Transcript: Dan Mullen on Emory Jones vs Kyle Trask, the Secondary and the Florida Gators Scrimmage
Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media on Monday. He addressed the differences in quarterback Emory Jones versus Kyle Trask, improvements in the secondary and how the Gators first scrimmage of spring practice went for the team.
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Opening Statement:
"Another week, we got a couple good weeks of practice and got two weeks left of spring practice so big two weeks for us. To let you know, you're going to start cutting down on installation and really letting the guys go play and we got to do a great job of evaluating what guys do well, what we want to keep, what we want to get rid of and what direction we're continuing to move forward and getting into fall camp.”
Just how different does this offense look to you and we're not seeing it; to you, if you're looking at it and how much are we going to recognize the offense based on what we saw the last couple few years?
“Every year it's been a little bit different so this year, it'll be a little different again. I'm sure there'd be a lot of things that you recognize a lot of things, you know, and then some things that are going to be a little bit different for us. You know, I mean, right now we're still, you know, we're putting everything in and then we're gonna see what kind of fits, what our guys are most comfortable with doing and how they're most comfortable doing it. So I think that'll be, you know, what we figure out here through spring and then what direction we want to head going into summer and then we'll figure more of that in the summer as we get ready to get into season but there'll be a lot of similarities to what we've done. We're not gonna, we're not changing a whole lot.”
There's gonna be more run based quarterbacks though right?
“Probably have a couple more quarterback runs that we didn't have last year, you know, where we didn't run Kyle all that much. So, but that’s—to be honest with it's going to be pretty similar though I mean with what we do.”
Can it be similar in terms of the explosiveness you think? I mean that was a tough act to follow last year. Most 20+ plays in the sec. Most 30+ and the most in your career. Your 2014 Mississippi State team at 86 of 20+. Last year was 87 and one fewer game, so you guys are pretty explosive.
"Yeah. Let's hope so. Let's hope so. You know what I mean, I mean, well, you need to have explosive plays to be successful. We have some playmakers out here on the field. I think you know, I mean like, if you saw—to have that happen you have to do a good job of creating those matchups, of creating putting your guys in position to have explosive plays and to get the playmakers the ball in the right area. And in the right way. And we've always tried to do a pretty good job of that. You know, and we're gonna continue to do that, you know, it'll be different, be some different playmakers, a bunch of guys left. But there's a bunch of explosive guys that are here and so we're gonna do is continue to work to put them in the best position to create that. I mean when you have explosive plays you have the opportunity to score so they're important.”
Speaking of explosive plays, you watch Bryson DeChambeau yesterday? "I missed it, you know I was kind of working, getting some work done, but I heard, I saw the one deal of like he was cutting the corner on the par five or something right so just
Took more of an angle over the water-
“I was looking at that. I didn’t see the coverage of it. I just saw the one shot over the water. That’s a high-risk, high-reward, because he’s basically, fi it kerplunks, where it crossed, you’re basically dropping three back on the tee box. You’ve gotta play it out of bounds, right? There’s no drop or no thought of where it went in. It’s the tee box is where it crossed the water.”
Approach been any different this spring from other years?
“No. I mean, for us, it’s about putting a bunch of things in, teaching a lot of foundation of the offense, defense and special teams and trying to evaluate what guys do well, you know what I mean? That’s a big part of it. A lot of teaching and a lot of evaluating goes on in the spring. That’s what we’ve always done, and that’s what we’re doing this year, as well.”
Could your son have made that shot over the water?
“I don’t know that there’s many people making that shot over the water. That was - what was it, like 330 carry or something like that?”
Edgar: Like 340 something. If he drove the green, it would be like 355 in the air, whatever that means.
Dan: “Wow.”
Looks like you’re more hands-on with D. You feel more responsibility to be more involved there?
“To be honest with you, if you ever watch us in the season, I’m probably evenly on both sides of the ball at practice. Even all during the course of the season on both things. Just kinda making sure I’m spending time equally. In the meeting rooms, I probably spend a little bit more time offensively, but on the field I try to be as balanced as I can be for the guys on the team.”
Urban says best offensive coordinator should be great D coordinator, you and Ryan Day were the best. That true, and what’s the lesson look like?
“I think that’s a very nice compliment from Urban. I do think you have to understand defense. You have to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. If you don’t understand your opponent or your opposition — if you’re an offensive coach, that’s the defense — you don’t understand not just what they’re doing, how they’re doing it but why they’re doing it as well, you’re not going to be successful. You can sit there and say … if there was just a perfect play, hey, these are the 10 perfect plays, right? Everybody would only run those 10 plays. So it’s always what works against the defense, how do you want to attack the defense. To do that, you better understand and know exactly what they’re doing. I’m sure that’s what he was implying.”
First scrimmage? How’d it go?
“It went pretty good. We were able to stay pretty healthy, which always makes you nervous, that part of it. There’s a lot of different situations now, kind of leading up to that, it’s been a lot of installation of just teaching the… from fundamentals to base plays to installing the offense and the defensive schemes. The first opportunity to kind of let that all kind of blend together. Then coach it through situations, there’s some really good situational things that we can teach off of that film.”
Offering Emory Jones a scholarship like 10 years ago at Miss State?
“You’re paying attention to guys and you look for a guy that has a … he’s got a really strong arm with a quick release and he’s got a great athletic ability. So early on you see that, the talent he has and the potential that he has. I don’t know. We always work trying to get into as many schools and talk to coaches, and the coaches recommend players to you and we trust our evaluation of their recommendations. Coach says, ‘Hey, I really this guy within our program. What do you think? And we go evaluate it. That’s kind of how it went about with Emory.”
First time you thought he could be an SEC starter?
“Here at Florida?”
Yeah.
“That would have been … when he got here, you saw the talent that he had, his ability, how the ball jumps out of his hands and the arm talent he has and then his ability to kind of extend plays. His athleticism, not just talking about quarterback runs, but his athleticism to scramble, extend plays and see things the defense really can’t account for because it’s kind of out of the scheme. That’s a huge plus that he brings to the table.”
Is running back Demarkcus Bowman dealing a knee injury?
“Uh, we’re not going into injuries of anybody right now.”
Emory Jones throwing touch passes like Kyle Trask?
“Oh yeah. A lot of that, though, comes from experience. The more you play, the more you get to understand the defense and you read the defense and then you understand the type of throws that you have to make to go beat it. Emory’s going to be a very different player than Kyle. There can be zero (comparison). But that’s every quarterback. Everybody loves to compare this guy to that guy. Well, there is no comparison. They’re all individuals and they all have their own strengths. It’s important for us to play to his strengths. But there’s a lot of throws that Emory can make that Kyle couldn’t make. That’ll allow us to tweak and change some things within the scheme.”
Any players who’ve been depth pieces starting to stand out? “Nah. I think there’s a bunch of guys continuing to grow and develop. I don’t know, I’m probably very critical of guys. So I don’t sit there and say, ‘OK, this guy’s doing awesome.’ I’m looking at how are we getting everybody better and every individual better every single day at practice. So I am really pleased with the attitude of our guys and the effort in which they play with and really the effort of everybody as a team. I kind of like our approach and how we’ve been coming as a team more than just individuals jumping up and down.” Standouts from scrimmage? “A bunch of guys did. Quarterbacks did some things. We limit what they’re allowed to do in the scrimmage, so we really eliminate a lot of the quarterback runs and some of that stuff. We take away some of their strengths. When you take that away, they were solid. Receivers were pretty balanced across the board. O-line was pretty good. We rotate so many guys, that’s what’s hard. At the end of the scrimmage everybody kind of has equal reps, so it’s not like a game. There are game situations to teach off of, but you’re not going to get similar to a game feel. I thought running backs were really good, tight ends consistent at times. Defensive line, defensive front everybody was good. It’s hard when you look because there’s good and bad to everybody. But in a game you’re going to have guys that play 70 plays and guys that play 15. In the scrimmage everybody’s playing 40-50 plays on the entire roster, so it’s a little bit different that way.
