Transcript: Dan Mullen Post No. 6 Florida Gators Win Over Tennessee Volunteers
Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media following No. 6 Florida Gators 31-19 win over the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday night.
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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GET TO ATLANTA, WHAT YOU WERE BROUGHT INTO PROGRAM TO DO?
"Absolutely and it shows where the program's at, right, when we're 31-7 when clean-up time starts and we kind of just clean up the game to finish it out and we say that's not a very good game by us or not one of our great performances. It shows where we're at as a program, which I think says a lot. I'm really proud of our guys. Really proud of how we played. Played a great defensive game. We've got to finish it there when we get into the clean-up time at the end of the game when we start subbing guys in. They've got to come in and slam the door, not give up the two garbage-time touchdowns that they scored there at the end. But overall pretty pleased with how we played for the day. Some mistakes, things we've got to get cleaned up, but winning the SEC East championship in this year, the hardest year in the history of this league where you're going to play 10 conference games, regular-season conference games, to win our division is pretty special and shows a lot of what the team is at and what the coaches and the whole program is at."
COACHING CAROUSEL, YOU HEADING TO TEXAS
"You need to call the boss on that one. I guess if I'm going to go home and the house is packed already then I go. Shoot."
JUST KIDDING; BUT BRIAN JOHNSON INTERVIEWING?
"I'm happy all our guys to get opportunities. I do think we have a very underrated coaching staff. I've said that a lot. People look and say, hey, I get a lot of credit and I probably get too much credit. You're kind of shocked, we have a bunch of guys on our staff I think that would make great head coaches. And it's great to see, I mean I know we've had some guys through the years with John Hevesy and Billy Gonzales and Brian get interviews. I have some former coaches in Manny Diaz, that's now a head coach at Miami even though he didn't come directly from us. Kind of a shame that guys; Geoff Collins, as well. Don't get looked at and get more opportunities, because I think we have a great staff and we have a great program. I think our coaches would do an awesome job. I'd love to see guys like Todd Grantham to get opportunities to go be a head coach. With Brian, with all our guys, that's what everybody wants and their dreams. I think programs would be really pleased if they gave those guys an opportunity to go show what they can do."
Hardest sked in SEC? “You’re looking at things, one you have the COVID, you guys that decide to opt out before the season starts. We come in today’s game, we’re already to our third-string safety by the fifth play of the game it seems like. And you’re doing it against excellent football teams. I mean, it’s the SEC. I think one thing that the league’s not getting credit for is playing these games. If everybody we’re playing four, five, six games or something - who knows what the records would be. When you’re looking at all these teams in this league usually it’s the SEC, you expect most people to go 4-0 or 3-1 outside this league. You start now throwing 4-0 onto the current win totals and you’d be pretty surprised. It is such a huge challenge. You’re talking top to bottom the best league in college football. When you are that top to bottom there is no breather when you’re playing an all-SEC schedule. There’s no chance to catch your breath. It’s a huge deal for our guys to come win the league with that type of year we’re going through.”
Dancing in locker room or subdued?
“No … I think our guys are excited. Our guys are happy. This is what we work for is this opportunity to go win the East. But I think our guys are also very driven. We’re going to this win, it’s a very celebratory atmosphere in there, but I think our guys also know they’re going to be ready to get to work next week and get better. I think the goal is the win the East, because that’s what we can control coming into the season. You go to our guys and they want to accomplish an awful lot more than that. But that’s all we can control coming into the season and we were able to do that. Now we have the opportunity to control being SEC champions. That’s the next step. We got to start preparing for that two weeks from today.”
What mean to get to your first SEC title game as head coach? “It means a lot. I think you guys know me, I’m a perfectionist, like I’m critical of every little detail that goes on during the game and I’m starting to analyze all the different ways we can get better. So Scott Stricklin came up and told me to put a smile on my face and make sure we enjoy this and put a smile on our face because this is what we work for. I’m thrilled. This is it. I came to Florida to have the opportunity to win championships. That is the reason that I came here. Now we’re SEC East champs. Now we have the opportunity to go be SEC champs. That’s what you work for all the time. That’s what we worked for since the day I got here a little over three years ago.”
Trask’s pooch punt?
“Yeah, right, you need a Heisman moment. So maybe that was his Heisman moment pinning deep on the pooch punt down near the end zone.”
Jimmy Sexton season right?
“Yeah, all those guys get hard at work. I don’t know. You know what, this year … I’m going to be perfectly honest with you. It’s such a unique year. I know ADs don’t want my advice, but I’d be very cautious off making … understanding what everyone had to go through this year to have too quick of a trigger on what you’re doing. I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to talk to Scott yet, but I think I should be safe. We’ll see. Hopefully you’ll see me back in orange and blue next year. That’s more of a question for Scott (Stricklin) than me. I don’t control that; he does.”
“Hold on.”
Strickin steps in and gives a thumbs-up.
