Transcript: Dan Mullen On the Florida Gators Run Game, LSU, Alabama and the Senior Class
Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media on Monday to discuss clinching the SEC East, not looking past LSU towards Alabama and the lack but unneeded run game.
As a valued subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full.
Injury report
“I know you love report, who’s playing. You’ve got – we’re hoping to get Trent Whittemore back this week. That’d be really good for us, adding the depth to the receiving corps and special teams, he’s a significant impact on special teams for us. Let’s see. … Both Shawn Davis and Rashad Torrence will still be questionable. We’ve got to see how the week goes on for those two guys this week. Anybody else you want to know about?”
Jeremiah Moon?
“I don’t think he’ll be back this week. We’re hoping the following week.”
How allocate resources while juggling LSU, Bama, signing day…?
“We’ve got a good staff and really good people around us. You do have a lot going on. You’ve got this week’s game, preparing for LSU. That’s focus No. 1. You add in the senior night deal. It’ll be senior night here in The Swamp. There’s a little bit of an extra stuff that goes on with all of that. As you said, then we get the one more game. That’ll be kinda getting into a normal game week. The thing that’ll be different is we’ll be going through final exams that week, so you’ve got a challenging schedule to get that organized the following week, as well as having a signing day on Wednesday. So there is a lot, but we have a really good staff to kinda keep everything and everybody to know what their job is, what their responsibility is and to get it done. It’s been a unique year with a lot of unique challenges, and this is just another one.”
You ever wake up and go, I’ve got too much going on! Hit you ever?
“You wake up and you go. Your mind’s just racing at night, you know? You try to fall asleep a little bit, your mind races between 2 and 3 or 4 o’ clock in the morning, making sure you’ve checked everything that needs to be done. But I guess that’s just part of the deal.”
(On the answer as to why the offense has had some lulls in the first half. Something to change, different message to deliver?)
"No, we just gotta execute better. You know I mean? Like, I don't know that we were very good last week offensively, to be honest with you. You know, I mean, which is kind of I guess hard to say, I think - it's not to say we weren't very good, I think we missed a lot of opportunities last week. I think we had three possessions start on the plus side of the field with zero points, I mean you should be 100% at that. So, I think we left 21 points out there on the field that we should have had. You know, there's a lot - when you look at it, you know, if there's one reason then you go, if there's one thing, you go fix it. But, it's just, you know, it's lots of different things. Whether it be a missed read by the quarterback, a missed check, missed communication at the line of scrimmage, a dropped pass, sometimes great defense, once in a while there's great defense too, we forget to give those guys credit whos job it is to stop us."
"So, I think there's all of that that goes into it, you know, I think we can still continue to get better, I think we can play a lot better than we have. But, I think we also as a team do everything you need to do to win games. I mean, last week's game's a great example. We take a three-nothing lead, so we're playing with a lead. They come back, score to make it 7-3, we immediately go to 10-7 to take the lead right back from 'em, then at the end of the half, they give us the ball and they give us the ball and it's 10-7 and the next time they touch the ball it's 24-7. So, all those little things that we needed to do to win, it's 31-7 and we kinda put the game away and it's over in the fourth quarter. But, then we make the mistakes where we get the ball on the plus-side of the field and we don't score offensively. You know, like you said, we missed some opportunities, I know we want to be efficient, score every time we have the ball, that doesn't always happen. Defensively, we have a big lead, play a little bit softer to make them eat up the clock and kinda run out the end of the game and then when we give up touchdowns that we don't need to be giving up at the end of the game, guys need to come out and step up and make plays. So, there's all those little things that I think we can play better, but as a team, I'm really happy because we're doing what you need to do to win as a team from one week to the next."
