Transcript: Florida Gators Dan Mullen on Feleipe Franks, the Georgia Win and Wheel Routes
Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media on Monday to recap the No. 6 Gators win over the Georgia Bulldogs and preview the upcoming matchup against the Arkansas Razorbacks—and subsequently former Gator quarterback Feleipe Franks.
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Opening statement:
"Hey, want to start with, I hope Sam Pittman, I know I just heard on the way up here, tested positive for COVID. So, prayers are with him and his family. Obviously, I think that's, I hope he is, having someone gone through it, I hope he has minor symptoms kind of like I had, it really wasn't as a tough ordeal. I know a lot of people have had a tough time dealing with it, and then obviously the seriousness of it for a lot of other people and families out there. So, our prayers with him and I hope he recovers quickly. But, uh, what do you guys got?
Does Kyle Pitts have to go through concussion protocol?
"Yeah, I'm sorry I'll do that. You know, when we get in games now there are injuries in the game. I don't mind giving you guys injury reports because then I'm not disclosing medical issues. So Kyle will be questionable this week, concussion, so he'll be questionable for the game this week. I think Jeremiah Moon went out with a foot injury, I think he'll be doubtful for us to play this week, and then Stewart Reese will be questionable as well, he had a shoulder issue. So Stew and Kyle will be questionable, and I think Moon will be doubtful for this week's game, on the injury side of things coming out of last week's game."
39 penalty yards per game, 11th in the nation of teams that have played 4+ games. How much do you think it's about the QB, or discipline?
"Umm, yeah. 39 seems like a lot to me, you know? So, I don't know, I guess, it's hard for me to jump up and say they we have almost 40 yards in penalties a game and that's a good thing. I think it's just our guys' attention to detail, we have some veteran guys and we talk about it all the time, with being attention to detail on the field. I think that's really an important thing. and how we focus and within our preparation of the game."
What are you seeing from Feleipe Franks this season?
"Yeah, well, you know, I think Feleipe's a great quarterback. We had him for quite a long time, so, I'm seeing what you see out of him. A guy that has a high touchdown-to-interception ratio, really strong arm, you know. I mean, he's a veteran player now, played in the league, so the games and moments aren't too much for him. I know he's playing kind of a newer offense to learn, but when you're an older, veteran guy, I think you understand concepts, you understand coverages, you understand what's going on out there on the field. He's picked it up really fast, and I think he's having a great year. But I wouldn't have expected anything less than that from him, and, you know, the Feleipe I know."
What’s the message to the team, they’re coming off a great program win?
“We talked this morning. We’ve put ourselves in a good position at the halfway point of the season. We still control our own destiny in what we can do and what we want to accomplish this year. But any great team is going to get better from one week to the next. If we don’t come out and have a better practice today than we did last Monday preparing for Georgia…. If we don’t come out and play harder than we did against Georgia if we don’t come out or are not more efficient and executing at a higher level on offense, and if we don’t have 11 guys running to the ball and tackling and making sure we’re sound, limiting our mistakes, then we shouldn’t expect to win. If you want to be a great team, great teams get better every single week. Great teams don’t peak at the midway point of the season. Great teams peak in early, mid-December, and early, mid-January. Those are your peak moments as a team. For us, that’s got to be our goal and our focus this week. If we don’t improve, last week was really irrelevant if we don’t improve and get better this week.”
What do you have to do to get other tight ends ready this week? And losing Kyle, what does that potentially do to your playbook?
“If you look last week, we’ve always had guys who have that next-man-up mentality. Kyle is a great player. They know it. We feature him. You look, he goes out and Kemore has a great game. Zip has a catch and a long run afterward, he did a great job blocking. They executed really well out there on the field. To me, those guys have just got to come up and we’re going to run our offense. It’s their opportunity to go make plays, their opportunity to go show what they can do out there on the field. Every year you have that next man up mentality. This year, it’s probably even bigger because you’re adding in all the different things happening and what a crazy year it’s been. There’s even more chance for the next man up mentality. Or opportunity, the opportunity.”
