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Safety Duke Dawson may have had a slightly quieter rookie campaign than fellow sophomores Jalen Tabor and Quincy Wilson , but he may be counted on every bit as much as those two this upcoming season.

Dawson arrived to Florida last year as a four-star cornerback, but at a position primed with talent that includes the aforementioned sophomore sensations and All-American Vernon Hargreaves III , the Cross City, Fla., native was given the opportunity to transition to safety, where he should back up junior Keanu Neal and redshirt junior Marcus Maye this year when both are available.

Neal and Maye could both sit for the opener, giving Dawson an opportunity to hone his craft against New Mexico State. Neal has been battling with an unspecified leg injury over the past couple of weeks, while Maye was suspended for the first game, per UAA policy, along with defensive end Alex McCalister and wide receiver Latroy Pittman

Dawson is a stout defensive back, standing 5-foot-10 and 204 pounds, and his coverage abilities were showcased in the first game of last season, when he swerved through traffic coming back to the ball on his way toward a 36-yard pick-six against Eastern Michigan.

This athleticism helped him moving forward, as he earned playing time in several crucial match-ups such as Tennessee, LSU and in the Birmingham Bowl against ECU. He recorded four tackles during Florida's contest in Knoxville, perhaps his most complete game of the season.

Dawson is keen on using this experience to his advantage.

"I actually got to get my feet wet freshman year," he said. "I expect a lot more things out of myself this year to become a better ballplayer. There's a lot of things I have to work on like my eye control, my pad level."

Dawson had previously missed some time this fall with a concussion, a source told Inside the Gators, but he's been cleared to return and looks forward to the contact.

For this upcoming year, Dawson, who recorded 14 tackles in 2014, has set an objective for himself.

"My goal this year, I want to become a better tackler," Dawson said. "I can always improve on tackling. I know my covering -- that is my primary skill. I just want to improve on tackling.

"Some of the angles I take coming into running backs or whatever, they're bad angles," he continued. "So I try to become better at taking better angles. … Every day before practice or during practice, we have this one deep-ball drill that we do for the safeties and the cornerbacks to take better angles."

This will surely be essential in Dawson's role as safety, where he will be entrusted with laying the wood on receivers venturing across the middle or those that get out in space past the first line of defense.

Both the old and new staffs have praised Dawson for his exceptional ability to digest what's been given to him, and he hopes to take this up a notch as well.

"I could say my biggest jump is learning the defense more," he noted. "Last year I had a lot of missed assignments in the defense. I felt like this year I locked in more in meetings. In the time I didn't do anything, I looked at my iPad, went into the film room, studied more."

Of course, it helps when arguably one of the best defensive players in college football is next to you on the field and in the film room.

"Before a lot of the plays, [Hargreaves III] calls out the route combination," Dawson said. "It really helps the safeties, too. … He taught me a lot of things as a corner and playing nickel."

Dawson may be the teacher to a younger defensive back in the not-too-distant future after all he's experienced. For now, he sponges what he can off his elders.

And though his role may be fluid, on any given Saturday this fall expect Dawson to rock the receivers of the SEC.