GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Geoff Collins' in-office bookshelf is full of fun things.

He has the normal football-related reading material that almost seems like a prerequisite for any football coach's office, but he also has nearly an entire shelf devoted to managing -- soccer managing.

The raspy-voiced, firecracker of a defensive coordinator -- fashioned on this day with orange khakis and Gator blue loafers -- is all about detail, and what better idols to learn from than European soccer managers? A born Chelsea and Bayern Munich fan, Collins pores over his books to find an edge on this football field. During his first few months on the job as Florida's new defensive coordinator, he's looking to make what's been a strong unit for years even better by forcing players to be as meticulous as he is when it comes to details and to master their situational awareness.

"Be a dominant defense, but still be a dominant defense when it becomes third-and-7," Collins said.

The first part of that statement hasn't been too much of a stretch for Florida's defense the past four years. During Will Muschamp's four-year tenure preceding Collins' move to Gainesville with new head coach Jim McElwain, Florida ranked no worse than 15th nationally in total defense and ranked inside the top 10 three times. When it came to scoring, the Gators held opponents to an average of 21.1 points or less in games during that four-year stretch.

For as bad as Florida's offense was, the defense was that good, or better. But Collins' mission this spring was to harp on the little things, like being better than seventh and eighth in the SEC in red zone defense and defending third downs. Collins wants to make players more cognizant of down-and-distance, improve how they respond after the offense turned it over, hike up their red zone and overtime IQ, and try to eliminate the stupid and careless penalties that has ravaged this defense over the years during critical points of games and drives.

"Those are the things we really need to hone in on defensively," McElwain said.

Known as the "Minister of Mayhem" with his fiery/charismatic attitude, Collins wanted to shorten the learning curve for his new defense by adapting some to what the players were used to. In the past, Collins has overrun defenses with his own calls and terminology when installing new information. But with the Gators, he learned most of the team's past calls and verbage, while still implementing some of his own.

"It's easier to [learn] if you don't have eight million terms coming at you," Collins said.

With one spring in the books, Collins and his players agree that that decision paid off beautifully when it came to guys understanding Collins' scheme, which isn't exactly the same as what Muschamp and his staff ran, but it isn't too far off.

"It's not crazy different, but there are some things that they changed," safety Keanu Neal said. "Everyone's adapting very well. We're understanding the playbook, understanding what the play calls fall behind, as far as personnel and things like that."

Making it easy for a defense that is once again miles ahead of the offense is essential to keeping Florida competitive this fall. This defense isn't perfect, but it will yet again be viewed as the backbone of this team because the offense is behind talent-wise and is an utter mystery as a whole.

But there's work to be done. The linebacker corps is incredibly thin, sporting just four scholarship players this spring because of injury and having only one true linebacker coming in from the 2015 class. The defensive line has some players, but there's immediate star power and multiple rush-ends have to be found.

The secondary houses the most depth, but it was the soft spot of the defense at times last season, being susceptible to the deep ball during the first half of the season.

Precision was key for all three levels of defense at Florida this spring. To emphasize that, Collins did a ton of cross-training with players, having every lineman play in and out and every linebacker rotate around each position, including defensive end and the nickel and dime. Just about every defensive back played corner, safety, nickel and dime this spring, too.

"If you can learn the whole scheme," Collins said, "I think it helps you do your part better."

Defenders say they don't feel added pressure this year because of the offensive stigma this team carries. Defensive lineman Jonathan Bullard admitted in years past there was some tension between the offense and defense, with the defenders feeling like they had to carry the team because of the offense's massive shortcomings.

Right now, Bullard doesn't know what to expect from the offense, but he knows this defense will protect this team as much as it can.

"In our room, we worry about what we can control," Bullard said. "We can't control what the offense does. Even if we had a great offense, we'd still want to go out there and be the best defense in the nation. So we haven't put too much pressure on that.

"We're just believing in what Coach Mac's bringing, and hopefully the offense is getting better and they're going to put up some points so there's not as much pressure. If it is, it is, and we just gotta step up to the plate and control it."