Halfway Home: How Will the Florida Gators Handle Success?
History tells us don’t worry, Dan Mullen has everything completely under control. History tells us that Mullen’s Florida teams react well to adversity (see the four-game winning streak at the end of 2018; see what happened when Kyle Trask came in cold off the bench when Feleipe Franks broke his ankle in 2019) and they handle success rather well. The Gators went from 10-3 in 2018 to 11-2 in 2019 and with even higher expectations in 2020 they’re on the verge of Florida’s first divisional championship since 2016.
So the Gators are right where they should be in 2020. The previous two years have been stepping stones to re-strengthen the foundation of a program that had gotten wobbly under the previous coach and was on the verge of becoming another Tennessee. With the foundation sturdied by two straight New Years Six bowl wins (over Michigan in the Peach Bowl in 2018; over Virginia in the Orange Bowl in 2019), the Gators find themselves ranked sixth in the AP poll, fifth in the Coaches, and favored to run the table in the final five games to sign, seal and deliver a trip to Atlanta to play for the Southeastern Conference title.
Should everything fall into place for an SEC East championship, we will probably look back to the two week stretch of inactivity that began immediately after Florida’s 41-38 loss to Texas A&M in College Station on October 10 as one of those times when Mullen dealt with adversity head on to turn the Gators into a complete team.
In many respects, the Covid-19 enforced two weeks off following the loss to the Aggies provided Mullen with a chance to do a reboot similar to the one he was part of in 2005 when he was Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator. Following a 19-17 loss at LSU that year – Meyer’s first year as the Florida head coach – there was a Come to Jesus meeting at Meyer’s house when the plane got back to Gainesville.
Florida’s offense wasn’t working. The spread that had worked so well at Utah was too easily defended and the Gators were spinning their wheels. It was a combination of personnel and scheme. The Gators lacked the personnel to run a spread option offense. All the players Meyer and Mullen had at their disposal had been recruited to run a pro set, pocket-based offense that fit the skill set of Chris Leak. Leak threw the most beautiful spirals you’ve ever seen. A runner he was not.
Something had to give.
“Dan Mullen, Steve Addazio and I went to my house and made some changes to the offense the night after the LSU loss,” Meyer recalls. “We added a fullback (Billy Latsko) and more physical run game (power and counter). We had a bye week then kayoed Georgia.”
The Gators’ path after that Georgia game wasn’t the smoothest, but it set the stage for a 2006 national championship run. It couldn’t have happened without a willingness to shake things up in the middle of the season. Most coaches would have stuck with what they had and then waited until the offseason to make changes. Not Meyer and that is from whom Mullen learned how to be a head coach.
Following the loss to the Aggies, it wasn’t the offense that needed a reboot. Scoring points and moving the football was the least of Mullen’s problems, particularly with Kyle Trask throwing to Kyle Pitts and 10 other willing and ready receivers. The problem was all on the defense and just like 2005, it was a combination of personnel and scheme.
During the virus-imposed two weeks off, Mullen and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham simplified the scheme, plus they got some veterans such as senior nose tackle Kyree Campbell back. Due to the virus, the Gators played the Missouri game minus three starters in the secondary so a couple of freshmen were inserted into the lineup along with a sophomore. With the scheme more user friendly, however, the inexperience wasn’t a hindrance as UF held Missouri to 248 yards, a little less than half what the Gators gave up in the loss to the Aggies.
When the Gators bushwhacked Georgia last week, Grantham had almost a full contingent at his disposal for the first time all season. Take away those 136 yards Georgia gained on the first two series and the Gators gave up only 141 yards on 51 plays (2.75 per play) and one offensive touchdown.
