Gators Notebook: Mullen Continues to Mull Over Quarterbacks, More Tidbits

Gators head coach Dan Mullen talks to the team following a recent practice. (Photo: Allison Curry/UAA Communications)

Gators Notebook: Mullen Continues to Mull Over Quarterbacks, More Tidbits

Monday, August 20, 2018 | Football

By: Ethan Hughes, FloridaGators.com correspondent

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – As expected, the quarterbacks dominated the conversation in Coach Dan Mullen's nearly half hour with the media on Monday afternoon.

Five days earlier, Mullen said he wanted to know who his starting quarterback would be following his team's second scrimmage of the fall. That scrimmage was held on Sunday night in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Fans and media anticipated a potential starting quarterback announcement on Monday. Instead, they got more of the same, as Mullen said he has yet to make a decision on his first UF signal-caller.

Mullen said he would meet with quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson later in the week and decide on the starter. He said he might not reveal his decision until the Gators take the field to face Charleston Southern on Sept. 1 (7:30, SEC Network). However, he said he will not use the first game as an audition. Whoever starts the game will be his guy for the season, barring injury or poor performance.

Mullen said all three quarterbacks – redshirt sophomores Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask and freshman Emory Jones – graded out as a "champion" in the scrimmage, something none of them accomplished in the first scrimmage.

"I just think managing the game, a little better decision-making," he said. "I think the first scrimmage, we were trying to get to show and look at a lot of different things. I think we simplified it for them and tried to treat it a little more like a game. That helped them."

He said the next step in their development is for them to understand the big picture of the offense – how it can be used to attack different defenses and why. He wants them to move past merely memorizing what to do on each play.

"They're learning," he said. "It's a big curve because a lot of time it takes a quarterback a year or two to learn the offense. These guys have nine months [to] not just learn it but how to apply it. I'm talking a year or two to learn it and then another year how to apply it before you become really successful, and that's all got to be crunched into a really short window for us."

Keeping It Simple

Throughout training camp, UF players have repeatedly said that Mullen's scheme and playbook is much easier for them to learn and understand than what they were doing under the previous staff. Mullen said his key is making the offense multiple but not complicated.

"There will be a lot of things, I guess, within our playbook, as we get diverse, it's not diverse for all 11 people," Mullen said. "You take 10 plays that look like 10 completely different plays, seven of the 10 will be the same for the O-Line and three will be different, seven of the 10 will be the same for the quarterback and three will be different. For the tight end, the same way. So, once you get the concepts and you understand the concepts, the offense is really easy to use. As we get multiple throughout the season, it's very easy to make adjustments within the game and within what we're doing for the players from week to week."

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The idea is to make the offense complicated and challenging for defenses to defend but easy for his players to execute.

He said he and his staff will remove things from the playbook or tweak them even if it means not being able to call some of their favorite plays or blitzes. It's all about maximizing the players' performances on game days.

"We're the ones that need to adapt as coaches to make sure we're putting them in a position to be successful and not look and say, 'I want to do this, and they can't do it, so oh well,'" Mullen said. "That's poor coaching. Our job is to put them in a position to be successful and let them go play hard on Saturdays."

Running Backs Shine

Entering camp, running back figured to be one of the Gators' strongest positions. Junior Lamical Perine is back after leading Florida in rushing yards in 2017. Redshirt junior Jordan Scarlett was 2016's leading rusher and has returned from a season-long suspension looking as fast and strong as ever. Sophomore Malik Davis was poised to lead the team in rushing a year ago until suffering a season-ending knee injury in October. Also returning is sophomore Adarius Lemons.

Added to the mix are freshman Dameon Pierce and Iverson Clement, who has also taken reps at defensive back in camp. Pierce passed Herschel Walker on the Georgia high school career rushing list. He is stocky and muscular at 5-foot-10 and 216 pounds, and teammates have raved all camp about his feats in the weight room.

46838 — Lamical Perine led the Gators in rushing last season. (Photo: Matt Stamey/UAA Communications)

Mullen said the backs lived up to the hype in the scrimmage.

"I thought Jordan Scarlett and Perine both ran the ball really well," he said. "I liked that. I think getting into a little bit more game ready form. Malik is still on a sore ankle, so we held him out. He should be cleared to practice today, but we didn't let him go in the scrimmage. But I thought those guys kind of stood out."

Mullen said he wants to be balanced offensively, and the running game will be a huge part of that. He also hinted that the Gators might rely heavily on the run early in games to help out the quarterback.

"If you start on the run side of the 50-50, and you can establish the run, it makes the other 50 percent easier," he said. "If you got to start 50-50 pass, it can open up some easy runs, but you got a lot more execution you got to do on the pass side of things."

Big Week Ahead

Mullen said this week will be a big one for his team as they transition from camp to game week preparation.

The Gators will practice in just helmets Monday before three "big days" on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

"They've been hitting each other for a while and going against each other for a while," Mullen said. "They want to see that. 'Let's see somebody else. I want to go against somebody else. I want to get in the stadium and pack The Swamp and go compete to win the game out there.' So, the next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are going to be big days for us mentally to keep that focus in our preparation."

On Friday, the team will do a mock game in the stadium. During the mock game, the team will go through game day procedures, from how to stretch before games, running out of the tunnel, where to stand on the sidelines, how to run on and off the field and other potential situations.

Russell Remaining Engaged

Defensive back Randy Russell was one of the gems of the Gators' 2018 signing class. However, when he arrived on campus in January, the team's medical staff discovered a heart abnormality that will prevent him from playing.

Russell has stayed in school, is shadowing doctors at UF Health and has remained involved with the football program. He has attended practices and team events, such as Sunday's Gators Fan Day, and even has a picture of himself wearing the Gators' new Jumpman uniform on his Twitter page.

"When Randy came here, made the decision to come to the University of Florida, I sat down with him and his mom, and I made a promise that I'm here to develop him to become not just a champion in football but a champion in life," Mullen said. "My responsibility is to help develop him to have a foundation to be successful for the rest of his life. I said, 'I can't promise you're going to be the first overall pick in the draft or win the Heisman Trophy, but I can promise you we're going to develop you to be the best man you can be.

"What he's able to do on the field is different, but our commitment in his development hasn't changed."

Mullen said he is impressed with the way Russell has conducted himself through the devastation of not being able to live out his orange and blue dreams on the field.

"He's a winner," he said. "He's carried himself that way through recruiting and that's what you liked about him in recruiting. Football-wise, it's a big loss. Those are the type of guys that are the leaders of your program, so it's a big loss not having him on the field for the team that way. But I think it shows his character and those true colors come out when you're faced with an unbelievable adversity as a young person.

"It shows that we were probably right on with our evaluation of who he was with how he's handled it and how he continues to carry himself."