When you know you can score and throw at will, what goes into mindset of slowing game down?
“You’re trying to manage the game at different times, manage different situations. I think you guys know we want to try to stay balanced. We didn’t do a very good job of running the football at all tonight. That’s on us. We’ve got to be better running the ball. We’ve got to be more physical up front. We’ve got to do a better job of running the football and establishing the run. I wish we could score at will. I don’t know if there’s a game this year we left more points on the field than we did tonight. Really disappointed that we left all those points on the field offensively. I’m looking at this, to score 31 points that was disappointing for me with the opportunities that we had to go score a lot more points during this game.”
Trey Dean working his way back in tonight
“I mean it just shows, we talk to all our guys, and to say that you’re down to your third-string safety, we like to roll guys in and we play a lot of players. You come in and late in the week you lose Shawn Davis and then third play of the game you lose Rashad Torrence. When you get there, there is no more rotation. Part of it I’m wondering what’s next? The next guy in the game was probably taking all scout team reps the week before, the whole week. For what we’re doing. I think Trey Dean, I guess that’s the benefit of having multiple guys as starters. What we do there we start to lose the depth when we get down and get knocked down that way. A guy like Trey Dean, we have a lot of confidence in. He’s played a lot of football. He’s an experienced guy and he would normally rotate in a bunch. I guess calling him a third-string guy is probably a pretty inappropriate thing to do. But really, to me, it does, over the course of the game it’s just something else that’s just added to it and you’re like holy cow. Part of me is not like Trey Dean’s in the game. Part of me is like, what’s next? Like I said, the next guy going in has probably been on the scout team a couple of weeks.”
Right side of the OL seems to struggle, gave up another sack today. Pro Football Focus says RT has given up 32 pressures, 20 hurries, 9 hits, 3 sacks, have you thought about changing that spot?
“On the offensive line, we’ve had injuries. We’ve had problems that way, so probably not. We’re trying to get our best guys on the field. I don’t think, that’s cool, Pro, I don’t know. The hard one to me, I think our sack came on a miscommunication on the quarterback. Does Pro Football Focus know what play we called and that we missed the snap count? Not to take it that way, but there are, the statistic part is great in college football and in all of football. I love the statistic part but there are also some other things that go into it that you look at. Once again, we’re always trying to have our best five on the field at the same time. We try to roll some guys in there to get them going and do what we can do.”
What does it mean to bring the program back to Atlanta and to try and make more memories here?
“I think it’s awesome. For us, this is where we want to be. We want to be playing in Atlanta in early December. This year happens to be mid-to-later December. That’s always, that’s the goal and that’s the Gator standard. That’s what it’s about. I’m excited to get back. We’ve had two great trips there as an assistant coach and it’s an awesome game, a special game. It’s still and it will be again this year. We’ll enjoy that tonight, but we’ve got another huge game at home, and one of the things we always want to do to be successful, you want to win in The Swamp. We have the opportunity to have an undefeated season at home next week, so that’s going to take over our focus starting tomorrow.”
Hold your breath to hope you get to ATL healthy?
“It is what it is, and it shows that … I certainly hope that people look at things and say you’re playing a 10-game SEC schedule, you know? We’re going to play a championship game, 11 SEC games. Never been done in history. Be interesting to see in the league if you didn’t do that this year, like some other leagues are doing. For us, we’re going to come out there. We’re going to play next week, find a way to get ready, get to work tomorrow on playing LSU, playing the defending national champion tomorrow or next week. That’s what makes this league so great. That’s why you look at recruiting classes, why do people want to come play in the SEC. you look at, the most NFL talent comes from the SEC, because this is where it’s at. It’s most like the NFL from week in and week out. You’ve got to play your A-game. This year playing 10 games shows that, you know? It shows what an unbelievable league this is from top to bottom.”
Have any NFL teams reached out to your camp?
“No, I haven’t talked to anybody from the NFL. But they’re like in the middle of their season still. I’m just happy to be the head coach for the Florida Gators right now, getting ready to go to Atlanta and play for an SEC championship. That’s what we’ve worked really hard for. I’m going to really just enjoy that.”
Would you have been in favor of following the ACC and not playing next week because it’s meaningless?
“You know. I don’t care. We want to play. We’re competitors. We want to go play. So I think a lot of that will determine … What the College Football Playoff committee does will determine the future of college football this year. Do you schedule a tough schedule, or do you try to play as many easy games as you can to make sure you don’t lose? You know? Or do you go out and play the hardest schedule and get rewarded for it? We’ll see. I think that will determine the future of college football. I’m a big believer in go out there and go compete. Go play the toughest schedule you can, and hopefully college football rewards you for doing that. The benefit for us, I truly believe our destiny’s in our own hands. We’ve got the opportunity to go undefeated at home next week. We have the opportunity to be SEC champions. You do that, I imagine, we’re going to have an opportunity of going on and playing even bigger games.”
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