(On why he's reading a lot into the college football playoff strength of schedule model) "Well, I mean, every year they talk about that. Shouldn't it be strength of scheduling is what matters? So, I don't know why it should be different this year than other means, you know I mean, of that, why would you - I mean your criteria, why change it from strength of scheduling, ever? Right, I mean, either we should encourage you to play the toughest schedule you can play and encourage you to do that and you should get rewarded for playing a tough schedule and winning a lot of games. That's just me, but maybe -- I'm not on the playoff committee, so that's a great question for the playoff committee members of why criteria should change every year."
When putting together future schedules, this is another data point that you are going to view in how they come up with CFB playoff teams?
“That’s something that you probably should really pay attention to, you know what I mean. If it is all about – if strength of schedule, or if you are going to play a tough schedule and it doesn’t reward you – I don’t know, I would guess if you’re an AD, that would be a message to make, go out there I guess, if you want to get in the playoffs, try to schedule an easy schedule as possible.”
After watching film of worst run-game performance of season, how would you assess performance?
“Yeah, we missed a couple of blocks. We didn’t really try to run the ball very much. I think our backs had about four or five carries, that’s about it. They were giving us the pass game so we just kind of stuck with the pass game.”
What about 30 sacks, a number you have hit in all three seasons here, how has that success continued?
“I mean, we have great athletes out there. I think, you know, certainly Todd does a good job of getting players in positions to make plays. I think game situations puts pressure on people and change what they want to do within the course of a game and force them to be uncomfortable and play out of what maybe their game plan was. And allows us, which we want to be a fast, physical, aggressive defense, come after the quarterback and disrupt quarterback play. So, we’ve been able to do that again this year. That’s part of our defensive style.”
What did the win over LSU in 2018 at home do for your program, beating a rival?
“I think it was huge. I think our guys came out that day, we played a really tough, physical game, which it usually is against LSU. Always a battle right down to the end. And our guys, I think that day, found a way to win. I think really came together as a team. We had critical defensive stops when we needed to, big offensive drives when we needed to in the course of the game. Made a lot of big plays that day. I think any time you do that, that can be a huge boost for the confidence of the guys and especially, in our first year here in the program, was a big boost for our guys trying to believe and understand what we were trying to accomplish and what we would be able to do in the future.”
Thoughts on this year's LSU team? "Oh, they've got a lot of talent. They put up a lot of points, can score points in a hurry offensively. They lost a lot of guys so they're a young football team, lost a lot of guys off of that last year's team. And you look, a lot of times you have a team that goes on a championship run like they did last year, they do it with a very veteran group of guys and then all of a sudden, the next year a lot of those veteran guys are gone. But they have a tremendous amount of talent, a lot of guys, some playmakers and mismatches on offense, from the running backs, different wideouts that can cause you issues. They've got a really athletic tight end in the passing game. Defensively, they've got DBs that can cover on the backend and a big, physical group up front. So, when you look at them I think they've had some up-and-down games, and with a young team. They've had, they've played a bunch of different quarterbacks this year, so when you, I mean you're going through all of those different changes and things that are happening, you can see. But they have a couple dominating wins where they came in and blew people out, a couple of games went right down to the wire for them. They've had a couple of games where, I'm sure, kind of went the wrong way for them with a young team, how they didn't expect it to go, and you know, ended up on the short end of those games. So you see a lot of different things from them as a team, as a young team they're growing, learning, but a dangerous team because they have weapons all over the field." Going back to 2018 game, you said "This is what Florida football should be." That was the big game that year, is that the standard now? "Yeah, I mean we're pretty pleased. I mean, our goal is to compete for championships and we're doing that this year, having the opportunity to go to Atlanta. You know, I mean you look though, the last two years we've had top-ten finishes and won two New Year's Six Bowl games, so that's where it is. I think, probably a lot of that for me is the atmosphere, which we're not going to get this year, which is you know, when we come and we play in The Swamp, we expect to be the toughest environment in college football. And if I remember back to that day, that was probably the loudest, most electric the stadium was that season for sure, and it kind of reminded me of what it was back in the National Championship years. So, anytime we step into The Swamp, I know I want our players to play at an extremely high level, but I mean the Gator Nation is so critical to give you that home-field advantage, that energy, that excitement, and I know they did it that year in that game. You know, moving forward though, that is what we expect. I love playing for championships, playing top-level football, and when we get the opportunity to be at home, have the best home-field advantage in college football."