Appreciation for what Sam Pittman is doing at Arkansas?
“Absolutely. One of the things, he went into a program, he obviously knows how to win. It’s a fun challenge. He’s got them playing hard, believing. They have some really good defensive guys. They play to the strength of their secondary and they’re one of the top interception teams in the nation. They’re physical, good tacklers. Linebackers are two excellent players. Excellent, excellent football players. And then they have disruptive defensive linemen up front on the defensive side of the ball. They fit the offense in. I know they’re going to run the ball well. And, obviously, Feleipe is running the offense pretty well on the other side of the ball. And so, I think he’s come in and done a great job of putting the guys in position to do what they do well. And he’s done even a better. … and also a great job, one of the keys is creating a winning mindset. And if you see this year, they play with that winning mindset and been really successful.”
Where Kyle Trask has been so far, where does that rank among the QB performances over multiple games that you’ve seen?
“He’s playing pretty well through five games. If we play a five-game season, he’d rank really high. The fact we play a longer season, I don’t know where he ranks. If they came out today and canceled the rest of the season, I’d say he played a really good season, sure. Let’s hope they don’t do that and let’s hope he continues so at the end of the year then we can rank and say, ‘Hey, you know what, he did have a really, really great, great year.”
PITTMAN PROBABLY OUT. HOW MUCH DO YOU LOOK AT BARRY ODOM WITH GAME PREP?
“I think this: I’ve known Barry. Barry’s obviously been a head coach in this league, understands the league and I don’t know if it’s been confirmed. I just heard on the way up. It could be a false positive. One of the other coaches in the league had a false positive. You just hope he’s well. You know what, Barry’s been a head coach in this league. I know Barry really well. Good coach, good motivator. Tough guy. He’s not going to walk in on a stage that is going to feel awkward or different for him. I can guarantee – I know Barry as a professional also, is going to give that message that Sam gives. They’re not going to change the personality they have as a team if Barry’s out there just having to manage the game. I don’t know if they’ve named him the kind of – he’s going to be acting as head coach for the game. But if he is, they’re not going to change kind of the mindset that Sam’s already built here and what the program’s about.”
HOW DO YOU CELEBRATE GEORGIA FOR 24 HOURS AND THEN MOVE ON?
“It was only about 16, maybe less than that even. I don’t know what time the game ended. By the time I got home, it was probably closer to a celebration of eight hours. You’re just on to the next game. I think for coaches, it’s a little bit easier. We’re sitting there getting the game plan organized and trying to get prepared to go play an excellent Arkansas team. But also for our players. I think, you know, they have to understand. We didn’t come into the season and our goal on the season was to just beat Georgia. That wasn’t like the, ‘Hey what do you guys want to accomplish this year?’ That wasn’t part of it. I think our guys wanted to be in a position to compete for a championship. And we’re still in that position. But there’s a lot of work to do if we want to make that happen. That’s been the focus, and that’s the discussion. And if we don’t get better, it’s not going to happen. We have to get back to work and improve.”
JUMPING IN THE STANDS?
“Were allowed to have fun sometimes, you know? It’s like we’ve become a no fun year.”
ANYWAY, Y’ALL HAVE MET ONE OF YOUR GOALS. YOU SENSE FANS ARE EXCITED ABOUT BEATING UGA?
“Let’s hope that the fans are excited and that we — however many fans are allowed in The Swamp, come to The Swamp and create a great atmosphere. Right? That we – whatever the — whatever they say the number is, that they come and support their team and create energy, excitement and noise within the stadium, have a great time and come watch this team play. I hope that the response of fans.”
GOOD ANSWER
“I didn’t use the word pack this time, you know? But we want as many that can come to come.”
WHEN YOU WERE INTRODUCED AS COACH YOU WANTED TO MAKE UF FOOTBALL FUN. THIS OFFENSE KIND OF WHAT YOU ENVISIONED WHEN YOU SAID THAT?
