Dan Mullen's Post-Game Press Conference November 6, 2021. South Carolina 40, Florida 17

Florida Football Postgame Quotes

Dan Mullen, Florida Head Coach

“Give them a lot of credit. They played well, made some plays, made a lot of plays. They were able to run the ball and control the tempo of the game and capitalize on mistakes that we made. I’m disappointed in what we did and we’ve got to work and find a way to get better.”

On the team’s performance...

“Yeah, that’s a tough one. I know [every one of our guys] had a great attitude this week and worked, and the desire of our guys and the attitude that they bring. We’ve got to create some positive momentum for the guys on the team. For those guys, we as coaches have got to improve and help them get better.”

On how hard the team played...

“You know, I certainly don’t think that we gave up. I give our guys credit. They battled. They faced a lot of adversity and continued to battle. We faced all kinds of adversities this week. Those guys continued to battle.”

On the adversities...

“We had anywhere from 20-30 guys missing from practice every day this week. I give some guys credit. Emory Jones tested positive for the flu this morning, we had several guys not even come out onto to the field, onto the bus. I don’t want to make an excuse for those guys, but I want to give our guys credit for battling, with facing that adversity. We had a bunch of guys dealing with sickness. We had to fly some guys up separately from the team, keep everybody separated. Those guys still went out. Even though there was a large number of guys that missed practice, we had quite a few... Our training staff tried to do a good job today of IV-ing guys and trying to get them ready to be able to go out and perform. I think our guys compete and they’re going to work, they’re going to fight, and they’re going to give everything they have.

“We as coaches have to do a better job to put them in the positions, for the effort they give, to put them in position to be successful.”

On his feelings of the outcome...

“I didn’t see it coming. I’m obviously really disappointed. You give them credit. Their guys played really well, made plays that were there to be made. I’ve coached a long time so I don’t know that stuff is stunning really ever to me.

“Obviously, wasn’t seeing the game play out this way. So, very disappointed. I know the players are very disappointed.”

On the run game...

“We fell behind a little bit. We were moving the ball, we had some explosive plays there. I think part of that for them was putting everybody at the line of scrimmage and that’s where we were able to hit some explosive plays early on in the game, throwing the ball down the field. We’ve got to be better at the line of scrimmage and up front, offensively and defensively on the line, we’ve got to play better.”

On staff changes...

“I’m not going to get into any of that stuff right now of what we are going to do. We are going to evaluate where we are at and look. We’ve got a game. We head back to The Swamp next Saturday. We haven’t played there in a really long time, five-to-six weeks. So, the opportunity to get home is going to be great and I think our guys will be excited to get back home and we’ve got to try to get this fixed as coaches.”

On the run defense...

“Something we’ve got to look at. Maybe just schematically some things going on, some missed tackles. We’ve got to be better and more physical right at the line of scrimmage and the point of attack with our defensive front.”m

On Dameon Pierce’s involvement...

“With some of the stuff we do there’s different options that go on in each play. Even if your calling run plays, but if they have nine, eight guys standing on the line of scrimmage, the quarterback read is going to tell him to throw some and we’ve got to take some shots downfield. I think you guys know we roll the backs through. Obviously, we wanted to come in and run the ball. That was going to be something we wanted to do. Early on, they had everybody at the line of scrimmage, and you saw that we were able to take some shots down the field. The other times we just got to execute better up front. We had some guys miss some time this week up front, but we still got to execute much better at the line of scrimmage.”

On the team’s performance over the last few weeks...

“We got to make sure we got the right guys in the right position to make plays. We got to continue to build confidence with the guys right there. It’s not one little thing. You look throughout the season, there’s a lot of little things that have gone wrong. We’re not doing things that you play winning football at. We’re not playing great at the line of scrimmage. We’re turning the football over. Those are two huge things. Special teams, we’ve got to get better at special teams within the kicking game. If you look at that, we’re not doing the things you need to do to play winning football. We did that early in the season, but you can’t not control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. You’re turning the ball over in other situations. That’s not a recipe for success.”

On foreseeing the team’s struggles...

“No. There’s been a bunch throughout the year. You don’t foresee anything. You don’t foresee all the turnovers we’ve had. Some of those issues and some inconsistencies in which we’ve performed with. You don’t really foresee that stuff.”

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On players that didn’t travel going live on social media during the game...

“I don’t know. I was coaching the game, so I wasn’t watching social media.”

On the team responding to his message of energy, excitement and focus...

“Yeah, our players are competitors. They want to win. There are guys that really want to win and have a great attitude. They want to work hard to go be successful.”

On not singing with the band the last two games...

“We’re on the road right now. That’s on me. To be honest with you, I didn’t know we had our band here today. We’ll sing with the band next week in The Swamp.”