Ready or not, Austin Armstrong is now charged with resurrecting Florida's defense

The future of Florida football largely depends on a guy who’s been compared to Kirby Smart and Todd Grantham.

In culinary terms, that’s like being compared to Gordon Ramsay and the kid making your Burrito Supreme at Taco Bell. You don’t know if you’ll get a five-star meal or a case of heartburn.

Grab a napkin, we’re about to start finding out.

Spring practice begins Saturday, approximately five days after Austin Armstrong was named defensive coordinator. That’s not ideal timing, but it’s been that kind of an offseason for the Gators.

Three assistants left on the eve of the spring practice, led by Patrick Toney. The Arizona Cardinals hired the would-be whiz kid savior of Florida’s defense to coach safeties in the NFL.

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Armstrong has the same kind of whiz-kid resume. Will he turn out to be a savior of a unit that desperately needs one?

Umm, check back in a couple of years.

I wish I could give you a definitive answer, but nobody knows how any new employee will succeed. Armstrong is really a Rorschach test on how you feel about the program heading into Year 2 of Billy Napier running the show.

If you’re optimistic, if you think last year’s 6-7 record was a case of growing pains, if you’re pumped over a recruiting class with an 80% blue-chip ratio, you look at the Armstrong inkblot and see an intriguing and potentially great hire.

UF defense under Patrick Toney and Todd Grantham has been bad

If you’re still suffering Post Las Vegas Bowl Stress Disorder, depressed at losing to every rival, flummoxed over the Jaden Rashada fiasco and wondering if Napier is in over his head, you look at Armstrong and see a disturbing resemblance to Toney. Or even another Grantham.

The former, as all fans know, inherited a historically bad defense from the latter. And, defying all odds, things got worse.

There were extenuating circumstances, of course. Toney had to install a new system and exorcise attitude issues. Except for a handful of starters, the talent he had to work with wouldn’t have made Georgia’s scout team.

Nobody expected ’85 Bears last season, but they also didn’t expect Florida to finish behind Akron in FBS total defense rankings. Among the glitches:

• UF was 96^th in sacks.
• 105^th in yards per play.
• 129^th in third-down conversions allowed.
• 1.2 millionth in tackling FSU quarterback Jordan Travis.

Raising the Titanic was not going to happen in one season. Toney left before he could be labeled a bust, but he was fast becoming Grantham 2.0 to fans. There were rumblings he was looking for an escape hatch.

Going from defensive coordinator at a big-name college program to coaching safeties for the Cardinals looks like a lateral move at best. UF’s spin is that Toney, who came with Napier from Louisiana, always dreamed of coaching in the NFL.

That may well be the case, but it’s hard to believe he’d be in the Arizona desert now if things were going swimmingly in Gainesville.

Enter Armstrong, who looks like a Toney clone. He was a grad assistant at Louisiana from 2017-18.

Billy Napier serving up youth again

Toney was one of the youngest coordinators at Power Five schools last year. At 29, Armstrong is three years younger.

He was born the year Ellis Johnson – a defensive player, no less – led UF to a 24-23 upset of Alabama in the third SEC Championship Game.

God, I have socks older than Armstrong.

Just bear in mind, Kirby Smart was 33 when he became defensive coordinator at Alabama. William Travis was 26 when he commanded the Texas troops at the Alamo.

Heck, Hermann Rorschach was 27 when he began devising his famed ink-blot psychological test in 1911. That doesn’t mean Armstrong will develop a defense people will be using 112 years from now, but don’t hold Armstrong’s youth against him.

He’s a riser, having been a defensive analyst for Kirby Smart, returned to Louisiana to coach linebackers for a year and was defensive coordinator at Southern Miss the past two seasons.

Like Toney, Armstrong hasn’t proven himself in Power Five competition. But you can’t prove yourself until you get a chance.

Nick Saban thought enough of Armstrong to hire him as linebacker coach last month. Armstrong was in Tuscaloosa a little over a week when the Gators called.

If nothing else, it shows Napier’s confidence in his overall rebuilding plan hasn’t been shaken. He thought Toney was raising the Titanic, and Armstrong is the right guy to continue the job.

He’d better be right.

After all the heartburn the defense has triggered the past few years, the last thing fans can swallow is another bad burrito.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley