Transcript: Dan Mullen on Florida Gators Bounce Back from SEC Championship, Planning For Cotton Bowl
Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media from Gainesville and Oklahoma on Tuesday to preview the No. 7 Gators upcoming matchup with the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners.
As a valued subscriber we are offering the full transcript below.
Opening Statement
“As I said the other day, we’re excited to be part of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic. It’s such a historic bowl for us and for Florida to be a part of it. It’s exciting to get to play a great opponent in Oklahoma, very quality football team, well coached, a lot of skilled players, a lot of talent. They’ve built the program that we’re trying to make sure we get up to that level, which is competing for championships on a regular basis. They’ve been able to do that over the last several years. Hopefully we’re getting to that level where year in and year out we’re competing for championships. Should be a lot of fun, should be a fun, exciting week.”
Make Kyle Trask’s case for awards?
“Make a case, he leads the nation by far in touchdown passes, he leads the nation by far in passing yards. Hard to say anybody’s meant more to their team than Kyle Trask has to our team this year. So I don’t know, I don’t know what criteria people are looking for. If the Heisman Trophy is looking for somebody that is the best player that means the most to their team, most outstanding player in college football, I guess the guy that I think has a double-digit, I mean, double-digit lead in touchdown passes - double digit. Hard to say I think the record last year was set by Joe Burrow with 50 in a season, is that right? That sound about right? Four less game … huh … It was 60? Oh, he still has a long way to go, but Kyle’s played a lot less football game. And to do it all against SEC opponents. But I don’t know, I don’t have a vote for any of those awards. The all-conference team, I don’t know, there’s a bunch of different of all those things that you guys vote for.”
It was coaches …
“Oh, it was coaches? I guess that’s what people think of him. I don’t have a lot of those votes. But I think he’s well deserving. You talk about a guy who didn’t start in a high school game and you look at his career and what he’s been able to do. That’s an unbelievable story. Again, that’s for these people with these different awards to figure out what the award means to them.”
Oklahoma has history of high scoring offense, bad defense, roles have flipped somewhat, has your perspective changed?
“I don’t know much about last year or to be honest we haven’t played them in a couple of years, so I haven’t … maybe something from kinda afar kind of view of it all, LSU being maybe last year. But I don’t know. I think they’re a team that’s a very explosive offense that’s won a lot of football games, that puts up a lot of points. So I think that can skew you defense statistically wise. Teams play you very different when you’re playing with a big lead. You play differently when you’re playing with a big lead. So I mean from what I’ve seen from them they have an excellent defense, I don’t know that that’s really changed since … I don’t know, Lincoln took over for Bob a couple of years ago. I think they’ve been a team over the last, going back, last time we played them in 2008, they were an explosive offense. They’ve always had a lot of talented defensive players, but sometimes because of their offensive style those stats get skewed a little bit.”
AT&T Stadium is Oklahoma's home away from home. What is your familiarity with the stadium and have you addressed the stadium with your players?
"Well, I think, one, I've been to a couple Cowboys games to watch Dak [Prescott] go play, so, I've gone to see Dak play there twice. So I've been there, me and my son Canon, Megan, we've been, go cheer on Dak, so I think that was kind of cool to experience and see it. It's a great, it's an awesome stadium. You know, I think for our guys, we've played in some of the best venues in the world, sporting venues in the world here in the Southeastern Conference with different home stadiums. So, I know it's an awesome stadium, I know our guys are excited to go play in it, and to see that, to get the experience playing in that. But, to be honest with you, we play in some of the greatest venues in the sporting world here in the Southeastern Conference. So, I think they're excited to see it, but I don't know if that's a big factor."
Kadarius Toney, it was easy to compare him to Percy Harvin when he arrived. Has he done enough to set himself apart now?
"Absolutely. Well, I don't like comparing guys because they all have very different traits. I think when you look at the reasons for comparison are the playmaking abilities, you know what I mean? He's a guy that when the ball is in his hands, special things happen. And you know, Percy, when you put the ball in his hands, special things happen. Kadarius, put the ball in his hands and special things happen. You know, it just so happens they played, their careers ended up rolling out, they played in a similar offense. I want to say we've evolved through the years so we're a little bit different than we were back then, but a very similar offense, so you can see the similarity in styles. But, KT is KT. You know, he's an amazing, not just athlete but I think, one of the things that's changed about him this year that everybody can see is, he went from a guy that was a playmaker into a guy that is an every-down, one of the best wide receivers in the country. I mean, he's a return specialist on punting, kickoffs. You can bring him into the backfield and have him run the ball. We haven't had him throw it a ton, but he might have the strongest arm on the team, you know what I mean? Because he can really throw the ball, if us, you wanted to put him at quarterback. And, he's become a very technical route runner that has great hands and playmaking abilities. So, you know, I think the similarities are there because they're both outstanding playmakers with the ball in their hands, that early in their career that developed into being great, every-down football players at the backend, the later end of their career. And to be honest with you, Percy had an extremely successful NFL career, and I think KT is going to have an unbelievable NFL career."
Keyontae Johnson’s leaving hospital, what can your team take from it?
