Transcript: Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen Recaps 2020 and Previews 2021 Spring Practice
Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media this week to recap the 2020 season and preview spring practice for the 2021 offseason. Spring practice began on Thursday February 18.
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Opening statement:
“We’re getting excited to start up spring practice here on Thursday, in a couple days. Our guys to get back on the field, we’re going to have a lot of young players. One of the interesting things coming into it is how few guys that we have that have gone through spring practice. That’s a pretty big deal. We missed it last year. A lot of the ’19, ’20 and ’21 recruiting classes that have not really had a spring practice - that’s one of the most important developmental times, if I got that right. The ’19 class came in ... they had the ’19 season and then ’20 spring ball was canceled. So they didn’t get that. The ’20 class a lot of them showed up on campus early, they had no spring ball. And then we have all of this year’s class is showing up early, so quite a big chunk of guys. So this is going to be a critical couple of weeks for us with spring practice and development for these guys to get prepared for the future. We’re excited to kick it off. We’re excited to get going.”
How serious was NFL interest?
“You know what, I didn’t speak, I didn’t interview with any NFL teams this year. So, you know, most of my focus was on getting us back to Atlanta to get back to the SEC Championship game.
“A lot of rumors out there, but I didn’t speak to anybody.”
You’re not really answering the question … do you have any interest in leaving for college and heading to NFL down the road?
“I’ll address it this way: I think one thing that’s really interesting, I think a lot of people are trying to figure out what the future of college football is going to hold and what that’s going to look like going forward. I love being here at the University of Florida. I think we have a great program. We have a great fan base, great history, the opportunity to be a championship program every single year. I think there are concerns with coaches is what the future of college football is going to look like. I think there’s a lot of uncertainties to it right now, of how that’s going to shape. That might not be completely answering your question. But I think that’s probably the fairest way as people look at things and look at the future is what is college football going to look like in three or four years. I think there’s a lot of uncertainty that we’re trying to figure out right now to see what our futures are going to hold.”
New hires, faces on D, what will be focus to improve unit?
“I think one of things, having spring ball we have to do a great job evaluating our players. The one thing you got to miss a lot of the spring, we met as a staff this morning … player evaluation, finding out exactly what our guys do well and don’t do well and making sure that our scheme fits the strength of our players. That we’re putting guys in the best position to be successful on the field, and we’re putting our best players out on the field. But a lot of that gets into an evaluation process that we’re going to get to go through this spring to evaluate a lot of young players out there and making sure that we’re putting them in the best position to be successful on Saturdays next fall.”
Demarkus Bowman eligibility? A lot of numbers at RB?
“We haven’t had a practice yet, so I don’t know. I have heard anything (eligibility). Again, I think there’s a lot of questions, I’ve heard, I haven’t heard anything completely, in writing I don’t think from the NCAA . You’ll hear of how they’re doing to decide all the different things, everything we’re still dealing with with COVID right now. So we’ll see that down the road. But again, like I said on a lot of things, we’re going to see what guys do well and build around the strengths of what we do. We might run some two running back sets, we might have multiple guys on the field ...
“Last year we would have been hard-pressed to want to take Kyle Pitts off the field a whole lot, or Kardarius Toney off the field a whole lot. And I mean for us, when you get into 'do we have our best guys on the field?' Are we putting them in positions to be successful? If you have depth at running back you can probably play some more running backs, so that's what we're going to continue to evaluate through spring and getting into fall camp."
WHAT WERE BIG ISSUES YOU SAW ON DEFENSE LAST YEAR?
"Well, I think one of the things we struggled with and we talked about a lot is alignment, of making sure the sense of urgency in playing up-tempo offenses, of getting our calls in. Do we get the calls in in time? Do we get the calls made to the defense on the field in time? If the guys make the call, then make the formational adjustment in time when you're seeing no huddle. Part of it there is a little sense of urgency issue. I think we've got to be better on the field, if that makes sense. Because I'm on the call in, but then how fast are guys getting lined up? I think we were a little casual at times getting lined up, and all the sudden we're not getting lined up fast enough. The strength declarations aren't being made fast enough, and so guys are looking around and by the time they're looking around the ball's being snapped. So I think that's some stuff that we talked about in how we need to address that, how we need to fix that and how we need to make sure we have the right guys making all the right calls so that it happens much faster on the field."
