Thoughts of the Day: August 6, 2021

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:

DAN MULLEN ONE DAY BEFORE AUGUST CAMP BEGINS

On first impressions of Emory Jones when he first began recruiting him …

“That goes back a long time ago now. I think he was like a sophomore in high school, maybe I think it was. That’s an age question. But I think you saw somebody that obviously has elite arm talent, you know where the ball jumps out of his hands, and then an athletic ability to improvise and make plays with his legs. That’s one of the things, one of the first things that you see, because the first time you see somebody, you’re watching film and like, OK, where are his strengths. Every player you look at … what do they do well? What are areas you’re going to be able to coach and improve them on? There’s a lot of things you can teach and there’s things that are harder to teach, you got to look at the things they do well and what they don’t. I guess the first thing with him is seeing a guy where the ball just jumps off his hands and a guy that has ability to improvise.”

On expectations that Brenton Cox Jr. will recover from foot surgery to have an exceptional season … “Yeah we expect him to be back. I don’t know if we’re going to let him go 100 percent right on day one, but he’s going to be out there practicing right away and building him up. Right now, with the time he’s missed, building him up, getting him back ready to being 100 percent, in not just the foot injury but his training and conditioning and all that stuff. You know I expect big things out of him, because I thought he had a really solid year last year. Now a second year in the system, more experience, more a veteran guy, an older guy, having to learn, look at what he did well importantly last year and how to build off that. I have tremendous respect for Brenton, because you look at a guy, highly profiled recruiting guy, people had all kinds of questions about him. He’s come in here and I think been SEC Academic Honor Roll since the day he stepped on campus. Handles his business at an extremely high level in the locker room, in the classroom, and on the practice field. I mean the effort and what he was able to do the year he knew he couldn’t play, to come out every day, work, get better, be a team guy, give the team a good look and excel in the classroom, I think shows a lot of the character and the type of person that he is and really why he fits being a Florida Gator.”

On keeping all these talented skill people happy when there is only one football to go around … “There’s a bunch of receivers and tight ends and quarterbacks. Everyone wants the ball. There’s only one ball. Heck, defensive guys want the ball sometimes. Go get it. You can go get it anytime you want on defense. Go get it for us. But no. I think one of the things that those guys have done is really bought into what we do of, one, our job is putting guys in position to do what they do well on the field. I wouldn’t be shocked to see us with multiple running back packages this year, with more than one on the field at a time a little more than we’ve done maybe in the past. Just utilizing our talent and our depth of what we have at that spot. But also those guys really buying into the program and understanding how big a role they can make in special teams. When you get into play count of the ability to stay healthy, the ability to stay fresh by rotating a bunch of guys through, and our guys have really bought into that. When you look at our running back stats as a whole position group, they’re pretty good and maybe not one guy gets all the stats, and everybody else gets nothing. It’s allowed us to be pretty successful over the last several years, and guys having the opportunity here as well as the opportunity beyond here because of how we’ve done things.”

On playing time for Anthony Richardson as the backup quarterback … “I think you’re going to see him on the field this year, I would imagine. You know me, that’s part of the development and the developmental process, and getting him out there. He’s a weapon with the ball in his hand, both running and throwing within his growth and his development. He’s a guy coming in wanting to compete to be the starter, understanding that he’s one play away from being the starter. I think going through and seeing how guys handled themselves last year really gives guys the maturity on how to learn and handle the situations. I think when you can sit back and you watch, ‘Hey, boy, Trask prepared this way, look at how Emory was prepared, look at when, you know, the situations that he’s had in his career when he gets called, whether with package inform or whether something happens and he’s got to go play, he’s always ready to go perform at that moment’. This is what I need to do to make sure I’m there, that I prepare, from practice 1 of training camp I’m preparing to be the starter. One, to compete for it, but two, to be ready for that moment. And he’s learned how to do that.”

On leadership brought to the team by the transfers … “I am really happy with the experience those guys have brought to the table. You know, not just their talent and their ability to kinda create the depth that comes in and fills some gaps with some over-positions if you will, but I do think they also – because I talked to them coming in about hey not just coming in as a player but coming in as a leadership role as an older guy, you know, which is sometimes hard to say, ‘you’ve been here 6 months but you’re kinda counting on me to be a leader’. But I talked about that when we brought them in, that’s kinda a role also they have to be ready to fill, and I think they’ve done a really good job of that.”

