian Gray said early in preseason camp that Wilson looked “unbelievable” and was “doing a hell of a job.” He is 100 percent, and it’s showing. Just as he did the prior two years, Wilson has stayed late after each practice with Henderson, working on their respective games.

Injuries, however, have a tendency to make a player evanescent to media. Unlike Henderson, Wilson is not on preseason All-America or All-SEC lists.

“I was expecting that,” Wilson said. “I see all the draft boards, everything, and they don’t have me on any of them. But I simply gotta think that I didn’t play last year, so you can’t blame them. I haven’t played in a year.

“So after this year, I’m sure it will be different. You will see everything be different by the end of the year, after I played a full year. And they’ll see that I am that guy and I am one of the best defensive backs in the country. So I am not really worried about the preseason stuff and not being in any of that. That’s just all stuff for the media. So I am not worried about it.”

If Wilson plays well on Saturday, he can instantly change that conversation — and get one step closer to a team goal that has lingered in his mind since the injury. As in, he wants to actually play on a winning team.

Wilson’s family didn’t attend every Florida game last year, but they went to the home games. They were with Wilson when Florida won its biggest home game of the season against LSU. They watched the game. They heard the crowd. They saw how disappointed Wilson was to not really be part of it.

Wilson felt the same way during the week of Florida’s bowl preparation. That’s part of the reason why he was so eager to run — not simply jog.

“Definitely during those big wins, it hurt me,” Wilson said. “I was there but definitely wasn’t a part of it. That’s kind of annoying. But I’m definitely still happy for my teammates. They had a great year. You always want to be a part of it. You’re on the team, you want to be out there playing with your guys. But I put that behind me and focused on this year. We could have a lot more good memories this year.”

For Wilson, that starts with playing on Saturday.

(Photo: David Rosenblum / Getty Images)

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Will Sammon

Will Sammon is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the New York Mets. A native of Queens, New York, Will previously covered the Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Gators football for The Athletic, starting in 2018. Before that, he covered Mississippi State for The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi’s largest newspaper. Follow Will on Twitter @WillSammon