NO SPRING GAME, WHAT DO YOU LOSE FROM THAT?
"I think the biggest benefit of a spring game, I think a couple, well, the benefits to the spring game. One, I think it's like a celebration for the players to see all the fans that come out and see new faces and get excited, one, about next year's team. Get excited about young players. Spring game's a great day in Gainesville, to have the fans get really excited about the next season. The thing you probably lose is some of the pressure. It will be the first time some of these guys take snaps in front of a big crowd. I mean usually the spring game crowd is bigger than any crowd we would have played against last season. So to go play on that stage I think is a big plus. But beyond that, there's, I've always had discussions that said sometimes we can get a lot more done in scrimmages than we would in the spring game. So there's going to be trade-off either way, so there's a big benefit in just having another, adding another scrimmage at the end of spring. That there's going to be a big plus to that of getting some more things accomplished in that scrimmage than you normally would in a spring game, which is kind of a little bit more of an exhibition showcase."
WHAT WAS MOOD LIKE COMING BACK FROM WINTER BREAK AND COTTON BOWL?
"I think guys really excited to get back, excited to get... hopefully looking forward to more normalcy moving forward into next season. I know excited to be able to have spring practice. When you look, we were kind of like on stage normal, normal. You go back to a year, which I mean it seems like it's less than a year, but probably for everybody in the world, seems like we're headed in this direction. We're meeting, we're about to head out to our first practice, boom, whole world changes. So I think now, having a little bit more of a schedule that now, I know socially we're a long way from where we need to be, but I think there's a little bit more familiarity with what's going on and we're going to get back to a little bit more of a regular routine. You know, get out to practice hopefully this week. So I think guys are kind of excited about that aspect of things."
HOW EXCITED TO GET OUT THERE, ADD NEW PIECES, HOW WILL IDENTITY BE DEVELOPED?
"I think it will be. I don't think we're going to define the identity after these 15 practices. I think we're going to do a lot of evaluation on guys in these next 15 practices, but I think if you know us, I've always been that... we're going to adapt to the strengths of our players. We're going to adapt to our guys and what they do well and put the guys in position to do well. I think everybody looks last year, and when you go back, and you watch our cutups and review our cutups, you say, boy we threw the ball everywhere, we didn’t really run the ball very well. Well, when you look back efficiently we did run the ball fairly well, we just decided not to do that. We just decided to throw it offensively. What we’ll do is evaluate some of the strengths, go find what our guys do well. I’ve always been a big believer offensively, you know our offensive playbook is probably like that and we use about that much of it in any given season. It might be taken from different parts but you use a much smaller part than the whole to fit the strengths. that’s one of the reasons within our scheme that I like our scheme. You know we have the flexibility to go throw for 400-yards a game last year. We have the flexibility to go back and be 50-50 balanced. We can be a run ball control team and control the clock. We can be up-tempo or slow tempo, whatever is going to fit the program or team as a whole within the framework of our offense and then we just kind of like evaluate this spring, throw a bunch of stuff, there will be some varied, some things that we did last year we won’t do as much this year and some things that we didn’t do last year that will be thrown into the offense for what we think off of the strengths of our players right now. We’ll continue to tweak that through spring, through summer, through training camp and usually, it ends up through the first couple of games you’re still tweaking.”
Brian Johnson moving on, will you call the majority of plays or by committee?
“I don’t think much changes in what you do. We’ve kind of done it the same way for a long time. I’m really happy for Brian, the opportunity. I know Brian’s a great up-and-coming coach. You saw that with some of the opportunities he had this past season in college football and now the opportunity in the NFL. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as a head coach in the near future either in college or the NFL. Obviously, you hate losing him and the relationship he has in the room but we have a core group of guys, a lot of our guys have been (with us). Brian wasn’t always the quarterback coach for us. A lot of years he wasn’t. Kind of how we do things doesn’t really change. We’re getting ready for practice. Garrick is picking up, the nice thing about Garrick McGee is you have a very veteran coach. He’s been a head coach, he’s been a coordinator, a long-time quarterback coach at the highest of levels coached great players. Last season, I think by being here as a senior analyst for us, even though he spent the majority of the time on defense in practice but he’s familiar with how we run the program and how it all works. I think that makes it a very easy adjustment moving forward.”
