GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The question is simple, but it's one that new Florida defensive coordinator Jon Hoke can't yet answer.

After two non-conference wins with an average margin of 30 points, does he have any idea about the effectiveness of his defense, which is ranked last in the Southeastern Conference? Especially with No. 2 Tennessee coming to town on Saturday?

"To be honest, I really don't know," said Hoke, a University of Missouri secondary coach who replaced Bob Stoops who became head coach at Oklahoma. "I think we have a chance to be pretty good, but I can't tell you that for sure."

That's a shaky endorsement and an honest assessment. With Florida having only one returning starter from a defense that had five players chosen in the first three rounds of last spring's NFL draft, it looked like Stoops knew when to head for the door.

"I think we're going to be judged all year," said junior end Derrick Chambers, the only returning starter from last year. "I think we've done some good things so far. I like playing for coach Hoke. He's really into what's going on."

He'd better be because it seems that Florida coach Steve Spurrier changes defensive coordinators as often as he does his underwear.

Hoke is Spurrier's seventh defensive coordinator in 10 years at Florida. Two -- Stoops and Bobby Pruett, who went to Marshall -- resigned to take head-coaching jobs.

Most head coaches want to know what's going on with their defense. Spurrier leaves defense to his coordinator so he can draw up more offensive "ballplays," as he loves to call them.

"We didn't hire Jon to run Bob Stoops' defense, we hired him to run his defense," said Spurrier, who said Hoke was recommended by Stoops and other coaches.

Both Stoops and Hoke like to play pressure defenses, but in different ways.

Stoops liked to play man-to-man coverage on the corners so his safeties would be free to roam. Hoke prefers using a variety of pass coverages with zone-blitz packages.

"I like to give an offense a lot of different looks so they'll have a lot to prepare for," Hoke said.

So far, both Western Michigan and Central Florida seemed to have little trouble figuring out the Gators.

Florida has allowed 432.5 yards per game, of which 392 has been passing. The Gators have given up seven plays of more than 30 yards, half the total it gave up all of last season.

True, the first two wins have been bench-clearing blowouts, but the Gators' starters have allowed generous chunks of yardage.

"We need to do a better job in the pass rush," junior defensive tackle Buck Gurley said. "We need to improve basic fundamentals like getting off the ball, and getting off blocks."

Hoke said he's tried to stay somewhat vanilla in his schemes so far.

"We have held some things back," Hoke said. "We've played most of the dime (pass defense) package, but we've held a lot out of our base defense.

"I've tried to be careful on our blitzes. Sometimes on blitzes, you can get caught in bad matchups."

So far, Spurrier has been diplomatic about his bending defense. He's not used to seeing a soft pass rush and even softer coverage by his cornerbacks.

"We've given up a bunch of passing yards," Spurrier said. "That might be due to the nature of the games we've had. Maybe we're not very good at covering passes right now.

"But I know Tennessee's not going to come in here in the shotgun and throw the ball all over the place. They're coming in to run, run, run, then throw, throw, throw a bit."

The Gators' defenders have faith in Hoke.

"He likes us to keep hustling and running to the ball," sophomore end Alex Brown said. "That's what some of our championship teams have been built on. It's something we need."

(Ron Higgins writes for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.)