A change in Florida’s defensive philosophy was coming anyway with Randy Shannon taking over as coordinator from Geoff Collins. Now, that change might be even more profound with the Gators losing hard-hitting strong safety Marcell Harris for the season with a torn Achilles.
There’s no one who can replace Harris’ combination of skill set and experience. He’s an excellent run defender in the box, and led the team with 73 tackles last season.
Florida coach Jim McElwain and Shannon do have the entire preseason camp to experiment and figure out the best solution, but this is a brutal setback.