How do you envision the offense changing with the different skillset of Emory Jones/Anthony Richardson then?
“Yeah, well, that’s just what we do. We go back to some different schemes to utilize those guy's strengths. I think people look at us, we have a decent quarterback run package that we were kind of very conservative with Kyle Trask, you know? We wouldn’t do it with him in the four-minute offense because by the time he ran around the edge it probably took up the last four minutes of the game, right? Kyle would always do a great job, check us into the right plays, make run/pass checks. He was extremely athletic with maneuverability within the pocket, extremely accurate. You look at guys like Anthony and Emory with cannon arms, their ability to improvise and extend plays. All of a sudden the field is spread. I think we saw even a couple glimpse of it in the bowl game, that the field’s spread out and someone loses a rush lane. That turns into a 20-, 30-, 40-yard play with those guys on the field. With Kyle, it might not have been. They bring a very different skillset to the table. So ours is to kind of manipulate around the strengths of what those guys are going to do well within quarterback runs, zone reads, the ability for them to scramble and improvise and even have to be more complex in the pass game because you’re multi-dimensional because some of the threats they pose to the defense.”
Is Kyle going to go use roller blades at pro day for his 40?
“You know what, the one thing for him that I think people overlook when you go to evaluate is I don’t know how many guys, you know, Tom Brady’s not running for big yardage every single game. The one thing about Kyle that I think people miss is how athletic he was within the pocket in small movement. You weren’t going to mistake him for Jamelle Holieway running down the field on an option play for 70 yards and a touchdown. I just dated myself, probably, right? Lamar Jackson taking off for 70 yards for a touchdown down the field. But his athleticism within the pocket translates, I think, really well to the next level with his ability to slide, maneuver and just that quick, little short-area athleticism I think is going to translate really well for him to the next level.”
Pro day date?
March 31. Are there 31 days in March? I think it is. Is that what it is? It might even be in my calendar. Let me check for you real quick. I don’t think it’s written there. I know it’s at the very end of March. It’s March 31st. We went through a call in an SEC meeting with some of the new things that are happening. Had the NFL come on and how they’re going to do it. It will be very different than it’s been in the past. But I do feel comfortable. I don’t have all the specifics in front of me. There’s been a very thought-out plan by the league, by the schools and by the NFL of how we’re going to approach everybody, not just want to get the exposure and the right workouts for our guys, but also getting the NFL what they need for our guys for the future, so that’s going to be something that we’ll have done and we’re going to work with. But we’re hoping to have a really good pro day when it comes.”
Replaying LSU/Bama in your head? What’s that been like?
“I look at each game individually, why stuff happened. The different results of games, you know. You go back and evaluate, what could we do better? What should we have done different? How would it have changed? And you look at each of the games. There’s ways to look at it. You can sit there and look at it emotionally. You get upset. Oh, boy. You wanna win every single game you play. But you look at the different opportunities you had throughout the season, you know? And the games that we won, why did we win those games? What were things that we did that allowed us to be successful? What were game-changing moments? What are things that happened in the course of the game to be successful? And what are the things that happened in the games we didn’t win, and how do we prevent those from happening in the future? How do we improve at those areas? Each one… As a coach sometimes, the losses stick with you a lot more than the wins, so I probably am more versed in the losses than in the wins. Unfortunately those sit with you a little bit more. But you get through it, and you know. There are a lot of different scenarios you didn’t expect to happen. You look at the LSU game. There were a lot of different, random things that happened during the course of that game. With all of the randomness, you know, like tipped balls on the sidelines that go from out of bounds to inbounds to get intercepted. The turnovers in the red zone that we don’t usually have. With all that being said, all of a sudden we fall behind on a really long field goal at the end of the game, left with 19 seconds, and we still find a way to get our I think really one of the best kickers in college football the opportunity to go tie the game. You’re right there.
