Gators head coach Dan Mullen expresses his frustration over a call during Saturday's loss to Georgia. (Photo: Matt Stamey/UAA Communications)
Mullen Ready to Discover Gators' True Identity
Saturday, October 27, 2018 | Football, Scott Carter
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – One by one, they exited a dejected locker room. Most glared ahead as they walked down the tunnel toward the team buses waiting in the night.
Several Gators made a pit stop in the postgame interview room to rehash what happened in their 36-17 loss to Georgia on Saturday, a defeat that snapped Florida's five game winning streak and, barring some strange late-season developments, knocked UF from contention for the SEC East Division title.
The players who spoke afterward did so with a defiant tone, especially after a 19-point loss to one of your biggest rivals and a team ranked seventh in the country. Still, the ninth-ranked Gators envisioned a much different ending. They believed in it until the very end.
An ending that seemed very possible when quarterback Feleipe Franks threw a dart to Freddie Swain for a 36-yard touchdown and 14-13 lead on the Gators' opening drive of the second half. The Gators appeared poised to surprise once again in a season of surprises.
"We felt as if we were the better team,'' senior defensive end Cece Jefferson said.
Swain backed his teammate despite evidence to the contrary on the enormous video boards at TIAA Bank Field.
"I don't think the better team won,'' he said.
Junior linebacker David Reese, who finished with 11 tackles, said the game was there for the Gators to grab. Instead, it was the Bulldogs who left clutching a victory, their second consecutive in the series.
The Gators were left to ponder what happened as Georgia scored 23 of the game's final 26 points.
"They didn't really do anything too special," Reese said. "We just didn't make the plays when they needed to be made."
Clearly, the Gators were in no giving mood after the game. If they had been that way during it, the outcome might have been different. Florida committed three turnovers. Georgia held onto the ball with a Super Glue grip. The Bulldogs scored 10 points off UF's turnovers and in a game that hung in the balance early in the fourth quarter, they delivered the knockout punch with a pair of late touchdowns as the Gators sputtered trying to stay within striking distance.
In the latest biggest game of his first season as Florida's head coach, Dan Mullen was disappointed in the way the Gators failed to execute. They wore their Mr. Clean all-white uniforms, but the Gators did little cleanly on Saturday.
They fumbled three times, losing two. Franks threw an interception that he should have never thrown. They committed seven penalties. To keep Georgia's defense guessing, Mullen tossed a few snaps to freshman quarterback Emory Jones. There were no easy answers for the Gators.
"It's not good enough to win a big-time game like this,'' Franks said. "The most important thing right now is just everybody have a positive attitude."
And yet, when freshman kicker Evan McPherson drilled a 42-yard field goal with 11:12 left in the game, the Gators trailed 23-17 and was one big play from taking the lead. It never happened.
Less than two months ago it was difficult to imagine Saturday's game meaning so much. Both teams were ranked in the top 10 at the time of their annual clash for the first time in a decade. Both alive for the conference title and the winner in the hunt for the College Football Playoff. When the Gators lost their second game under Mullen – to Kentucky no less – you wondered where their season was headed.
And then they started to improve, game by game, the wins piling up until they stepped onto the field in Jacksonville with a chance to make a loud statement that, yes, the Gators are back among the best. That didn't happen. At least not the way Gator Nation wanted on Saturday.
"There is no moral victory in anything,'' Mullen said.
No, the Gators had no interest in charity as they prepared for the trip home, one that surely seemed longer because of the way Saturday night ended.
The Gators vowed to return to practice on Monday determined to not let another loss to Georgia derail the season. A year ago after their 42-7 loss to the Bulldogs, at the time their consecutive loss, the Gators continued to spiral downward on the way to a 4-7 record and following a coaching change.
Missouri, which lost on the final play to Kentucky on Saturday night, visits the Swamp next weekend on UF Homecoming.
"Last year we let Missouri run through us,'' Reese said. "It was kind of a downhill type of time. We let the rope slip. We just gave up in that season early. So, we just want to show that we're not the same program, and we're just building as a team."
That's what Mullen expects.
In his postgame address to the media Saturday, Mullen repeatedly touched on what losses like Saturday mean for a program like Florida. A program that he expects to be one of the best in the country year in and year out.
You learn from them and get better. There are no other options in the chase for greatness.
"I think everyone is going to be a little disappointed when we go watch this film and the opportunities we had for great things to happen and they didn't happen,'' Mullen said. "That's on all of us. That's on me. That's on everyone on the coaching staff. That's on everybody on the team. That's on the scout team.
"It's the same way the other way -- we're all in this together. As a group, that locker room is a tight unit. That's what great teams do. They all stick together and they work together. We're the Florida Gators. That's what the standard is here, it's greatness. That's what we want from these guys. I think that's what these guys in the locker room are learning about."
They learned that lesson the hard way Saturday.
The next step is to run toward the finish line of the regular season instead of limping. The Gators are in position to still be one of the biggest surprises in Mullen's first season.
