Transcript: Dan Mullen After Florida Gators Loss to Texas A&M, on Defense and Attendance
Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen spoke with local media following the No. 4 Gators 41-38 loss to the Texas A&M Aggies. He spoke on the defensive woes and what he hopes will change with Gators attendance next week.
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What decided this game?
“You’re going to play these games. This year is going to be an interesting year, you’re playing 10 SEC game. This is a game that was added on. You’re playing a top-10 team on the road in conference, always going to be a tough challenge. You expect that. It came down to a one-possession game. We were expecting it to come right down to the end, that’s why we were able to pick the direction - we didn’t get the ball in the second half, we picked the direction. So we felt comfortable kicking that field goal right there. We got the ball with four minutes to go, we were probably 10 yards away from being in the field-goal range range, to run out the clock and kick the field goal. Unfortunately we turn it over. They had to go a lot farther to get into that range and we weren’t able to make that stop and they were able to kick that field goal at the end. It’s going to be a unique year for us. It’s going to be really interesting. Really good team, give them a lot of credit, really good football team. They made a lot of plays today, they got a lot of experience, a lot of explosive players on our team. They made a lot of play they needed to, made one more than we did. It was a great day of football, great atmosphere here. Crowd was certainly a factor in the game, I will certainly say that. I know our governor passed that rule, so certainly, hopefully the university administration decides to let us pack the Swamp against LSU … 100 percent, because that crowd was a major factor in the game. So I certainly hope our university administration follows the governor. The governor has passed a rule that we’re allowed to pack the Swamp and have 90,000 in the Swamp to give us the home-field advantage Texas A&M had today.”
Defense Assessment?
“We’re going to reevaluate a lot of things defensively, where we’re at right now. We’re going to evaluate some things with our personnel, where we’re at. Our ability to make plays, make sure we have all the right guys at the right position to put us in position to be able to make the plays we need to to get off the field. We can’t give up 13 of 15 conversions in a day and expect to win any game.”
A&M 32 first downs, not many reinforcements are there?
“Yeah, we’ll look at it. We’ll look it. Hopefully we get some depth back. Hopefully Khris Bogle and Kyree will be available next week. That would be two guys in the rotation on the defensive front for us that could help. But we’ll evaluate where we’re at and what we need to do moving forward.”
You’ve given up like 85 first downs in three games. Coming into the season, I don’t think you thought this was the kind of defense you had. “But you never know. Coming into a season you never know. You only go against each other. Now, we have an idea what direction we’re headed. We know where possible issues are, areas we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to go and improve those areas.”
It was hard to tell on TV, but how was the crowd a factor and are you saying you want to see 90,000 next week?
“Absolutely want to see 90,000 in The Swamp. There were. … I don’t think the section behind our bench, I didn’t see an empty seat. It was packed. The student section, there just have been 50,000 behind our bench going crazy. Hopefully, that creates a home-field advantage for us next week because now we passed a law in our state that we can do that. We want our students out there cheering us on to give us that home-field advantage.”
You said this was going to be a unique year, with the pandemic but also with the scheduling. Is that what you’re talking about?
“Yeah, you’re playing 10 SEC games in a row. I told our guys, it’s going to be a very different game, you’ve got to get over this one quick. We’re more like an NFL schedule this year. You’ve got to get over this one quick and get ready to go again next week. We’ll get over this one. We’ll get that corrected on the flight home tonight, get a lot of things done tonight, get on to LSU and move forward to that game now.”
They were 12 of 15 on third down and you had trouble on third down last week.. Any kind of commonality on problems on third down?
“Yeah, you’ve got to make plays and get off the field. Last week, they were six of 15 on third down. So, they weren’t very similar.”
I’m curious, do you have any idea what’s going on in the secondary with coverage issues?
“Yeah, we’ve got to be better there.” You mentioned making some personnel changes. Do you anticipate that happening right away? “We’re going to evaluate things. So, I”m going to make sure we’re putting everybody in the right position to make plays.”
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