GUEST COMMENTARY: Dear Fans, 2021, According to DB Mordecai McDaniel…
McDaniel continued: “The coaches are all about mastering fundamentals. We asked them when we were going to get our plays, and they told us we will get them when we get our footwork right! It’s so different than before: they would just hand us the plays and tell us to learn them -- now we are practicing fundamentals constantly and the coaches expect us to execute them to perfection. It’s all about discipline now. It’s real.”
By JOHN CAROSIELLO
Facebook.com All For The Gators Many fans were chided last season for what was deemed conjecture regarding what went wrong at UF under Mullen in 2021. This author had the privilege of sitting down with a Gator who was there for it all, and when he asked Mordecai McDaniel difficult questions, Mordecai did not hold back. It seems that this author, as well as many other fans, were more on-point than we may have thought we were about what was happening behind the scenes in Gainesville. According to McDaniel, Emory Jones started over Anthony Richardson because Mullen had pre-determined EJ after Trask -- period. McDaniel said: “It was never about who was the better QB or athlete, many of us wanted 15 to play, but Mullen had already made up his mind before the season started!” This author wrote a piece last year titled: “Dan’s Problem is Dan” wherein he suggested Mullen’s stubbornness, not EJ’s merit, was the only reason he was starting over AR-15.
Fact check, TRUE! Next, this author and other fans questioned Mullen’s integrity when he claimed AR-15 was still injured and couldn't play … despite doing backflips on the sideline pre-game! McDaniel laughed about this: “He wasn't hurt! Have you ever had an injured hamstring?? You can't walk upright let alone land backflips! Mullen was getting too much heat and needed an out!”
Fact check, TRUE! New Info (not suggested by this writer): According to McDaniel, Mullen began taking over the defense last season and it made things worse: “We would go into a game after having practiced a gameplan all week, then it would be game-time, and Mullen would throw out the entire plan and start calling plays! He (Mullen) and Coach Grantham were not getting along at practice or in the games - then we all started getting at each other too- it got bad, man!” Positive Changes Under Napier: Mordecai said that they all feel like the coaching staff actually cares about them now; he said the team has gotten close, way beyond what they used to be -- which has had positive ramifications at practice: “Man, you should see us at practice (laughs), we got guys flying all over the place now!” McDaniel continued: “The coaches are all about mastering fundamentals. We asked them when we were going to get our plays, and they told us we will get them when we get our footwork right! It’s so different than before: they would just hand us the plays and tell us to learn them -- now we are practicing fundamentals constantly and the coaches expect us to execute them to perfection. It’s all about discipline now. It’s real.” Funny Incident at Practice: McDaniel said: “Coach Napier told the team that our shirts couldn’t be baggy - and a lot of us didn’t listen - so after practice, we came off the field and the athletic trainers came out with scissors and gave us all halter tops (laughs), none of us have worn a baggy shirt since (laughs)” McDaniel can hardly wait for September and said that there is just a whole new sense of optimism and energy this year -- but that they are all eager to see what happens under Napier. McDaniel said that the team came together after Napier was hired and collectively decided that they needed to get behind the new coaching staff - and that they would all fully buy-in and then assess things after the season. I asked Mordecai if he was surprised that Mullen was fired: “Nah, he quit after UGA -- he was done. When he called the team meeting to tell us he was let go, I didn’t even go ‘cause I knew what he was gonna say -- but those that went said he came in and said that he wished them well, and walked out -- no conversation. We all saw what he got out of the deal (shaking head) -- that was crazy, man.” McDaniel’s candor was refreshing, and it was also nice to take a break from the gaslighting of many critical fans who thought that any conjecture was mere “armchair quarterbacks” spouting nonsense.
Mordecai confirmed what many of us already knew: Our eyes weren’t lying to us last season and they aren’t lying to us about the new culture that seems to be in place under Napier now! I asked McDaniel about Wilson’s infamous shoe-throw against LSU and what he thinks would happen if someone pulled that kind of stunt under Napier. His response is an appropriate closing for this piece: “Man, they would be running until they graduated!” Is it September yet?
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