{"id":15367,"date":"2018-08-02T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosoncfb.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=15367"},"modified":"2025-09-13T16:03:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T20:03:03","slug":"three-breakout-players-on-florida-gators-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2018\/08\/02\/three-breakout-players-on-florida-gators-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Breakout Players on Florida Gators Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Florida Gators<\/strong> football program is over a month away from the start of the Dan Mullen<\/a><\/strong> era. Mullen was part of the Gators<\/strong> coaching staff for their most recent National Championship as an offensive coordinator. He will now try to repeat that feat, but now as the head coach. The Gators finished last season with a disappointing 4-7 record, but expectations are much higher. Florida has a talented roster with top NFL prospects and big-time playmakers. Everybody knows the stars like Cece Jefferson<\/a><\/strong>, Marco Wilson<\/a><\/strong>, and David Reese<\/a><\/strong> but there are other players that aren\u2019t getting as much attention. This could be the season that those players finally break out and show the nation what they\u2019re made of. Here are three potential breakout players for the Florida Gators defense.<\/p>\n

1. Tedarrell Slaton<\/a><\/h2>\n

The first player on the list is sophomore Tedarrell Slaton<\/strong>. The former Army All-American<\/strong> is coming off a freshman season in which he transitioned from offensive guard to defensive tackle. Slaton received some playing time last season and even made some big plays in the Vanderbilt<\/strong> game. One of Slaton\u2019s biggest issues is conditioning. At 6\u20194\u201d 360 pounds, he lacked endurance and it showed on the field. Now, in better shape and in Todd Grantham\u2019s<\/strong> 3-4 defense, Slaton is expected to break out. Slaton\u2019s body and skill set are built for the 3-4 defense. His huge frame and strength will make him one of the best run stoppers on the team.<\/p>\n

2. Shawn Davis<\/a><\/h2>\n

The safety position at Florida has produced a lot of NFL talent like Keanu Neal<\/a><\/strong>, Major Wright<\/a><\/strong>, and Ahmad Black<\/a><\/strong>. Shawn Davis<\/strong> will look to become another star in the long history of great defensive backs out of Florida. The sophomore safety out of Miami<\/strong>\u00a0had a lot of playing time last year but had his struggles. With a full season under his belt, the former four-star recruit has put on a lot of good weight and looks great. He is a much bigger safety that has always been known as a hard hitter. Davis should get a lot of playing time this season and possibly win one of the starting safety jobs.<\/p>\n

3. Antonneous Clayton<\/a><\/h2>\n

The last player on the list is former Under Armour All-American<\/strong> Antonneous Clayton<\/strong>. The skilled defensive end came into Florida with high expectations but has not lived up to them yet. As a freshman, he struggled to add more muscle and didn\u2019t play most of the season. Last season, he had a hard time getting into the rotation and was still learning how to play with his new frame. Now, the former five-star recruit is playing in a defensive\u00a0scheme that plays into his strengths. Clayton is a pass rusher and is really aggressive when it comes to getting to the quarterback. Clayton will probably not start this season but he will get a ton of playing time on third downs to rush the QB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Florida Gators football program is over a month away from the start of the Dan Mullen era. Mullen was part of the Gators coaching staff for their most recent National Championship as an offensive coordinator. He will now try to repeat that feat, but now as the head coach. The Gators finished last season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2113,"featured_media":15388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[3338,244,3026,20,3339,3340],"class_list":["post-15367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sec","tag-antonneous-clayton","tag-florida-gators","tag-ncaaf","tag-sec","tag-shawn-davis","tag-tedarrell-slaton"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77883,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15367\/revisions\/77883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}