He hasn’t seen the amount of time on the field in his first two years as he was expecting to see when he signed. Florida Gators sophomore inside linebacker Derek Wingo knows that will change in 2022. After a spring where he was heavily depended on to run the group, Wingo thinks there is a great mixture of young and old at linebacker as well as a lot of talent to make a big impression on the 2022 defense.
Wingo played a lot of special teams in the last two years and saw more of the field in 2021 playing in all 13 games and starting once. The former defensive staff never got into a dependent mode with Wingo. But that has changed.
With returning starter and sixth-year senior Ventrell Miller missing two practices a week in the spring, Billy Napier’s new defensive staff at Florida leaned on Wingo a good bit to take a leadership role at inside linebacker. The result in his eyes was a really good one.
“I feel like my spring went pretty good,” Wingo told Greater Guide to Gainesville at an event hosted by the Gator Collective last month “I gained a lot of confidence I got to get around the coaching staff and understand how their system works. I gained their trust just as much as the other way around, vice versa. I feel like I ended up playing pretty well. I still have a lot more to do but I’m excited for this upcoming season.”
Wingo understands that it’s a team game and that includes other players at his position. He also understands that experience is a really big thing.
“I was able to get a little bit more experience,” he said about all of his time in the fall. “But with Ventrell still coming back it’s amazing to be able to have experience. He’s a veteran guy and I get to learn from him and stuff like that.”
The Ft. Lauderdale native believes there are a lot of tools for the defensive staff to work with within the inside linebacker room.
“I feel like having Ventrell and (Amari) Burney coming back we have a lot of experience in the room,” he said. “They’ve played in a lot of big time games and made a lot of plays. Having guy like me and Scooby Williams being able to step up and make plays this season, we have Diwun Black transferring to the linebackers’ room so I think we have a really close bond with our linebacker corps. I’m just really excited for us to compete and be able to go out there and make plays.”
The group will be coached by Jay Bateman, a veteran assistant who has garnered a lot of recognition for coaching linebackers over time.
“I’m excited to have Coach Bateman,” Wingo said. “I’ve known him for quite some time when he was back at North Carolina. It’s cool to have him over here. We’ve been working on a lot of things that we lacked in the past, all of our tackling drills and understanding small fundamentals. I’m excited and Coach Bateman has been doing a good job of teaching us so far.”
Wingo sees the defense as a group that will have better communication. That will allow the athletes to play ball faster and make more plays.
“I think the defense as a whole is amazing,” he said. “We have the guru behind us, Coach Patrick Toney. He’s as smart as it gets. He knows exactly what he’s talking about. Just us as a defense being able to be all on the same page, understanding and knowing what we’re doing, the down and distance, just always on the same page, that’s something we lacked before. I’m excited and have confidence in our coaches and the players around us.”
Wingo does embody a confidence that we just didn’t see from the Florida defense over the last two years. It’s about time for him to make his mark on Florida football.