At this point, the Gators are in the best shape they’ve been in all season. The offense is nearly unstoppable. Kyle Trask (22 touchdown passes; at least four in every game so far which is an SEC record) has emerged as a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate and some mock NFL Drafts have him going in the first round. Not bad for a guy who never started a game in high school. Kyle Pitts (24-414 receiving for eight TDs), who is almost certain to miss the Arkansas game due to concussion protocol, is almost a mortal lock to win the Mackey Award as the nation’s best tight end. Kadarius Toney (39-339, six TDs receiving) is the single most elusive skill player in the SEC. The offensive line, led by center Brett Heggie and left tackle Stone Forsythe, has given up only five sacks in five games. Over on the defensive side of the ball, that much maligned unit has awakened and shows signs of becoming a dominant unit, especially with Brenton Cox Jr. and Zachary Carter emerging as one of the most disruptive pair of rushers off the edge in the league. Placekicker Evan McPherson might be the best in the country (two 50-yard plus field goals in the win over Georgia) and senior Jacob Finn is hammering away at 44.6 yards per punt.
With all these things going for them, maybe the biggest concern facing Mullen and his assistants moving forward is keeping the Gators’ heads screwed on right. We know these guys can handle adversity. We got another example of just how good they are at that against Georgia when they gave up a 75-yard touchdown run on the game’s first play and were down 14-0 almost before the limited number of fans in the stands in Jacksonville had grown accustomed to their surroundings. The Gators outscored Georgia 44-14 from that point on in a humiliating beatdown for a Georgia team that most pundits had penciled in for the College Football Playoff in the preseason.
When the season began, everyone on the Florida team fully understood that the road to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta went through Jacksonville. The speed bump in the way of a trip to Atlanta was Georgia. With Georgia out of the way, the only way the Gators will miss out of a trip to Atlanta is to lose two of their final five games while Georgia runs the table.
Based on what we’ve seen in the past two games particularly, the Gators should be able to close out the season with five consecutive wins. The offense is as good as it gets and if the defense continues to improve the way it has the past two weeks, Mullen will send a complete team onto the field. Alabama, for sure, and Florida, probably, are the only complete teams on both sides of the ball in the SEC. If the games were played on paper, then you could pencil the Gators into the SEC Championship Game right now.
The games have to be won and lost on the field, however, and the two potential obstacles for the Gators are Covid-19 and complacency. The only thing Mullen can do about the virus is depend on his players to be responsible at a time when we see records for new infections set each day. So, there is a measure of luck involved even if everyone does the right thing. Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman, for example, will miss Saturday’s game with the Gators due to the virus and so far no one has been able to figure out from whom he contracted it. When the Gators had the issues with the virus, they were fortunate that none of the affected players were named Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts or Kadarius Toney. If there is another outbreak will they be that fortunate?
Complacency is the one thing that Mullen and his staff can control but there is a fine line between keeping the team on the proper edge and being heavy handed. Every single season we see at least one team with all the ingredients for a championship run go down in flames because the coaching staff winds them too tight.
Mullen’s history at Florida would indicate he’s learned how to navigate a team through times of success and it will take that for the Gators to punch their ticket to Atlanta. What he has to convey to the Gators is that due to their high ranking and what would seem easy path to the SEC title game that they will get every team’s best shot. You hate to use that worn out cliché about any given Saturday, but it’s true. On any given Saturday the Gators could let a game slip away if they aren’t ready emotionally as well as physically.
Strange seems to be the constant in this 2020 season. We’ve had to deal with a late start to the season, a conference-only schedule, postponements due to the virus and the possibility more games will require rescheduling as the season enters its final five weeks. Just getting to this point where the Gators have gotten past the Georgia speed bump to put themselves in position to make it to the SEC title game is quite an accomplishment, but we’re only halfway home.
The next five weeks will tell us if the Florida Gators have it in them to handle their success. Everything seems to point in that direction but it’s a strange season in which strange happenings are the norm. If there is one thing Florida fans can breathe a sigh of relief about it’s having Mullen leading the program. He’s dealt with both adversity and success throughout his career, but particularly these 2-1/2 seasons at the University of Florida. With Mullen in charge, you have to like Florida’s odds of running the five-game table that’s ahead.
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