“You look at Alabama, who ended up being the best team in the country last year. Lot of positives you take out of that. I think the confidence our guys played with and their belief and their expectations to win that game. I’ve played Alabama through the years. There’s a lot of times – there’s a lot of teams that will go and play Alabama, and you’ve lost before the game even started. They’ve had some great football teams over there, and Nick’s done an amazing job with some great teams. Guys will come in sometimes. You look at your team and you motivate, but they’re looking and they’re saying ‘Oh, boy. We’re going to need them to make mistakes for us to win the game.’ I don’t know. You go break down that game, I don’t think they made many mistakes, Alabama did that night. And we’re one possession away. We’re six points away from winning that game. And, you know, so our guys played with a confidence and the expectation to go win that game up until we just ran out of time. And so, you know, I think we look at those things of what we do and where we’re at as a program and how we need to build off of that moving forward, how we continue to grow and learn as players, as coaches, as a program, to continue to constantly get better and build – always be building for the future and trying to improve.”
Why have you done better than most in the portal?
"I don't know. I think if I go back to when I became a head coach 14 years ago and looking at junior college players and looking at other players throughout the years, we try to address needs with transfers more than just take transfers. And so what ends up happening is maybe you look successful because instead of just saying, ‘This guy’s a great player and it doesn’t matter, just take him out of the transfer portal.’ We’ve probably had some opportunities to get some guys that ended up being great players that we didn’t get, but maybe at that moment we didn’t feel the need. We had depth, we had experience at that position. We don’t go to the transfer portal always just to create depth or to go get backups. We go get guys that we expect and we need to be impact players and play for us. And then when they get on the field and play for us, it appears you have more success that way. Usually we’re hitting the transfer portal a lot for need base, for guys that are going to come in and make impacts because of any number of reasons, whether it’s guys that have transferred out of here or guys that have left early for the NFL Draft or injuries or whatever it is where you have this little gap in your roster and we need to fill it with a player who’s going to make an impact. If you get that transfer to come in -- now it’s transfer portal more than junior colleges -- but if you get that player to come in and then fill that need, we get a great player and they get that opportunity to get on the field right away and have success.”
Early start for spring ball?
“Spring ball starting early, a couple factors for us. One, we weren’t on the road recruiting in January. Not that we weren’t recruiting constantly, but you’re not gone all day on the road. So you have the opportunity to get a jump start on all of our different player film evaluations, recruiting film evaluations, do the recruiting Zoom calls and all the phone calls. But there’s still time in the day when the whole coaching staff is not around traveling so you’re able to get cut-up reviews done, getting everything in wrapping up the season done earlier. I think as most of the country has experienced, we’re in Florida so we have the option to start spring ball a little bit earlier. I did click on the weather channel and saw that I’m very happy we live in the state of Florida right now because it looks awful cold in a lot of other places around the country. I hope everybody is safe with where they are in the country. So, we have that opportunity to do it. And the other one, as I said, we have a lot of guys in our program that haven’t been through a spring ball. So there’s a couple different ways to look at it as you get into the offseason. We’ve had time to accelerate it, but within the spring you have time to review cut-ups, to watch, to teach and then you go practice it and then you review those cut-ups again. One of the things we wanted to do, I think guys learn a lot better when they watch themselves. It takes a lot of maturity for players to grow and learn to watch other people do things to learn how to make yourself better. You do that, spend a lot of time doing that and teaching that. But I’m going to tell you what, the guys are much more attentive when they’re watching themselves do it and you’re correcting them and they’re seeing themselves perform within the offensive or defensive or special teams scheme. So by having the spring ball earlier, we’ll be able to start watching the spring cut-ups earlier with the players of guys that maybe haven’t played a lot that have not had that experience and they get to watch themselves running our offense and our defense. And we’re going to make some changes offensively and defensively schematically around this year’s players with some of the things that we talk about. We want to get that stuff on film so they can see that and we can coach and teach off of it. So that’s some of the reasons why we’re doing it.”
So spring practice will still go out to April?