"To be honest with you, everybody asks, what's your goals coming into a season and all that,'' he said. "I have a goal that we get better every game, that we play hard every snap and that we're a much better team at the end of the season than we were before the season. That goal's still ahead of us. That's the only one I have for us."
Several Gators made a pit stop in the postgame interview room to rehash what happened in their 36-17 loss to Georgia on Saturday, a defeat that snapped Florida's five game winning streak and, barring some strange late-season developments, knocked UF from contention for the SEC East Division title.
The players who spoke afterward did so with a defiant tone, especially after a 19-point loss to one of your biggest rivals and a team ranked seventh in the country. Still, the ninth-ranked Gators envisioned a much different ending. They believed in it until the very end.
An ending that seemed very possible when quarterback Feleipe Franks threw a dart to Freddie Swain for a 36-yard touchdown and 14-13 lead on the Gators' opening drive of the second half. The Gators appeared poised to surprise once again in a season of surprises.
"We felt as if we were the better team,'' senior defensive end Cece Jefferson said.
Swain backed his teammate despite evidence to the contrary on the enormous video boards at TIAA Bank Field.
"I don't think the better team won,'' he said.
Junior linebacker David Reese, who finished with 11 tackles, said the game was there for the Gators to grab. Instead, it was the Bulldogs who left clutching a victory, their second consecutive in the series.
The Gators were left to ponder what happened as Georgia scored 23 of the game's final 26 points.
"They didn't really do anything too special," Reese said. "We just didn't make the plays when they needed to be made."
Clearly, the Gators were in no giving mood after the game. If they had been that way during it, the outcome might have been different. Florida committed three turnovers. Georgia held onto the ball with a Super Glue grip. The Bulldogs scored 10 points off UF's turnovers and in a game that hung in the balance early in the fourth quarter, they delivered the knockout punch with a pair of late touchdowns as the Gators sputtered trying to stay within striking distance.
In the latest biggest game of his first season as Florida's head coach, Dan Mullen was disappointed in the way the Gators failed to execute. They wore their Mr. Clean all-white uniforms, but the Gators did little cleanly on Saturday.
They fumbled three times, losing two. Franks threw an interception that he should have never thrown. They committed seven penalties. To keep Georgia's defense guessing, Mullen tossed a few snaps to freshman quarterback Emory Jones. There were no easy answers for the Gators.
"It's not good enough to win a big-time game like this,'' Franks said. "The most important thing right now is just everybody have a positive attitude."
And yet, when freshman kicker Evan McPherson drilled a 42-yard field goal with 11:12 left in the game, the Gators trailed 23-17 and was one big play from taking the lead. It never happened.
Less than two months ago it was difficult to imagine Saturday's game meaning so much. Both teams were ranked in the top 10 at the time of their annual clash for the first time in a decade. Both alive for the conference title and the winner in the hunt for the College Football Playoff. When the Gators lost their second game under Mullen – to Kentucky no less – you wondered where their season was headed.
And then they started to improve, game by game, the wins piling up until they stepped onto the field in Jacksonville with a chance to make a loud statement that, yes, the Gators are back among the best. That didn't happen. At least not the way Gator Nation wanted on Saturday.
"There is no moral victory in anything,'' Mullen said.
No, the Gators had no interest in charity as they prepared for the trip home, one that surely seemed longer because of the way Saturday night ended.
The Gators vowed to return to practice on Monday determined to not let another loss to Georgia derail the season. A year ago after their 42-7 loss to the Bulldogs, at the time their consecutive loss, the Gators continued to spiral downward on the way to a 4-7 record and following a coaching change.
Missouri, which lost on the final play to Kentucky on Saturday night, visits the Swamp next weekend on UF Homecoming.
"Last year we let Missouri run through us,'' Reese said. "It was kind of a downhill type of time. We let the rope slip. We just gave up in that season early. So, we just want to show that we're not the same program, and we're just building as a team."
That's what Mullen expects.
In his postgame address to the media Saturday, Mullen repeatedly touched on what losses like Saturday mean for a program like Florida. A program that he expects to be one of the best in the country year in and year out.
You learn from them and get better. There are no other options in the chase for greatness.
"I think everyone is going to be a little disappointed when we go watch this film and the opportunities we had for great things to happen and they didn't happen,'' Mullen said. "That's on all of us. That's on me. That's on everyone on the coaching staff. That's on everybody on the team. That's on the scout team.
"It's the same way the other way -- we're all in this together. As a group, that locker room is a tight unit. That's what great teams do. They all stick together and they work together. We're the Florida Gators. That's what the standard is here, it's greatness. That's what we want from these guys. I think that's what these guys in the locker room are learning about."
They learned that lesson the hard way Saturday.
The next step is to run toward the finish line of the regular season instead of limping. The Gators are in position to still be one of the biggest surprises in Mullen's first season.
"To be honest with you, everybody asks, what's your goals coming into a season and all that,'' he said. "I have a goal that we get better every game, that we play hard every snap and that we're a much better team at the end of the season than we were before the season. That goal's still ahead of us. That's the only one I have for us."
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