ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Florida cornerback Joe Haden has said it so many times that it almost sounds rehearsed.

As linebacker Brandon Spikes goes, this defense goes.

"If you don't love the game the way he does and play with that same passion, then you're going to have trouble being on the same field with him," Haden said. "He brings everybody's level up to his."

	Kim Klement/US Presswire
	Brandon Spikes sets the tone for the Florida defense.

It's the essence of greatness in any team sport, raising the level of play of everybody else around you.

And that's what Spikes has done this season for the Florida defense, which is fourth nationally in scoring defense (12.8 points per game) and has given up more than 21 points only once all season.

He's to the Florida defense what Tim Tebow is to the Florida offense.

"Ever since I've been playing football, I've been a leader," said Spikes, a 6-3, 245-pound junior. "Guys just follow me. I don't know what it is, but it's a good thing."

It took some prodding by Florida coach Urban Meyer to get Spikes to accept that role with the Gators. As a sophomore, Spikes was talented, motivated and productive.

But he sort of did his thing and let everybody else do their thing.

"I just didn't think it was my time to be a leader," Spikes said. "It wasn't that I didn't want to or wasn't comfortable with it. We had some older guys, and I didn't see it as my role."

A series of chats with Meyer, many of them emotional, changed Spikes' outlook. The Gators were coming off a subpar defensive showing in 2007, capped by an embarrassing 41-35 loss to Michigan in the Capital One Bowl, and Meyer had some very pointed words for Spikes in the spring.

"He let me know it was on me," Spikes said. "It touched me, but I kind of wanted it all on me. I stepped up and started being a vocal leader and talking to the younger guys.

"It kind of shocked me because I didn't know he was expecting so much from me. I guess he noticed my leadership skills weren't what they needed to be as far as how I approached the game with my passion, intensity and energy.

"He saw me as the core of the defense."

Sure enough, Spikes has been a little bit of everything defensively for Florida heading into Thursday's FedEx BCS National Championship Game against Oklahoma.

He's a ferocious tackler. Just ask Georgia's Knowshon Moreno, who's probably still feeling it in his lower back after being planted by Spikes back on Nov. 1, setting the tone for that 49-10 romp.

He can drop back and play pass coverage as evidenced by his four interceptions this season, two of which he's returned for touchdowns.

He can also walk up to the line of scrimmage as a pass-rusher on obvious passing downs. He's equally effective blitzing up the middle or coming off the edge.

"He's always moving around," Oklahoma running back Chris Brown said. "He's the most versatile athlete at the linebacker position that we've played all year. He just has a high motor and plays hard all the time."

The one exception, according to Spikes, was the Arkansas game earlier this season. He apologized to his teammates afterward for his performance and then started working on the defense's chemistry as a whole.

Per his orders, the Florida defenders began getting together on their own for pizza parties, to watch football games together, anything to better bond as a unit.

Spikes' message was always the same.

"Football is your life, and you've got to sacrifice some things," Spikes said. "I think we've done that on this defense."

Spikes, who came from a rough background in Shelby, N.C., has talked openly about getting to the NFL and making enough money to get his brother, Breyon Middlebrooks, better legal representation. Middlebrooks is currently serving a life sentence in a North Carolina penitentiary after a first-degree murder conviction.

Middlebrooks had two trials. The first one ended in a hung jury, and Spikes remains convinced that his brother is innocent.

"It's something I think about every day," Spikes said.

Meyer has seen Spikes grow up a little more every day, and the Gators' coach doesn't know where this team would be right now had it not been for Spikes' maturation as a leader.

After all, this is the only defense in the SEC without a senior starter, and 14 of the 22 players listed in the two-deep are freshmen or sophomores.

"I don't want to say things have come easy for him, because they haven't," Meyer said. "He's had his struggles growing up, but he got away with things because of his athleticism. He's a very instinctive player, and he just played his own game and didn't worry about other people.

"He's playing at a high level. But more important than that, he's getting everyone else to play."