"Uhh, yeah. Well, I mean, winning's fun. And I think our job is to find there's different ways that you win football games. I think for the Gator Nation, obviously, I saw coach Spurrier, he was walking in as I was coming up here right now. He set the bar of fun as not just winning but scoring a lot of points for the fanbase. So we're trying to make sure it's not just fun for us it's fun for the whole Gator Nation. So I guess in that way we're living up to it."
TRASK HAVING GREAT START TO SEASON, NOW THAT WE'RE GOING INTO SECOND HALF WHERE CAN HE BE BETTER, WHERE IS POTENTIAL OF WHAT YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH?
"Well, I think obviously you've got a huge challenge this week. I think one of the best pass defenses in the Southeastern Conference coming in here in Arkansas. So I think continuing to manage, continue his decision-making, accuracy. I do think one of the things that he has done a really good job of most of the time is he takes what the defense gives you. You look at that game, you say, 'OK, well our running backs, our running backs have 39 touches for 300 yards against Georgia.' I think most people would have looked and said, hey, if the running backs are going to dominate this game that it would be the other way around, that it wouldn't be our running backs dominating the game and putting up those numbers. But those were the matchups. And one of the things Kyle does a great job of, he's not going to force the ball to somebody. If you want to take somebody away, it's OK, he'll just go on to the next matchup. He needs to continue to do that. For the most part, he did. He missed a couple of reads on Saturday. I'm pretty critical. I like to be exact. I want us to be not 85 or 90%, I want us to be 100% detailed and exact in what we're doing. So I think he's the same way, so I think he's going to look at some of those, say, 'OK, I missed that one and I want to be exact in what I'm doing' and just making great decisions and taking what the defense is going to give us."
RECURRING TREND TO HAVE STRONG FIRST HALF, WEAK SECOND HALF. WHY IS THAT?
"Well, I don't, I mean, I think a lot is just how the game's going and how we manage the game. Every game plays out very differently. And then a lot of it has to do with certain in-game strategies and what you're trying to accomplish. So I wouldn't say we're playing bad at all in the second half this season. We're playing to what our second-half strategy to the game is."
CAN YOU GO INTO THAT STRATEGY?
"Sure, tell me a game situation and I'll tell you what the strategy is."
OUTSCORED 7-6 THIS WEEKEND, SO WHAT WAS THE STRATEGY THERE?
"We're up by huge numbers and we're going to control the clock and control the tempo of the game."
Weird Feleipe on other sideline?
“I think this, obviously it’s tough, but as competitors, I mean, we love to compete. And I know Feleipe’s a great competitor. He wants to come in here and beat my butt, beat everybody on the team’s butt, you know what I mean, and that’s what competitors want to do - and he’s a competitor, so he’s going to want to do it. But it’s not going to change the relationships or how you feel about each other when you’re out there on the field you get that competitive edge to you that you want to win. He’s that type of deal. I’m happy for him. The whole thing came down to: I want to make sure I’m on the field playing next year. And here he is having a great season. That’s what you want, so I’m really happy for him. I’m happy for how it’s working out for him. But I know, I mean, I want to go compete, I want to beat his butt on Saturday. That’s what we want to do. That’s what competitors do.”
Tre Grimes said he remains tight with Feleipe, do you sense this among players, will it be a different vibe before and after game?
“Yeah, I think they’ll have fun with it. I think, you know, but you see that I think there’s certain deals when the guys know each other. Every game that you play, there’s guys with friends that they’re playing against or guys that you competed against or guys you know. But this one’s probably different because it’s a guy that was your teammate for quite a long time. So I think this one’s probably a little bit different. I think it’d be huge motivation for him and for their team to get his back to try to help him win, and then motivation for our guys to go compete and beat one of their friends.”
Feleipe’s legacy at UF?
“I think he came in, I think before we got here and everything he had a rough go of it, with the fan base, with everything going on. He came in and took a four-win team and led ‘em to a New Year’s Six bowl victory and a top-10 finish and he helped the turnaround of the program to make that happen. I think, you know, it’s a foundation of a guy that came in and took a bad situation and turned it into a really good one and helped build a foundation and put Florida back to where everyone expects Florida to be as a top-10, national program.”