Is running game not there because the passing game is so strong or does the passing have to be strong because the running game's not there? "Well it can be a little bit of everything depending on the game and how it goes and what we do and how the game's going and how it's playing out. So there's not a specific answer to that. To be honest with you, go back to the game, I don't think we really tried to run the ball very much. So, we can go spend a lot of time and we can go run the ball. We'll find a way to run the ball and go do it, you know. Probably small the game down, ball control, grind it out. But that doesn't really fit the strength of our team right now when we have success throwing it and can matchups all over the field that cause problems for people. So I think it's a lot about what we want to do. It'd be one thing if ... I didn't look at the numbers, I don't think we were run efficient. That was disappointing." 66 plays, 17 rushes "And a couple of them were sacks, right? Because they count as rushes. So we really didn't run the ball that much and a couple of them were at the end of the game when we were trying to kill the clock, too. So if we ran the ball 40 times and didn't have many yards, that would probably go into the concern area. The fact that we weren't really trying to run it doesn't really throw it into my concern area." Senior Day, how does that change procedure wise (with COVID)? "You said all the different things on me. I haven't even got to that yet. I got a lot going on right now. I'll figure that out some time later this week." Feel for the seniors because of the year they've had to go through? "Well I think for them, they envisioned their senior year going to Atlanta and playing for an SEC championship. So I think that's probably what they would view as really important. So it actually is probably kind of exactly how they envisioned it."
How good is Kyle Trask at spreading the ball around?
“I think that’s part of playing the quarterback position. That’s one of the most important parts. At times, and Kyle will tell you this, I imagine, he misses reads during the game and takes some other things out there. But we have a lot of faith and a lot of confidence in what he’s doing and his decision-making on the field. That’s quarterbacking. That’s quarterback play of understanding the offense, understanding why we’re doing what we’re doing and what the design of the play is and then you’ve got to be able understand what the defense is doing and why they’re doing what they’re doing and what they’re trying to take away from you. They can’t take everything away from you. You’ve got to let them take something away from you. That’s OK. You go to the next option. Honestly, that’s what good quarterbacks do.”
How do all yourself not to think about big, bad Bama?
“I’ll be honest with you, you focus on that … our focus is that we’ve got to get better. If you want to be a championship team, as I’ve said all year, you’ve got to get better from one week to the next. You don’t regress. You don’t want to go backwards. Now, you might not get better in every single phase every single week, but you never want to regress as a team. Our focus has to be getting better this week. And then I imagine you can ask me the same question and I’ll say, ‘Are you looking forward to Ohio State, or Clemson or Notre Dame after Alabama?’ And I’ll say, ‘No, we’re going to be focused on getting better and us being a better team this week and focus on that.’ You know, that’s just the simplicity of it all. I know it sounds like coach talk. But the reality is, if you want to be a great football team, you focus on the task at hand. And the task at hand is us getting better as a team, preparing, practicing better this week than we did last week, playing with more effort and strain and being more efficient on offense and making bigger plays on defense than we did last week. And taking this week’s game plan and applying it to LSU and doing it better than we applied last week’s game plan to Tennessee and we get better as a team. If we do that and hopefully next week we do the same thing and weeks after that you continue to do that until the season ends and we put 2020’s team to rest.”
Incremental a good word for it?
“Sure. That’s like a big vocab word for me.”
Kadarius Toney? Improvement and his game?
“Well I think, you know you look, I think he’s always been such a dynamic playmaker. You put the ball in his hands and exciting things happen. But if you watch what he’s been able to do, his ability to understand the routes, be a great route-runner. He understands he has freedom within a lot of different routes at that position. We give that position a little bit more freedom even than other positions within the route running, and he understands though the freedom that he has and doesn’t just freelance it, but he understands the defensive coverages and the looks that he has, and he has a great feeling of how to attack those different coverages and looks, and how to win versus the different coverage people are playing against him. So I think he does a great job as a receiver, and then we all know that hey, once the ball’s in his hands, he makes exciting and dynamic things happen after the catch, so I think it just shows how he’s improved from a playmaker to an every-down reliable player.”
