Scrimmage Notes: Everything Dan Mullen Said About Florida Gators First Scrimmage (and Extra Notes)

The Florida Gators held their first scrimmage of fall camp on Sunday. Under the lights in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Head Coach Dan Mullen's squad started to game work all of the installations they've been given for the 2021 season.

Mullen met with local media on Monday evening to recap the scrimmage. He provided some of the most specific answers he's given in some time, willingly discussing players that reports had indicated had a good scrimmage; as well as some who didn't.

GatorBait Magazine was alerted to a defensive heavy night, that featured bright moments from receiver Justin Shorter.

Here is everything Mullen had to say about Sunday's scrimmage, as well as what it means next for the Gators, two weeks out from opening kickoff.

---

Overall Impressions and [Lack Of] Injuries

"Camp [is] going well. No new injuries, which is good. You know, I mean, not of any significance, just some bumps and bruises some, you know, guys here and there recovering from different things. Overall, scrimmage went pretty well. In scrimmage No. 1, you know, ‘cause that's kind of the wrap up of installation.

"This week we get into a lot of situational football, a lot more situational football where we get to go apply everything, through all the installs, get to apply it into situations, watch guys make plays, see how they continue to grow, see continue to develop.

"Moving along, excited where we're at, excited the attitude, the mindset, the team has. I think we're in a pretty good spot, and guys are working hard. I know we still got a lot of work to do, but we have a couple of weeks left before we got to kick it off so we'll get there.”

The Gators will hold one more scrimmage next Sunday.

Starting Roles Aren't Decided From This Scrimmage (If At All)

"I don’t view it team-wise. I view it very individually where we’re at. You do a group and who’s working well together. There’s a lot of guys that I’ve seen play that have played a lot of football. A lot of times, they’re working to get themselves to the point where they’re ready to go play. So they’re working to get themselves ready and game-ready to go play.

"Other guys are getting ready to show that they're ready to go on the field and make plays and their performance, and I think everybody gets so caught up to me -- and I talk to our team about this – is, you know, ‘Hey, I'm fighting for a starting job.’ I don't ever view that.

"I told our guys, ‘You know, maybe we'll just rotate starters from one week to the next to stop worrying about it.’ Worry about if you are ready to go play and you're ready to go be in the rotation and a lot of that is finding, you know, where we're at at different positions within the rotation to go do things, and are guys performing and executing the offense, defense and special teams where we need to be to get ready to go play games?"

The Scrimmage Helps Evaluate Readiness

"It’s kind of that so if a guy has … it’s just part of the big picture of the evaluation, but it is a good part because, you know, I mean, you're in the stadium. If all of a sudden, if guys do really, really well practicing and every scrimmage they really struggle, is there an issue when the lights come on? You know what I mean? And then if guys perform at a high level in the stadium but not so much in practice, why is that and how do we get them to improve as a practice player for consistency purposes?”

Quarterback Emory Jones and Receivers Perfecting Timing...But Emory Can Do It Himself If Needed

“I think you see the things that those guys and the timing they have, the work they put in. Emory’s obviously, you know, one of the things we're always on him (about) is consistency of performance, but you also have to play to his strengths, you know, and one of the big things with Emory, it is he’s going to make some explosive plays out there. You want kind of efficiency and consistency all the time. That might not be his game every play. He’s going to miss some things here and there, but he’s going to make some explosive things on the other side of it - if that makes sense.

"All the sudden, you’re like, ‘Boy, we got to hit that 90 percent of the time.’ And he might be in the 80 percent of hitting something, but there’s other things he can do that are so electric and that he can create that you don’t want to kind of box him in, you want him to play to his strengths. Obviously, I feel like his timing with the guys has gotten better. His control and understanding the offense; his reads I think have gotten much better of where to go with the ball; and his ability to create and make plays is pretty special.”

Did the Defense Win? It's Not Possible To Tell According to Mullen

“I don’t view anybody winning. I know people get into that. I just view in performance, were we executing? What were we trying to get out of it? Because you’re not going in, we’re 0-0, we had a scrimmage last night, team’s still 0-0. After next Sunday’s scrimmage we’ll still be 0-0. As a coaching staff that’s what’s important to it. There’s certain things we’re trying to get in.