With no obvious reschedule date, Sam Pittman positive and potential outbreak, tropical storm … any conversations on contingencies?
“No, not at all. You certainly for Arkansas they’re able to get through it. That’s kind of how the year is right now. So, hopefully it’s a very isolated deal for them and for their team. We went through it. It’s a really hard deal for the team with everything going on. So hopefully, hopefully they’re able to get through it. If not, we got to try to jumble some things around. I’m sure they’ll let us know here pretty quickly. We’ll go out and play whoever we have to play.”
What did Spurrier say to you about Georgia win?
“He was excited. He was excited. He was fired up. I mean, like you said, he said, hey, that’s your first time winning? I said here at Florida. We had a win over Georgia at Mississippi State. But first time winning that game here as Florida coach. He thought that was cause for a little celebration. I know he was fired up for us.”
Different recruiting this weekend?
“It’s always better than going the other way. You know what, the excitement. You’re hitting up your guys that are committed to come play for you and they’re fired up, they can’t wait to be a part of where the program’s headed, the direction the program’s headed. Guys that aren’t committed and all these other guys you recruited and are excited about what the future of the program looks like. There is sure something positive around the program.”
On Kemore Gamble:
“I think he’s done a great job. He’s worked to continue to develop within the program. Everybody that knows, you see Kyle Pitts and you know this guy is a special talent. What I always tell players, you don’t have to be like him. You just have to be the best you can be, and if you’re focused on your development and working for you to be the best you can be, you’re going to be ready for your moment. I don’t know a year ago that he could have stepped and perform the way he performed on Saturday. But here it is a year later and you could sit there and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this guy in front of me, I’m not playing,’ but again, like Kyle Trask did, he saw that and said, ‘I’m going to continue to prepare for when my moment was called.’ And when his number was called, he was ready to go in. He comes in right after Kyle gets hurt and scores a touchdown. I think that’s such a huge deal for him and it’s certainly a confidence-builder for him moving forward.”
Is your team developing that killer instinct?
“Yeah, we’ll see. We’ve got to keep going. I mean, we haven’t been in many crunch-times games at the end, so we’ve got to see. I think our team’s done a really good job of knowing how to win and putting ourselves in a position to win. The one that we did, we didn’t find a way to do. We had an opportunity and a game at Texas A&M. You’re talking about a one-possession game where they had one possession more than we did and we just weren’t efficient enough and didn’t get the stop and not efficient enough offensively to finish the game that way. But I do think the team certainly has built the confidence and understanding that there is confidence within the team about the defense. There is confidence within the team about the offense. There is confidence within the team about our specialists. I don’t think we have to get better special teams-wise. When I talk about special teams, I talk about the all 11 guys on the field for a special teams play. I think there’s some improvement we need to do. We need some guys to step up there and continue to do that and improve that way. But I think certainly building that confidence within the team to count on each other to win.”
Feleipe said he still talks to the guys and he talked about that before but do you still talk to him when was the last time you talked to Feleipe?
"Yeah, you know I mean I talked to him a week or two ago, he was texting me. You know, I think he texts Megan more than me even, you know, I mean but I would too. I mean that the, right, I mean usually, usually when people are getting a text from me it's because something, they did something wrong or there's a problem or, there's an issue. You know so I think you know Feleipe's a guy that is, uh, you know, went through a lot while he was here. Knows that we cared about him, knows that we believe in him and everyone in our family I think you know even, you know like like Megan will say, I mean even, you know, I mean, he was one of the first ones to send her a Happy Mother's Day text last year. So I think you know when you have that—we do —and you always have that great relationship with all, with all your former players.”
Megan doesn’t yell at him for missed reads and interceptions.