On expectations for a more physical team in 2021 … “I certainly hope we're more physical. You know, especially more physical on the defensive side of the ball. I think naturally we'll probably be more physical on the offensive side of the ball. I can't get into every bit of that last year but you know I think, people look at physicality and how physical you are in running the football and the consistency of running the football and 'hey we're gonna power way over you.' I don't know that we even tried to do that at times last year. I mean, you go through drive recaps and like 'hey we threw the ball eight times and ran it once on this touchdown drive,' you know, and 'okay, let's get the next drive ready.’ It wasn't like, we're gonna rear back and knock you off the ball and play this long ball control game. That wasn't who we were last year. But I think also, maybe part of that led to the other side of the ball, you know, I mean if you're looking and saying 'hey, you're gonna go play teams and if the team is looking—if we go into a game and I know the team we're gonna play is gonna score 40 points, like we were doing on several occasions, like a bunch last year, your approach to the game on both sides of the ball changes you know. I think there's, there has to be a full team philosophy and how you're going into the game on both sides of the ball. And so this year we'll see how we do. If we’re gonna be lighting up scoreboards and throwing it nine out of 10 plays, that that could change the physicality of how both sides of the ball end up playing.”

On things that caused the defense to be so bad last year … “I think there were several different things that reared their head at different times during the course of the year. You know, and for us, you know, there's times last year we played great defense. And then there's times we didn’t. So, there was, you know I mean an inconsistency is one of them. And then, why was there inconsistencies? But I think we've addressed a lot of different situations that we feel a lot more comfortable moving forward, you know. Whether it's from our flexibility within our packages, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of our players, playing more together as a team, keeping guys out of bad situations, you know, and finding ways to play at a consistent level within. Leadership coming from our coaches and from our players and that mesh, all of those things combined, I think we're in a better place. And then a better understanding than where we were last year because I think different things would rear its head at different times that we didn't know until kinda afterward. It's easy to look back, you know, but one of the keys is making sure that we're doing it in real time and fixing issues in real time.”

KALEB BOATENG TRANSFERRING IN FROM CLEMSON Per Jason Higdon, redshirt freshman offensive tackle Kalen Boateng will be transferring in from Clemson as of today. Boateng, who is 6-5 and 313 pounds with an 80-inch wingspan, signed with Clemson in 2019. He redshirted while playing in four games in 2019 and played in only one game in 2020 while playing behind a pair of veteran former 5-star recruits.

Boateng was a 3-star recruit out of Fort Lauderdale High School who had offers from Florida, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Florida State among others.

Boateng gives the Gators 15 scholarship offensive linemen.

GATORS NO. 12 IN ESPN PRESEASON RANKINGS It’s the usual suspects ranked 1-5 in ESPN’s preseason rankings. The Gators are ranked No. 12, which is fairly consistent with where everyone else has them ranked.

1. Alabama; 2. Oklahoma; 3. Clemson; 4. Georgia; 5. Ohio State; 6. Texas A&M; 7. Iowa State; 8. Oregon; 9. Notre Dame; 10. North Carolina; 11. Cincinnati; 12. FLORIDA; 13. Southern California; 14. LSU; 15. Miami; 16. Wisconsin; 17. Indiana; 18. Iowa; 19. Washington; 20. Penn State; 21. Texas; 22. Coastal Carolina; 23. Louisiana; 24. Ole Miss; 25. Arizona State

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The NCAA Division I Board of Directors has announced immediate changes to its Independent Accountability Resolution Process. What this is supposed to mean is that schools that choose to have their infractions cases heard before an independent group that isn’t affiliated with any particular school can go to trial quicker. LSU basketball coach Will Wade, for example, was caught on a Federal wiretap that was part of the college basketball corruption scandal bragging about offering recruits thousands of dollars. LSU has chosen the IARP. Kansas, which was allegedly paying for players, has also chosen this route as has Arizona. It has been five years since all the evidence was gathered. This should be an absolute no-brainer since all the evidence was submitted under oath in Federal court under penalty of perjury. The NCAA should have been able to take that evidence and issued a swift punishment, but instead has allowed things to drag along for five years. I’m reminded of the book by my friend the late, great Lewis Grizzard: “When My Love Returns from the Ladies Room Will I Be Too Old to Care.” These schools need to have the hammer dropped on them, but will anyone actually care when it happens? Better yet, will it actually stop anyone from cheating even if the NCAA penalties are harsh?