"I’m less concerned about the offense and defense winning a scrimmage or are we getting what we need out of it and the evaluation of the players, the coaches and within our execution and what did we want to see, what did we want to work on? That type of deal. If you sit there and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to run the quarterback to make sure we’re going to win the scrimmage.’ Or, ‘We’re going to run this blitz and we’re going to blitz and do this and do that.’ That’s just to try to win a scrimmage. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about the complete development and evaluation of the team.”

Brenton Cox Is Purposely Being Brought Back Slowly, and Didn't Play In Scrimmage

Edge rusher Brenton Cox suffered a minor foot injury over the summer. He has since recovered and is healthy enough to be a full-go. Still, coaches are being careful out of caution for one of their top defensive players.

"He's doing pretty good, he's getting his work in, getting ready to go play. Obviously he's played a lot of football so it's not like a big deal. I didn't, I didn't have him take any reps in the scrimmage last night. I’ve seen him play in the Swamp before so that's not a necessary step for us with where we're at right now. Um, you know, and, you know with that though, it gives other guys opportunities out there. You know where you see like Antwaun Powell really stepped up and Lloyd Summerall, some of these young guys now get an opportunity to take that next step to get themselves, you know, working themselves into a rotation and earning reps.”

O-Line Will Cross Train To Build Depth

"It's good. You know Michael Tarquin's missed a couple of days, you know, but he’s, he'll be back hopefully tomorrow. You know, and then, so you know you have the trickle down effect but I think overall, they're doing pretty good. You know, get in there, trying to build—you know I mean in ours right now, it's trying to build who's ready to go play, you know, and if you look and say, 'Okay, you obviously love to get it up to the 10 number, you know where you're two deep across the board; but then you got to have some spares.' You know like you wanna have a pair and a spare. You know, so, you know, who's the one? You know because guys do the crossover so who's one, two and three? You know, who's your your one left tackle, who’s the two left tackle and who's the emergency left tackle in the same, you know, at every position. So I think that's starting to come along and guys are, you're seeing some, you know the consistency from some of the older guys and guys getting comfortable working together, you know, as well as the younger guys taking steps forward of getting themselves ready to get on the field and go play."

Bonus: Mullen's Take On O-Line Recruiting

"Pretty good, you know, we'll see. That's always one of the trickier ones because you know there's so much development that goes into that position, you know, with different guys but, you know, we'll see. I think we got a veteran group and some experience so hopefully it goes—it’s been going pretty well this year.”

The Gators Will Be Multiple In the Slot, Based On Performances Thus Far

“Well, you’ve got all kinds of different people. We’re going to move some tight ends, will do some more slot stuff, more than last year when we kind of played them more on the outside singled up. You have Jacob Copeland in the slot, Rick Wells in the slot, running backs can go into the slot. Trent Whittemore goes into the slot. You know, a lot of different type of deals creating the matchups where last year, you had some guys on the outside you’re creating 1-on-1s for if they wanted to leave them 1-on-1, or if they wanted to roll that, your slot was Kadarius Toney to create some mismatches that way. We’re kind of moving a lot more different pieces around.”

Let's Talk About Anthony Richardson and His Touchdowns

Mullen was often asked about quarterback Emory Jones' progress. Understandably so, since he is the presumed starter. But Mullen wanted to take some time to bring up his other quarterback as well, redshirt-freshman Anthony Richardson.

"Nobody asked about Anthony. Anthony is doing an unbelievable job. Anthony had a huge night last night. I don’t like to share out information because you didn’t ask but …"

Ok Dan, consider this us asking.

“He had a huge night last night. Did really well, made a lot of great decisions. Very accurate. I think he threw three touchdown passes.

"Obviously is a dynamic runner as well, making good decisions. I feel very comfortable with both guys [Richardson and Jones], which is a good thing. It helps in a way that they have similar skill sets even though they’re a little different in their sets and what they do well. But they’re are similarities in their ability to create, both with great arm talent and their arm talent to create and extend plays with their legs. It allows you, you don’t have to have one package or this package, and you can kind of coach in a similar style where if you see this look don’t be afraid to take off running. If they give you this, take it, right away. If they give us this look we want to take this play every time because this is a problem for them and both of them have that skillset that they can execute.”