“No like I’m, that's why I don't think everybody always, like you know I mean like, you know, like yeah like I mean Kyle Trask after the game everybody was like 'well you threw for 474 yards.’ I’m like ‘well you did miss the read on this play,' you know, that's my first comment is, you know—I tried, and Megan reminds me—I'm like, I'm like, ‘Hey, great job. You did miss the read on that play.' I try to start with a great job first. So, the, I don't know I'm just always kind of, like, trying to coach and get everybody better all the time and so I have worked on trying to be, make sure I'm always very encouraging first before I get into how we're going to coach and get better.”
Looking at the 40 plus snaps that you get out of Josh Braun on Saturday, sort of your reaction to how he stepped in?
"I think it was huge you know, I mean he came in and, um, you know he's a guy that's taken advantage of some opportunity this year due to some, you know, some injuries and some other things of preparing himself the right way. You know I saw—I did see his dad after the game, I hit him like ‘Hey did you get nervous?’ He goes ‘Well, I really wasn't till my wife hit me and was like hey you know he's in right now and I did get a little nervous at that point.' But uh, no, I mean he's a, he's a, he's a very intelligent guy, came in with a great work ethic; has taken advantage of the opportunity of being out there on the field, in practice, and you know, when his number was called, he was ready to go step in the game and play.”
That's a position where I guess if you enroll early maybe you can make some ground strength wise but especially with the offseason challenges you guys face for a lineman to step in and play like that is a little bit unusual right?
"I think that's one of the hardest positions to come in and play right away as a freshman, you know, I think that you know, obviously, you know, offensive line, quarterback are probably two of the hardest positions to come in to play right away as a true freshman, obviously, offensive line being the hardest. You know the speed of the game, the adjustment, the checks of everything that's happening out there on the field. You’re trying to you know—a lot of these guys are big guys, are still growing into their body and their development, you know, and even for Josh who did, who did enroll roll early but didn't get a spring ball. He's done a really good job of being prepared and ready to go play.”
I tallied it up and maybe I'm incorrect but I believe you guys through eight wheel routes for 217 yards, one of them being when Gamble had the one-handed catch that looked like it was going to Nay'Quan. Earlier in the year Jordan Rodgers also pointed out, I think, 10 plays against Ole Miss that you were able to call back back-to-back throughout the game.
“Yeah.”
With that being said, I mean, how important is it to be able to, even against the SEC's arguable best defense to call a play so many times successfully. And with that, I mean, maybe besides the wheel route, do you have a favorite route combo?
“Ahh, no, I don't know if there's one. I think one of the things I think the offensive coaches we try to get into is, ‘How can we attack this attack the defense that we're playing? How do we create the matchups that are in our advantage? And how do we go take advantage of them?' And every defense you're gonna play is a little bit different and every matchup you're going to play is a little bit different. And, you know, so I think in, and as Jordan, you know, I mean, I think it’d be cool because I did see that breakdown he did earlier. I did some show, I mean I watched and I think Jordan does a great job, does an awesome job you know, and breaks down football for people, you know, to go watch and see and explain how we're doing things. I think if you watch that I don't know that we ever ran it out of the same formation. I don't think we've ever ran the same play out of the same formation twice. You know, you're always going to do it, now how you get people there's going to be very different you know we, the different ways, But ours is, we're a very conceptually based offense so you have this conception and now there might be 10 to 15 different ways that we're going to run this concept within the course of a game to attack it, because we feel that's going to create an advantageous matchup for us. You know, and, you know, the wheel route was something that was an advantageous matchup for us on Saturday and we created a bunch of different ways to do it. And we're able to execute it so it'd be, it'd be cool if Jordan does that again this week. I think he, he does a really good job of that so hopefully, he gets another little—I don't want him to give away all our secrets all the time to be honest with you but I do think he does a really good job of it and it'd be really interesting to see him break that down for everybody to see.”
If I could have access to the all 22 I'd love to do it for him.
“(Big laugh) We'll see. We'll see. I'll think about it. I'm not going to break it down and put it out there for everybody because you know I don't want it out there.
“Good. Awesome. All right everybody have a great week. Go Gators.”
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