Emory OK?
“Yeah, yeah. We always have the package, we just didn’t get him in the other night. But he’s ready to go.”
5 true freshmen play over 100 snaps this year, how important have those guys been? “Well I mean it’s huge. You look, especially a year like this, you have guys get injured, you have the COVID issues, you have all the different things going on, there’s opportunities for guys. And you know, not that in every program as you build the program, you don’t sit there and say OK we’re going to rely on a lot of true freshmen all year long to win for us. I don’t think any program relies on that, I know people may say that in recruiting sometimes, but you don’t rely on that throughout your entire program. And, but it shows a lot of these guys came in, were ready to play. We talked to that, when you get an opportunity go seize the opportunity. And I think as a program, when you talk to young men, if they understand that, of – they worry about improving, they worry about getting better and worry about taking advantage of opportunities, and then they look at other guys on the team and say ‘OK, boy, you know, hey I’ve got an opportunity to play early in my career, Kyle Trask didn’t get an opportunity to play till a little bit later in his career but her certainly took advantage of it. Kadarius Toney had a small role early and then became an everyday playmaker later in his career. You know Kyle Pitts played his whole year at wide receiver, kinda helped him learn and get reps that way, and now he’s the best tight end in the country.’ So I think a lot of the guys within the program see it, and then they understand if I’m given the opportunity the best thing I can do is take advantage of that opportunity. I mean there’s a lot of guys on our team that want to play a lot more, and you know I wish we could get them to play more, but they understand ‘hey I’m going to be ready for my opportunity for when it comes, and if i worry about that, and then when my opportunity comes and I jump on it and seize on it, that opportunity, I’m going to have a great career’.”
What has this recruiting process been like? “It’s unique. You know, you do it on FaceTime or Zoom calls or that type of stuff. You know, you don’t have them in-person here. It’s been a little bit different. It’ll be interesting to see after this year what maybe the NCAA takes as a plus and a minus moving forward, coming out of it. I’m sure there’s a lot of things you can evaluate and say, ‘Hey, you know, this has forced us to view things very differently or there are some benefits to it and what could be beneficial with this moving forward?’”
Are you concerned that recruits not being able to visit campuses may lead to more transfers down the road? “I don’t know. I think you’re going to see a lot more transfers down the road, to be honest with you, because of the new NCAA rules that they’re putting into place. I don’t know if they’re in place yet but appear to be going into place. So, I think you might just see that a little more coming in the future anyway.”
How important has it been to not have had any long-term injuries this year? “Well, it’s helped. I think if you look, I don’t know if we’ve had 70 scholarship players yet available for a game, to be honest with you. It doesn’t feel like it. So, like you said, we’ve had a lot of bumps and bruises, but it’s been beneficial that none of them have been – or, knock on wood, we have had very few that are longer-term injuries. They’re more guys missing a couple weeks here or there and able to come back, and then somebody else gets banged up and goes out, and they’re missing a couple weeks, but that’s kind of a football season, and this year’s even more unique than other years because of the COVID thrown into it as well.”