"No, we're done March 20th. There's rules. There's, unless COVID, something happens for us right now, but there's, you get 15 practices. I think it's, I don't want to get in trouble with the NCAA, I think it's a 32 or 33 day window, with 15 practices within a 32 or 33 day window. And I might be off on that. I don't just randomly do it, I do check the rule book before I map out the practices."
What were the most important things you learned from Urban Meyer about building a program?
"You know, I think one of the biggest things with Urban, and I was really fortunate because we went to three very different locations with him, okay, is when you take your plan as a head coach, you take 'Hey, this is our plan to win. This is our program,' you take this guidebook of 'This is how I'm going to run the program.' You use it very much more as an outline than a specific. That's one of the biggest things I've learned. Now, the outline, and the general principles behind building the program and how we did it works, but it was different at Bowling Green than it was at Utah, and different at Utah than at Florida, and different at Florida than Mississippi State, and different back at Florida than it was at Mississippi State and Mississippi State than it was at Florida. So what you want to use is, you use this outline, this structure of core values, of what the core values are. What the program believes, what the philosophy of the program is, what your identity of a program is. How you become successful within the program and your plan to win within the program is. But you take that outline and you apply it to the team, the organization, the program that you have and it works, the plan works, but there are specifics within the plan that are going to be very different and that play out differently at different schools. So instead of trying to sit there are say 'Okay, we have this rigid plan that we use and it will work, no matter where you are, you do it exactly this way,' that's not the case. The outline works. The rules, general principles of the plan of what you need to build a program works, and then you adapt it to the university, the program, or for him now the organization, the Jaguars, that you're at."
What are some of those core principles?
"You know, I mean it changes. Ours, our program is built on accountability and trust. Those are some foundations within the players within our program, right? What's the identity of our program is a team, if you watch us play, your identity is a team that's going to play with relentless effort, have a passion for the game and reach their potential every day. So, there's a, I mean I could give you the corporate speech which would be quite a long time right now that I do for different corporations of building. Then you really want to find the identity of the players, right? Where's the leadership within your program, that's a big part of it. Is the leadership within, or is it coming from top-down? How is that coming? And then you're going to build and expand off it in that way. So, you know, when, when you look at those and have those, those different identities—those different values, those different leadership principles—and look at where your programs at, you know the type of the, I mean, the type of program you have, you know, I mean who you're recruiting, what's your, what's your recruiting base and recruiting philosophy as it comes to, you know, to us. I haven't spent a lot of time with him, I imagine he's going to get into, 'what's our draft compared to free agent philosophy’ moving forward and very much like our recruiting and how does that fit our organization. And it changes, you know, of the type of players and then how you how you relate to the players. Young people are awesome, but you know what? They, they're kind of, they're different. You know, I mean kids in the Midwest are kind of, a little different sometimes than kids in Florida. You know and the northeast are different than kids on the west coast. So, you, you kind of adapt around the different personalities and the different kids that you have that best fits that program.”
Depth chart?
"Yeah, we'll get you on game week right? We, I think we got one coming out on September the fifth.”
You talked kind of generally about the transfer market but can you talk about those two defensive tackles that you brought in and kind of the need they needed to fill?
"Yeah, you know what, because if you look at one of those, we kind of have that gap. I think we have some really good young talent, interior defensive linemen, and we had a bunch of guys over the last two years, you know that leave and walk out the door. And so there is kind of this little gap in the middle between the two. You know, and you look at Quany [Daquan Newkirk], look at Toney [Antonio Shelton] coming in and those guys, they have experience. They have, you know, one of the things that was huge for me that I'm very pleased with—because you talk to them, you research them, you try to find out but until until they're with you don't know—is their leadership, you know. They’re very, both older experienced players with great, with maturity. And they understood coming in, that they are some of the older players in that group and that meeting room now. And in that unit position unit. And so they are expected to have leadership qualities. They’re not expected to come in and just act like the new guy. They got to learn the program and what it is fast, but we have very high expectations for them and they've really shown that. I mean one thing, we haven't been out on the field to see anything yet, to see them that way. But one thing I've really been pleased with is their attitude, their work ethic and the leadership that they're bringing. That maturity that they're bringing in within the work ethic and preparation that we need to help show those young guys, continue to help those young guys grow and develop and see the right way to do things. And, you know, so I mean, we expect both of those guys to be huge contributors for us this year and, you know, a lot of their contributing contributions not just on the field that everyone else will see, but I think they have opportunities to make huge contributions off the field that nobody that really is going to get to see a whole lot except people within the program.”
