Transcript: Dan Mullen Following Florida Gators Loss to LSU

Dan Mullen ahead of Florida kick-off. Photo Credit: Alex Shepherd

The No. 20 Florida Gators fell 49-42 to the LSU Tigers on Saturday. The game was another crazy entry in this insane rivalry, as the defense collapsed, the offense turned to Anthony Richardson and both teams came away 4-3.

As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we are offering this transcript from Head Coach Dan Mullen following the game, in full.

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TWO QUESTIONS: WHO'S YOUR QB MOVING FORWARD, HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN RUN DEFENSE?

"Yeah, those are two really good questions. We're going to look at that, obviously, going into a bye week. We're going to evaluate a lot of things. I thought you saw some good things from both quarterbacks today, saw some mistakes from both quarterbacks today. So we'll evaluate that, of how that's going to play out moving forward. I can jump up and down on the table on some really good things they did and jump up and down on the table on some terrible mistakes that they both, that we made, so we'll evaluate that part of it. Defensively same deal, we've got to go back, we'll evaluate. Played some solid defense at times this year and obviously didn't in the second half of the game today."

FEEL LIKE THEY WERE MOTIVATED ON DEFENSE?

"Yeah, I thought our attitude was great. I mean I thought we were into the game. Our guys were sitting out there, we had opportunities to make plays. Dug ourselves into some holes during the course of the game that you can't do, obviously, when you're playing good teams. We weren't able to; we dug too big a hole to get out of there at the end."

SURPRISED BY SHEER NUMBER OF DIFFERENT THINGS GOING ON TO LOSE GAMES... TWO WEEKS AGO FALSE STARTS, THIS WEEK DEFENSE AGAINST THE RUN?

"Yeah, we'll evaluate all that stuff after the course of the game. It's always much easier if there's one thing you put your finger on and say, 'OK, hey, this is the one thing that was the issue and let's go fix that one thing.' We'll evaluate a lot. We've got a bye week coming up. We'll evaluate a lot, because it does... it seems there's; I don't, you guys have the stats... I don't have the stats. We fix up some things and then some other things kind of come and bite us. But give them credit, they came out. The one stat to me stands out a lot is we're -4 turnover ratio. Three turnovers lead to 21 points. You know, you flip that around, if we're +4 turnover ratio leads to 21 points for us and none for them, I think that's a big part of it. So it's all little, different things. We didn't stop the run and make the stops we needed to in the second half when we started to gain momentum. Every time we'd get that kind of fix to get ourselves out of the hole we kind of couldn't get the stop to get over the hump."

HOW DOES TODAY'S DEFENSE CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON TODD GRANTHAM?

"Nothing changes my perspective on anything. We're always evaluating things throughout the course of the season in everything we do. It's a long season. We're in the middle point of the season here going into our bye week. Like I said, I'll evaluate what we did well, what we did poorly. We'll go look at the film and see how we can improve it for two weeks from now."

TALKED IN PAST RICHARDSON HELD BACK STILL LEARNING OFFENSE, SHOW YOU MORE ABILITY TO HANDLE PLAYBOOK TODAY?

"Well, you know, I think it's the execution of it and some things he missed. I thought he did a really good job. He was in there, he got hot and so we kind of stuck with him because he was kind of hot and I think we had some momentum offensively. He goes down and you just see the maturity of Emory.

“I don’t think anybody can understand how big of a play that was, that Emory made for a quarterback. In that situation to come up and make that play that he made, that was probably the play of the game, for us offensively. The ability to come in and do that, I thought was pretty special. But I think it’s good building for Anthony. Anthony had some confidence early, kind of got a little taste of reality. Had to build some calluses there over the last couple weeks. I think this will continue to build his confidence going forward.”

Trent Whittemore injury?

“I’ll know more tomorrow with our training staff.”

AR-15…what are we missing on him?

“I don’t have the stats in front of me. I thought he did some really good things. He had the ability to extend some plays, made some good throws, got hot today. Did a really good job, so we see that.”

Waiting to see him healthy…he looks like he’s transcendent.

“We’ll see. I love everybody labeling people. He’s a young quarterback that’s learning and developing. That’s a good label for him.”

Run D? Looked like same play again and again?

“They were doing a couple different things. They ran a couple different schemes. They were running some insert. They were running some counter, running some one-back power. But we’ve got to evaluate that. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get better up front. We’ll look at the scheme part. We gotta look at the personnel. Get better.”

Don’t mean to label AR-15, but he’s amazing…

“Yeah. He’s a young player. I thought he did some really good things today. He did some really good things in the second half. The second half of the game, he did some really good things, for sure.”

Gator Standard. You’re 2-6 in last Power Five teams. What need to do to get back to Gator Standard?

“We gotta play better. We’ll evaluate it all. We gotta coach better, play better, look at our personnel. Make sure we’re putting guys in the right position to make plays. Get better.”

Bye week to help you do that evaluation?

“Yeah, I don’t know that a bye week. I’ll tell you in two weeks whether a bye week was good or bad.”

Day like today you miss Ventrell Miller?

“There’s – I don’t know. He’s been out for a while right now. You’ve got some guys banged up there in the secondary. You’re dealing with some guys out, but I know his leadership sure would be beneficial in there in the middle. Lose your team captain, that’s always a tough deal and tough person not just as a talented player but the leadership that he brings to the team is always tough to replace when you’re not around.”

Defense not in right place, not making plays?

“Yeah, we’ll watch the film on that. We’ll watch the film and dissect what the issue is.”

Playmakers emerging?

“I think those guys really coming along. Dameon’s a guy who really has that nose for the end zone, especially you get down there in the red zone. I think he’s done a really good job. The physicality and ability to finish run and he’s made some plays where he’s scored from further out. I think that’s always a huge plus. I think you see it, it is opportunities for guys. We lost a lot of production off of last year’s rosters. You look for guys to step up. You named a bunch (Shorter, Gamble, Pierce) and there’s a bunch of guys stepping up and making plays offensively and growing into those roles a playmakers.”

What say to frustrated fan base?

“We’re all frustrated. We’re still grinding away. Look at LSU. They were facing a bunch of adversity last week. They came out and played really well today, created four turnovers on the defensive side of the ball. To go and run the ball. This is the SEC, you have to bring your A-game every single week. From what I see the majority of our fans, we have some of the best fans in the country the Gator Nation. The positivity they have, the support they give to the team is really amazing. I appreciate all their support and what they do and continue to back everybody in the program. All our fans, everybody, our students, I think they do an amazing job.”

Change on defense in-season?

“Nah, I don’t like to jump to conclusions. It’s a long season stuff right there. I like to know the facts on everything that’s going on and what the issues are and what we’re doing and what we need to do to improve and how we’re going to do that.”