Do you think about that at all going into this week I mean, I know that you want to play and compete in this game but then think to the SEC championship later, are you concerned with injuries or anything like that this week? “Nah, it just is what it is. We got to go out play, you know I mean we'll get guys opportunity to go out there and play and we got to get better, that's kind of what our focus is." On the run game, you guys ran on your last three touchdowns, one running back run just for the record so... “Yea I mean it was—we weren't honestly, I mean I hate to say, I didn't put a, we weren't putting a concerted effort in to run the ball. I think you've seen us do that before and I mean if I want to go put our, put our energy into it I'm sure we can figure it out. But we really didn't have a concerted effort into running it on Saturday. We might this Saturday, I might come out in the wishbone this Saturday.” Do you feel like Kyle Pitts has just been taking some hits? He took a shot on the sideline the other day. Teams are really going after the guy a little bit. “Yea he's a big guy though. He catches the ball, he's an athlete in the open field and he's a big guy. So, I mean, I think people look—you better, if you want to tackle him you better throw everything you have into him right there you know. And so, you know, and you're 6-6, 240 something, you got to put a lot of ‘oomph’ to even try to get him down on the ground. So, but, no I mean he's responded pretty, I mean he's, he's done a great job of that all year, of being a physical player." 12 seniors. And I counted just now I think 12 that were here, it during 2017, and some before that in 2016 like Kyle and some others. What has this class gone and overcome and what are you going to think about this class, years from now? "Well I think one obviously, that they were dealt with a difficult deal of coming in with a new coaching staff—they were then, then recruited them. That always you know kind of leads to a challenge, a little bit in itself and there has to be a buy in and I belief that hey, they, you know, 'these new guys coming in, these new coaches coming in are gonna do things a little bit differently than maybe I thought.’ And, then, but I think the success we've had over the last three years has shown their buy in. You know, we came in we said 'hey, if you buy in and believe in what we're doing, we're gonna have the opportunity to compete for championships,' and, you know, I'm sure most of them are very thankful they bought in, they believe in what we're trying to do and you know, I mean, here they are their senior year, getting to go compete for a championship.”
How much time, energy resources have you already attributed to Alabama? “We have our advanced scouting people work on that to get everything in, all the information in, everything broken down. Once we had an idea that there was an opportunity for that (playing Alabama) so when we get in on Sunday morning of next week everything is all prepped, ready to go for us to start working on that gameplan.” How do you balance playing to win Saturday vs being smart and being healthy for the SEC Championship game vs Alabama? “Yeah, I mean we don’t worry about that. We gotta go play. It is what it is. You just go play. I think when you start worrying about those things you’re thinking about all the wrong things. You’re worrying about the guys walking to class tripping on the sidewalk, or going to practice every day. Your focus is, how do we go win the game this week and go win. Not many Florida teams have won nine SEC games in one season. We have the opportunity to do that. I think only two have ever done that. We have the opportunity to do that this week. There’s an awful lot on the table for our guys to be focused on to go win this week and that’s the complete focus on this team.” Think about the precarious spot of being very successful and have guys turn pro and then stuck in a spot like 2020 LSU? “As you get to that we meet with a lot of our guys, I’ve already met with several of our guys. The key is you want guys to make good decisions. We’ve had guys leave early each of the last couple of years and it seems like every year we’ve had guys leave early, like oh goodness, but we got better the next year. I tell the guys that. The decision is not, whether they stay of go, we’ll still be here, we’ll go compete, we’ll go play. The decision is, and I think this is where the people that start making mistakes when they do this, is they listen to the wrong people or they have the wrong vision of what it is all about when they make that decision. The decision is about them and their future and their ability not just their ability to play professionally but their preparedness to not just make it to the NFL but stay in the NFL. So, there’s a lot that goes into that decision making. Most of the guys, they really sit and reflect and think about it and do it, they say, ‘ok, here is where I’m at, here’s what I expect if I come back. Here’s what to expect if I leave. What puts me in the best position, not for the next six months, or year, but over the. Next five to six, seven, eight, ten years of my life? Let’s put me in the best position to be successful. And when guys think about the decision and make it the right way, usually they have a lot of success. When they don’t make it the right way, a lot of times they don’t have success. All we want to see if our guys have a lot of success. We’ll still have a team. We’ll still be playing. We’ll still be competing next year. I just want for our players, for them, to go make a great decision. It doesn’t have anything to do with me. It doesn’t have much to do with our program. It is about them and their future and as long as they make good decisions it usually works out the best for everyone.”
Comments