Think the defense will be in a better place this year than this time last year with having spring? “Yeah. I think it’ll help. I think last year, especially, offenses being ahead possibly, but especially experienced groups being ahead. And we had some experience on that side of the ball last year. But the fact that we’re young this year, it will be interesting to see for us. I think a lot of it is going to be, from that end of spring ball to the start of training camp is always such a critical time in every team’s growth and development. When we are limited as coaches in the things we can do and the contact we have with the players, when you start limiting all of their stuff and their growth and their development, what they do on their own to continue to improve is so critical. So, I think that has a lot to do with it. And obviously, you know, last year you didn’t have a spring practice. So, they didn’t have all the video. They didn’t have the ability to watch themselves on film. They didn’t have the ability to go learn and try to physically go do it. And then, you’re trying to figure out how to do all the Zoom stuff and learn through Zoom and not in person. I think there’s a lot more opportunity to develop at a much, much better rate this year, obviously, than last year. And I think development is critical, especially for young players, and we have a lot of young players. That end of spring to the start of training camp though is such a critical time in that growth and development.” What have you seen from Donovan McMillion? “He’s playing safety for us right now, but obviously, he’s got great size, so you never know with physicality how everybody grows into the backend of their career. But he’s playing safety for us right now. A high energy guy. He really plays hard. I mean, I like intelligent football players. He really, one of the things you see with him is, obviously, his dad is a coach, and you can see that with his attention to detail with all the little things. Whether we’re in special teams or whether we’re on defense, his attention to detail to try to do it right really stands out.”
Can you talk about Diwun Black?
"Yeah, he signed, right? [Yes] Yeah I can talk about him, it's fine. Making sure."
What is that process like? You signed him two years ago, he went JUCO, do you keep recruiting him?
"Yeah, you do. I mean, but he's a guy, he committed to us, was steadfast in his commitment to us the whole time, you know. So, a lot of the recruitment is making sure he's taking care of his business to get everything done academically he needs to get done to make it here. And, you know, give him a lot of credit because he was, he's worked hard to get that done, you know, and to take care of what he needs to get here, and I think that's a huge part of it all. You know, it'll be great to get him here on campus in, uh, you know, we're hoping in May."
He's another guy, you could have him rush the passer or even drop him to safety. Where does he project?
"We'll see when he gets here. We'll see when he gets here."
Certainly versatile.
"Oh yeah."
Going back to the scrimmage, what are some of the biggest improvements you would want to see from scrimmage one to two?
"Buy, I mean there's so many, I mean it's so individually based. Like I said, I thought our attitude in the, and how our guys approached the scrimmage was really good. So as a team, I don't know. I mean just keep that same attitude and that development, and then just make sure we're really understanding game situations, which I thought we did a pretty good job of, of understanding that, you know, where we are in the game situation. You know, I guess if anything, offense, we need to continue play with some good tempo out there, I think at times. You know, but I mean, happens in a scrimmage because you're coaching, you're stopping, you're teaching, you know, more than a game, to make it more game-like. Defense, you know, same way, but to me, it's all about the individual, of watching the individual growth from scrimmage one to scrimmage two, of how they're applying the installs into game situations. Say 'Hey, here's what we're installing, here's what we're installing it against today,' everything's in a small window. When you get into a scrimmage, it becomes a big window of your understanding of the picture of things, so that's one of the things of how guys cope and deal with all of the different adjustments that go on within a scrimmage."
I know you've only had these young men a few days and you don't know that much, but what can you tell us that you know now that you didn't know when you started, and how do you feel about this core group? "Uh, I feel great. You know, I mean that's probably what I know now is, I mean out guys love to play football, it seems. I mean, we have great energy at practice, and they like each other as a team, you know what I mean? I think that you can see the older guys and the leadership trying to help with the maturity. That there's not just excitement and energy at practice, but it's channeled and focused into development of trying to do things the right way. And I think when something doesn't go right, you see that, instead of guys worrying about things that aren't important, you see the leadership, and guys within the program trying to get it corrected more than, you know, kind of, whether it's just hype, you know what I'm saying? Or one of those, you know, paying attention to every small detail more than worried about stuff that's not important. So, I've been pleased with that."
Have your guys who came in under you, how much help?
