Transcript: Dan Mullen "Darth Vader" On Florida Gators Big Win, Spooky Brawl and Improved Defense

Head Coach Dan Mullen of the No. 10 Florida Gators met with local media following the Gators Homecoming 41-17 win over the Missouri Tigers...at least, we think it was him. It was someone in a Darth Vader costume. It was Halloween of course.

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On fight? Defending teammates?

“I think it starts there. I didn’t see it. I was watching the play down the field to see if there was pass interference on the play or if they made the catch. Guys were like … I got told they hit him late. And you know what? Our guys told them don’t hit the quarterback. I think our guys started to do that. Unfortunately, you had a play where if that’s a late hit and that’s pushing and shoving and we have a fourth down and we have to punt it’s one thing. But when the teams are leaving the field and both teams are running off the field at the same time. I didn’t see what was going on. I didn’t see the late hit. I was told that guys thought was the case. But obviously it wasn’t from the official’s point of view. Then we were out there trying to get our guys’ off the field ‘cause it was getting testy. We have a big game next game. I think it kept growing and growing. We’re trying to push guys back and unfortunately it kind of get in the middle and get the officials in the middle. Get them in the middle, get us in the middle, get their team off, our team off. But everyone’s running to the locker room and it keeps spilling down that way. Really unfortunate situation. It’s not something we condone, obviously. It’s not something that you really want to see in the game at all. I’ll tell you this: I give our coaches and our players a lot of credit. And I give coach Drinkwitz and the Missouri staff and their players a lot of credit because how that tense that first half ended just shows the class of both teams being able to come out the second half and just play football. Absolutely zero got carried over into the second half. Zero of that carried over postgame. Zero of that carried past that and it just shows the good job of players and coaches on both team and their ability to settle. I don’t think either side would say that’s what we wanted to happen. Neither side condones it. It’s an unfortunate situation that happened, but I think it shows the class of the programs to be able to come out and play the second half the way we did.”

Clarification on more punishment?

“My understanding is the intent with two guys on our team and one guy on their team in the first half is they miss the rest of this game. My understanding from the officials is that was the end of it, right. Those guys were in the locker room first half and miss the rest of this game. Great learning for everybody. The officials did give an unsportsmanlike conduct to everybody. Every coach, every player on both teams, as well. But being that there were no unsportsmanlike conducts in the second half, that wouldn’t carry over to the second half of the next game.”

Darth Vader, feel like a villain of fight? “I was trying to get our players off the field, you know, because I know we have a big game next week.”

Feel like escalated things? “I was trying to get our players off the field to make sure we didn’t have issues and have a whole bunch of guys suspended. We’re already a paper-thin outfit right now.”

Kyle Trask’s unflappability post pick-six? “Yeah, I don’t think he gets frustrated with that. I don’t get upset with the pick-six, he got hit as he threw the ball. We were talking to him about getting it out of his hands a little quicker. I think he’ll tell you, I think, I mean, I don’t think we’re as crisp as we want to be. But you know, you don’t practice for two weeks, you have a bunch of guys missing practice during the week, I think you’re going to be a little bit rusty coming out there. I think you saw that with Kyle at times, but you know what, he’s a veteran guy. I don’t think he let’s that bother him.”

With three starting DBs out, probably not expecting to dominate on D? “I think that on the outside they’ve gotten a lot of criticism. They haven’t gotten a lot of criticism from the inside, from us. I can’t wait until we get to play a game with a full defense, you know, it kind of seems like we’re playing with a partial defense every game of the season right now. I think our guys, Todd and the staff, we talk about making sure we have the guys in the right position to make plays. We’ve played some very good offenses throughout the course of the year so far.

“I thought they did a good job of making the adjustments, putting guys in position to make plays. Our guys taking a lot of pride to pick it up after people have been getting after them. But we haven’t lost confidence in that in our ability to make plays and our playmakers on the field. I’m really proud of how those guys played. You knew they were going to take pride in how they were going to play the game this week. And they certainly did that for four quarters.”

How much of a difference did it make having Kyree Campbell in there?  “I think, you look at that. You’ve got a returning starter on the defensive line. We lost a couple of defensive linemen off last year’s team. He’s one of our current starters and this was his first game back. It just raises the play of everybody, a veteran player. He’s going to raise the play of some of the players around him and then it’s like when there’s a trickle down effect. When guys come back it’s a trickle up effect. Now guys have experience. The one thing, when you have to play players the way we’ve had to defensively this year, it actually creates depth and that helps you as the year goes on.”

You talked about your offensive linemen not practices until Wednesday. Do you think the offensive line kine of a rusty start as well? They seemed to pick it up after that.  “Yeah, I think everybody offensively just a little bit slower getting going. We hjad guys missing practice all week. That happens. Thankfully we kind of picked it up. You look at things to me that are disappointing to me in the game, our red-zone offense disappointing early, our third-down conversions disappointing. But I think as we get another week of practice under our belt we’ll be a little crisper. You’re ready for a regular week. And you still get a non-regular week this week.”