Wes McGriff and Jules Montinar, have you've been able to put positions on them in terms of what they'll be coaching.
"Yeah. So, Jules will be working with the corners. I think we had that out there. And [McGriff] Crime Dog's gonna be safeties, nickels, and doing that and working together and just kind of making sure all of those guys—I think it's critical for us to have that whole communication within the secondary so they're going to be working together, you know, not just individual position but also together quite a bit.”
What stood out about Wesley McGriff and Jules Montinar during the interview process and what is the expectation for the secondary to improve this year?
"Well, it's always huge. You know me, I have extremely high expectations for everybody. But, you know, one of the things, you look at Wesley coming in and he's a guy I've known for a long time - actually, I tried to hire him before and wasn't able to -, but if you look at his background, as a secondary coach both in the Southeastern Conference and in the NFL, coordinator experience within the conference. You know, his personality, his energy, what he brings, the relationships he has with kids. Is somebody (you're?) really, really excited ... as soon as I made the change really I think first call I made was to him, so great to get him.
"The second one, I like to go out, did a lot of research on different guys. And, you know, research once you got Wesley in place kind of I really took, kinda went in a different direction after we knew we had Crimedog (McGriff) in place of getting a guy of his experience that fit. I wanted to do, and I researched a lot of different directions of which we could go with the position after that. And meeting with Todd and going through and reviewing things, and going to do and dig a lot of research, going to find Jules was a guy that was a recruit of the year, has a great pedigree, he's learned, he's worked his way up within the coaching profession. And, I mean, had to kinda start battling, be at different levels and learn how to coach at different levels, learn under some great secondary coaches as well early in his career and then had success both in recruiting and with his players on the field and then you know you talk to a lot of guys ... as you do this you talk to guys, not just looking at their resume, but talk to guys they've worked with, in his personality and how he fits within the staff. You know, one thing to me about putting a staff together, it's not just 'hey let's just go crazy and go just, hey you have this... all-star roster', what you want to do is create a staff where everybody is going to work together and understand how it best fits together. I think that is a huge part of success, and everyone I'm talking to, what a great team guy he is, what a great high-energy guy he is, what a great young up-and-coming coach he is. A guy being from Florida and the opportunity to come coach at Florida, just all of that made him the guy that in the end was really a no-brainer for me."
With some of the PR snafus you had last year, did you take any steps to make sure your message comes across more of what you want it to be?
Dan: "Is that like the political correctness question or...?" Mark: "PR.. maybe, I don't know" Dan: "You know what, as I told the guys, there are probably some times I said things that, you know, maybe regrettable, maybe didn't come off the right way, maybe got interpreted a different way and probably in the time and the light maybe, got legs of its own in what happened. So, you know what? You're always trying to improve, always trying to get better and look at that. I think one of the things to do is as you look back and reflect and say 'hey, at that moment is that the right way to approach something?' You know what I mean? And we're in very unique times right now, you know of what goes on and sometimes a message, what your message that you're trying to get out might come across to somebody differently and then all of a sudden it kinda gets legs of its own and go in a different direction out there. So, I don't know I'm still trying to be pretty friendly with everybody and all of you guys. I'm still pretty open, I haven't gone to the one-word answers yet to kinda change that aspect of it and maybe not put my foot in my mouth or anything like that. But, we'll see, I'm gonna try to keep a positive message I guess and keep us on path for where we need to be as a team."
Depth chart before week 1 opener?
“I could go on, I’m just going to put ‘ors’, right, you get the ‘or’ on it. I’m going to put the whole roster by position, ‘or’, ‘or’, ‘or, ‘or’. I will say this, the hardest one for you guys with depth charts is, that’s one of those ones that sometimes grabs legs of its own, and I have to, you know, and then everyone. ‘Hey, well coach, I thought I was this, or I thought I was that’. And within the program they know, and we haven’t made any decisions yet on who’s going to be where, everybody’s still competing, but I do think a lot of times you put something out sometimes everyone runs and says ‘OK, this must be how it is’ when in reality that’s not quite there yet.”