“There’s still a bunch of guys that didn’t. I don’t know. I always viewed it this way: they were all my guys, really, from Year 1. Once we got through that first offseason those guys knew I was committed to them and they were committed to me and how we were going to run this program. We’re all in this together, we’re all Gators. How we got here is not as important as we all believe in the same thing and that’s being part of the Gator family and being part of the Gator Nation. And so I don’t know if it’s any different now than it was then.”
Specific throws Emory makes better than Kyle?
“Emory’s got a much stronger, you know what I mean? So on certain deep balls, there’s certain deep balls he can throw, I think, because he has a stronger arm. It’s not a knock on Kyle. I think everybody sees with Kyle the accuracy, I mean, obviously Kyle’s probably a much more accurate passer. I think if you look at numbers he was close to 70 percent completions, I think (68.9%), which is one of the most accurate probably in school history. So, there’s been a lot of quarterbacks that have played here at Florida. So I just think they’re very different plays, so the key is, I think the key in coaching it get missed sometimes, I think people think, this is our system and this is what it is, if you’re a square peg and we’re a round hole just keep slamming it until you become round and fit in there. Our job is to mold it as coaches and kinda tweak around the strengths of the players. So we’ll build around the strengths of the quarterbacks that are here now, very much like the way we built around Kyle’s strengths over the last two years. I think one of things you’ll see, I’m excited for Kyle and his future. I think his game really translates well the next level. So I expect someone is going to be very fortunate coming up here in the draft, whenever that is … the end of April.”
Based on offseason moves, secondary was primary culprit on defense, is that personnel or scheme and what seen to think get fixed?
“I mean, it’s we really have a short time of deals. I don’t want to say, I don’t think it was one specific thing or issue. I think there’s some things as a whole that we needed, that we need to fix and adjust and as the year went on, I think at times last year we played really well, there are times we didn’t in situations. And then it’s ID-ing what those situations were, why we didn’t play well in those situations, and then what are the adjustments we make for when we see these situations in the future. How are we making the adjustments to that. I don’t want to pin it on one area. There were probably multiple, a bunch of things that we needed to kind of tweak and change and improve on. I think obviously certainly having a spring practice and hopefully a little bit more of a normal year will help us do that.”
Can Emory Jones make some of the “off-schedule” throws better than Trask? “I think they’re different in how they make those throws. Kyle, I thought, Kyle was really a pocket guy. He could slide in the pocket and make this and arm angle and change, you know. Emory’s a guy that’s going to extend but he can extend outside and when you extend outside and have the threat of run because he’s so dynamic out in the open field with the ball in his hand. His ability to throw on the run and make use some arm talent to kind of be off balanced when you’re running one direction and be able to use the ball to flip the other direction. They’re just totally different players. We’re not going to change who we are offensively, like I said, you’re going to see a lot of the same offense we’ve been running but what’s funny is how they run the plays within the offense are going to look differently even though it’s the same type of offense, because they’re very different talent wise." Seeing a different Todd Grantham? Determination? Something to prove? "No, I've always had a lot of confidence in Todd. Todd's a great football coach. I think part of that, I don't know that it's a new edge or different, I think he's as competitive now as he was last year, the year before that, and the year before that. That's who he is. i think obviously having the opportunity to have spring to identify where our players are at and putting them in the best position with the right guys on the field to be successful against all the different things that we're going to see and that we're going to have to adjust to during the course of the season. I think there's a benefit to that, of having that time and that opportunity to see those things." Well I was wondering if you get to the stadium and he's like burning the midnight oil or something.
"No, we just work really well together, have great communication, and spend a lot of time on the checks and balances. Are we putting guys in positions to be successful? You can look at anything, you can statistically look at anything the way you want to look at it. It’s simple. I’m guessing next year everyone will look and say ‘we’ve taken a huge step back throwing the ball.’ Well, maybe maybe not. Or ‘we’ve taken a huge step forward running the ball off of next year’s team than last year’s team. But last year we ran the ball very efficiently, we just didn’t do it very often. Statistically speaking you can say the explosive plays, where are they at? I think each team is different and our job is to put them in the best position to be successful. That’s something Todd’s, if I’ve seen, is that, us spending a lot of time making sure we’re putting the right guys in the right position and giving them the best chance to be successful.”
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