Apologies for not knowing this, but is this an annual tradition for you?

“I usually trick or treat. To be honest, one thing I will say this, it’s something we started a long time ago. Mississippi State. I read a book once and it was George Allen, I’m not sure, about never being around his family. It was written through the eyes of the family and the active family. You’re never around on holidays. It’s something we did a long time ago at Mississippi State was make sure coaches, especially those with young kids, would either come in super late at night or super early in the morning and you'd be able to take your kids trick or treating. As your kids grew up, they could say, ‘Hey, was my family’s football coach never around.’ You do look at it. My daughter is nine. I think she spent three out of the last four Christmas’s in a hotel. At nine years old. Six, seven eight and nine, we’re in a hotel room, I’m guessing. I know it’s been a couple. That’s hard. It’s something we always did. This costume here, as you said, it’s suitable tonight. I didn’t pick this out after the game.”  

Kadarius Toney’s night, three touchdowns: 

“He did well. You know, well you know, one of the things that's so impressive with him is you know, I think everybody’s used to, watch a playmaker, put the ball in his hand and something crazy is gonna happen. But you watch his discipline and his understanding of how the plays are being run, how the plays are hitting, you know his production going forward; he had one where he stopped and ran back all the way around the field, you know, today, and I don't mind that. But you know, because, because you watch him, you watch how he's matured and grown into playing within the offense, not just give him the ball and I'm just going to run around like crazy. He plays within the scheme, he sets up runs, he sets up blocks. And then he can make special things happen and make you miss great tackles as well.”

After the brawl, came back and pumped up the crowd; what was going through your mind? 

"I mean I talked about let's create an exciting environment in the Swamp, with the crowd. And I love hearing them be loud and I love hearing them cheer so I was just trying to get them to keep continue to stick with the game and continue to cheer…and I did that the whole game too. I did it after the game too. And I appreciate our fans, you know what I mean? I talked about the challenge of getting our fans here to the game and help and making an impact on the game and create an exciting atmosphere and creating as good atmosphere as they can and they did for four quarters. That's why I was doing it in the fourth quarter as I did in the first half and at halftime, coming out in the third quarter too.” 

Can you go more into the challenges of practicing this week, having guys out at different intervals? 

"You know, I mean just we have a veteran coaching staff and, you know we sat together, we had to change a little bit of our practice routines. You know, but we you know, it's guys have done it before, guys, you know we look at different things and say 'okay, you know, who do we have practicing, who’s, who can be on the scout team, what our numbers, what reps do we need to get, how do we get guys reps? You know, what guys are on zoom meetings, what guys are in regular meetings. It just took a lot of organization and I think our staff did a really good job of keeping everything organized and our players did a good job of of dealing with the adversity and preparing to play.” 

Treating down time as a bye week 

“Our guys continue to battle, continued to do what they were supposed to do, and we were able to get a win. This was a big win for us today. I was concerned. You’re talking about a Missouri team that lit up LSU, that dominated Kentucky last week, and actually I thought they kind of hung with Alabama and played then really tough too. We knew they were a really good football team and we were coming off all the adversity. I was really proud with how our guys came out and performed.” Defense picked up the slack? 

“That was a concern, and it was a good deal. Coming into the game you’re thinking they’re gonna play real ball-control and we’ve got to be efficient offensively. I don’t know if we were really as efficient as we want to be offensively but the defense allowed us to get more possessions offensively, and if you give our offense enough possessions we have enough playmakers they have the opportunity to go score points. That’s really how you want it to be — that’s what puts pressure. Our defense did an unbelievable job allowing the offense to continue to put pressure on Missouri and eventually full away.” Defense carried them early 

“We talk about it as a team. For us to be successful we’re going to win as a football team, whether that means we win 3-2 or 41-40. It’s fine either way, but we’ve all got to play together as a team. You look at how the game’s gonna play out and you don’t know how the games gonna play out for four quarters, but I think defensively the guys looked and said, “If we make stops and give the offense the ball enough, we’re gonna make plays. Offensively in the first half, we have two good drives and end up with field goals. Then we throw a pick-six and we’re losing 7-6, and the defense is dominating and the offense hasn’t really been stopped, except we threw a pick — we stop ourselves, you know, by getting the quarterback hit and the ball floating down the middle of the field. That just shows our guys sticking together as a whole team and saying ‘Hey, keep going, keep going, and good things are gonna happen.’”

Chris Howard’s kicking

“He did a great job but we have a lot of confidence in him. I think the team does, because they see them practice all the time. I knew I had a lot of confidence in him and a trust that he was gonna be able to come out there and perform. You have such a great deal with Evan but to have a guy come in and play like him, I’m really proud of his performance.”