Name, image and likeness is what you were referencing earlier? How much time do you prepare for that?
“Well, I think there’s a bunch. I think, you know, you look at how it affects a lot of different things, how it affects recruiting, how it affects your roster, your program. You look at the transfer rules, all of that. There’s so many changes that could be coming upon us that is unique. The name, image and likeness, I’m not against it. I’m for helping the athletes get what they deserve, and I think if you know, if you talk to our players, I’m always trying, whatever we legally can get you, we want to get you what we can get you and help you out in any way possible. And so you’re for it, but I think a lot of times when these things happen, when you’re a coach and you sit there and a new proposal and different things come out, on the outside looking in you think this is ‘OK this is what it’s going to be’. On the inside you think ‘Alright this is maybe the reality of how this could turn and the direction this is going to go into’, and so I think that is, there’s so much uncertainty about it, you know. I see so many – we have our law that’s passed now in the state of Florida that goes into effect July 1, how we have to prepare for that you know, and then is something going to change before that goes into effect and what that will be and how we address it. And it’s not always just the positive consequences of it, it are what are the side consequences that maybe no one’s expecting that we’re thinking about and that I have notes on and I’m not going get into, as you said I’m going to be careful of some of the things that I don’t need to open Pandora’s box with, with all the different scenarios of things that could happen but we spend a lot of time being aware and preparing for that moving forward and then trying to figure out what are the other side issues it’s going to create.”
Concerned with other coaches flagging 3 years left on your deal to negative recruit?
“Yeah, I don’t control that part of it, so I’ve got to worry about what I control, you know, which is getting the team ready to go for practice on Thursday. That can be in somebody else’s press conference, that’d be a good question for them.”
NFL has been difficult for the best coaches, what about Urban that will help him connect with players at professional level?
“I don’t know, I guess we’re going to have to see. I think Urban’s a great football coach. Obviously a really, really good head coach and he surrounds himself with great people. I know some of the guys as friends and some I don’t. Let’s see how that works. I think you can look at a lot of different coaches in a lot of different areas. There’s a lot that have gone from college to the NFL and been extremely successful and some that haven’t. It might not just be that coach. Whether it’s NFL to NFL, college to the NFL, NFL back to college, I think there’s a lot of different circumstances that go on within organizations sometimes. The easiest thing to do is say this coach was successful here but not here of why that didn’t work. I don’t know if everybody’s jumping up and down about Bill Belichick at the Browns when you look at it but Bill Belichick at the Patriots is pretty good or that aspect of things. Or you know Pete Carol not good in the pro start, really successful in college, and then really successful transition to the pros. I think there are so many different things to go in and say hey, this guy is good here and not here and how that works. But I do think Urban’s a guy that’s a great head coach, great leader, great motivator of players obviously, and his staff and people that work for him does a great job of developing them. He always surrounds himself with great people. He sets a very high standard and sets the bar extremely high within the organization and has been successful everywhere he’s been. So you’d think he’d be successful with the Jags and them being one of our local teams. Our other local teams had a pretty good year. You know Bruce Arians did an amazing job with those guys coming together and it was great to see the Bucs win the Super Bowl. That was pretty awesome.”
What about Gus Malzahn at UCF and what about the two-for-one?
“Is that going to happen? I’m really happy for Gus. I’m good friends with Gus. I’ve known him for a long time. I remember going out to visit him in Arkansas as a high school coach and him coming to spend days here and us talking a lot of football together. Him and his wife Christy, I mean great people. I’ve always had a lot of respect. He’s always done a great job and been really successful. Been an innovator. I think he’ll do a great job. I think everybody at UCF should be really excited to have him come in. I didn’t ask him. I think he’s been off for two months. When I talked to him one time I thought he might catch his breath for maybe a year just to catch your breath a little bit. But I know he’ll be ready to go and I’m really happy for him to get that opportunity at a great program like UCF. I think he’ll do a great job there.”
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