New UF secondary coach Torrian Gray discusses array of topics
When Virginia Tech secondary coach Torrian Gray was offered a spot on Florida’s staff in the same role, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
After all, Gray’s hometown of Lakeland, Fla., is just a two and-a-half-hour drive away.
“I have my mother, I’ve got three brothers and three sisters – seven,” Gray said Thursday, meeting with the local media in Gainesville for the first time since UF hired him on Feb. 4. “We’ve got a 10-month-old my mom has not been around a lot, or my brothers and sisters. So, they’ll get to see her a lot more. They’re excited about that. I still have friends that are back home in Lakeland that are happy for me, going to want some tickets, I guess. It’s pretty good to be back.”
And the Gators are just as happy to have him on board. After dismissing prior defensive backs coach Kirk Callahan after just one year, Florida found as his replacement a heralded coach and a strong and enthusiastic recruiter in the 41-year-old Gray, who spent 10 seasons at Virginia Tech from 2006-15 after playing there from 1992-96.
“You know, I can’t remember exactly when I started talking to those guys, I just know when they showed an interest and I had an opportunity to have a chance to come here, I was ecstatic about that,” Gray said. “Like I said, it’s the University of Florida, it was an opportunity to leave Virginia Tech, a school that I love, my alma mater. To come home to here was just exciting to me to have that opportunity.”
On the recruiting end, the Gators certainly get a boost with the addition of Gray. His past experiences on the trail show a track record of success recruiting in the state of Florida – especially in the central region, Tampa area and south Florida as well.
Gray admits now that having that Gators logo on his chest certainly helps from a recruiting standpoint.
“Well I recruited — we spot recruited a couple areas, at least I did, from Virginia Tech or being in the ACC, and you come down to Georgia and it seems there was an awe or something about the SEC, an aura that you went up against sometimes,” Gray said. “Some kids it didn’t matter, but for a lot of kids it did. If I’m spot recruiting Florida, sometimes it does matter. For some kids it didn’t, but there seems to be an aura for a lot of student-athletes about the SEC.”
In his first season at UF, Gray inherits a secondary with plenty of what he calls “top-end talent.” All-SEC cornerback Jalen Tabor returns to the mix, and standout safety Marcus Maye decided to return to Florida for his redshirt senior year. Cornerback Quincy Wilson, safeties Marcell Harris and Nick Washington, and versatile defensive back Duke Dawson, who projects as a nickel this spring, also should factor heavily into the rotation.
“Jalen is an instinctive, football playing guy,” Gray said, when asked if Tabor compares to his past defensive back standouts at Virginia Tech in Kyle and Kendall Fuller.
“He has great ball skills. I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve seen of him on film. He reminds of a lot of things and movements of how Kendall Fuller plays or Kyle Fuller."
However, Gray admitted that the secondary needs to build some depth – especially after losing Vernon Hargreaves and Keanu Neal to an early exit to the draft, as well as Brian Poole to graduation.
“I have had a chance to evaluate the secondary,” Gray said. “We got here and hit the ground running and watched a lot of the cut-ups with the coaches. I kind of get to see who’s doing what. I was very impressed with what the defensive staff was able to do last season and very impressed with how the secondary played. I’m looking forward to working with those guys and repeating that and we’d all like to do better than last year.”
Some of those candidates to round out the rotation this season include sophomore Chris Williamson, early enrollees Chauncey Gardner and McArthur Burnett, and incoming defensive backs Christopher McWilliams, Quincy Lenton, Jeawon Taylor and Joseph Putu.
“Chauncey is very personable, loves to talk,” Gray said. “He’s got a great personality. I’m just going to learn all those guys individually. Just trying to get to know them right now, but that’s what I’ve taken from this point. I’m anxious to see what kind of evolves there and how it that is going to translate to the field.”
During his time speaking with reporters Thursday, Gray also shared some of his philosophies as a secondary coach and what he looks for in his defensive backs.
"We kind of gotten accustomed to playing a lot of man and I found out, over experience, longer guys are attracted to me," Gray said. "Like tall guys, long guys. So those are the kinds of guys that I try to recruit. But I don't want to pass up a good player just because he's not tall. You kind of take what you like into account, obviously we want fast guys. You want guys with a football IQ so you kind of have your standards of what you would like and kind of go from there.
"In basic terms at Virginia Tech, we kind of got into playing a lot of man coverage. Almost every play, our zones were matchups. But you can only do so much in college football. You're either playing man or playing zone, but it's just kind of from the concept and the way we did things is a little bit different than here. But at the end of the day, you can only do certain things but it's still a lot different."
At Virginia Tech, Gray's group earned the moniker "DBU" - a nickname teams like UF and LSU have recently used to describe their own units.
“I think you got three or four schools that call themselves DBU, maybe more," Gray said. "Virginia Tech was one of the schools that called themselves DBU, Florida calls themselves DBU, LSU, I hear Texas. I guess it’s whatever you think.
"We think we’re DBU here at the University of Florida and we’re going to roll with that.”
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