I think for everybody. I think you always put things in perspective. We get to go out there and play a game and have fun. There are a lot more serious issues out there in the world. I talk to your guys all the time. Guys make mistakes or bad things happen or something goes wrong on the field, if that's the worst thing that happened to you just today, you are pretty blessed. I dropped a pass; I made a bad throw; I had bad coverage; I missed an assignment; whatever, this happened to me in the game.. I made a mistake that maybe…that goes wrong. If that's the worst thing that happens to you today, like is not all that bad, when you put things in perspective. Our prayers have been with him. It’s awesome. It’s great that he gets to go home to be with his family. I know that everybody here and his University of Florida family is here and praying for him. I know over at Shands hospital he is getting some of the best care he can possibly get. Hopefully, I don’ know all the medical details of it all, but hopefully he has a full healthy recovery here in the near future.
Expecting more opt outs?
I think we may have one or two more but I’ll let those guys handle that, that's on them. I’m not going into all the details...guys may want to handle that individually. I’ll let them do it. I have spoken to a bunch of guys. I know of one or two more, but I also have a lot of conversations of guys that are playing. I am not going into specifics. If you say, who is playing? Then through the process of elimination...and the guys that are playing I want them to handle it. Everyone has communicated with me but publicly I want to leave it up to them. I could have told you that Kyle Pitts wasn't going to play a couple of weeks ago but I wanted him to do it.
How Oklahoma is different since the last time you faced them in 2008?
I mean I will tell you what.. I will be brutally honest with you.. Offensively obviously they are different. Kevin..Kevin Wilson was calling plays back then. They are up tempo and similar styles. They are schematically different from Bob [Stoops] running the defense to now. It is…but.. you know.. the similarities: they are running a premier program in the country. They have great, talented players. You see the guys, they have great pride in wearing that uniform and the standard that it looks like they play with, and so those similarities are all still there. To compare the schemes and all that stuff, they are very different. I assume. I couldn't really tell you. I couldn’t even tell you a whole lot about the game in I remember certain plays but that's a long time ago.
Fans complain about Todd, why are they wrong?
“I think it’s very easy to just jump to a conclusion. ‘Oh we gave up this many points or this many yards, so this must be the problem.’ I kind of look at things very, very differently. I’m here on a daily basis dealing with every aspect. As we evaluate every aspect of the program you do the same things, I mean, as I’ve said all along, you can look and say, ok, we must have a huge problem because we can’t, because we don’t put up huge running stats. We’re very run efficient, we just don’t run the ball very much. Ok because we gave up this many points or this many yards, well our defense must be terrible. Or we’re playing with a lead and changing our style of how we were gonna play. Boy, you know what, that Alabama game we just gave up all those points, or we had some opportunities to make some stops but we had a couple of mental errors along the way that hurt that against one of the premier offenses in college football. It’s very easy to point and say, defense bad, we have to change everything. Or you look at what the issues are. It’s like, hey, if my wrist hurts I don’t just cut off my arm. Let’s go figure out what the problem is. if I have to cut my arm I cut my arm, but that’s not where I’m starting. We’ve got to evaluate every aspect of it after the season, see where we’re at, and go from there.”
Do you worry about getting up for this game mentally, or worry about it being safe with a quick turn around?
“Well, we’ve played a lot of football. The game itself, not worried about the safety aspect. It’s playing another game. The build-up, we have competitors. We have guys who want to compete. We have guys who want to play for the love of the game. We have guys that are going to play in this game, guys that love playing football, they love to compete, they love to be out there playing. It’s an opportunity to go do that. It’s an opportunity to go do that in a huge game, on a national stage, against a great opponent. That’s why they come to Florida. That’s what it’s all about, the opportunity to go play in these games. I don’t think motivation is a big factor. Hopefully, the little bit of rest and recovery gets us a little bit physically and mentally fresher for the game.”
Cotton Bowl is in a bubble with you guys, how will that work?
“I know all about it. I’ve been to the Anatole (Hilton Anatole in Dallas) a bunch of times with the American Football Coaches Association Convention. Being there throughout the years I know it’s a pretty massive complex. I think it’s a pretty smart idea, to be honest with you. It will work. It’s not like we’re going to be there for a whole week like in a traditional time. We’re there in a very smaller, shorter window. I think kind of because of that it makes it much easier to manage in one area, much easier to manage probably more of a question for the Cotton Bowl staff, like, we’ve got this one location, we’ve got it all under control, we got it taken care of. I think they’re actually going to be responsible for the next game afterward, the playoff game following us. I think it just kind of makes it a much easier transition with everything being in one location, get it all done in that one area, keep everybody safe in the bubble and that’s what we’ve been trying to operate with a lot of people all year in that way. You’re going from testing multiple times a week, trying to be safe and smart in everything you do and the precautions. it’s a great idea. I’m pretty comfortable with it.”
NCAA recruiting Violations
“I think we put out our statement. It’s been resolved. It’s something that happened a while back. It’s something we worked through for a while and we continue to work through within our program to make sure we strive to do everything the right way.”
Comments