Bounce-Back from UK Starts With Practice Mindset

Tyrie Cleveland (left), Josh Hammond and the rest of the Gators learned a painful lesson about preparation in Saturday night's home loss to Kentucky, a lesson Coach Dan Mullen used as a teachable moment and will continue to talk about this week. (Photo: Jay Metz/UAA Communications)

Bounce-Back from UK Starts With Practice Mindset

Monday, September 10, 2018 | Football, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As the reality of Saturday night's loss settled in, Florida coach Dan Mullen stood before his team — then moments later, before the media — and spoke candidly about his players' level of physicality. It had not been good enough in practice and caught up with the Gators in their first loss to Kentucky in 32 years.

The UF coach, who in inheriting a 4-7 team and a roster groomed in one of the nation's least-productive offenses, wondered aloud just how the Gators would respond; not to their next game, but the next practice.

Mullen repeated as much Monday, still only two days removed from the residual sting of that humbling 27-16 defeat at Spurrier/Florida Field.

"I want to see, now that we got punched in the face with a little bit of adversity, how we handle that aspect," Mullen said. "Are we still taking the steps forward necessary to be successful?"

UF (1-1) was back on the practice field Monday night to begin preparation for Saturday's home date with Colorado State (1-2), a non-league opponent that should have the Gators' attention after coming from 18 points down to upset Southeastern Conference brother Arkansas 34-27 over the weekend. And yet, as much as the Gators need to focus on the Rams, the coming days will be more about themselves. Specifically, learning how to better prepare.

If Week 3 of the regular season sounds a tad tardy to revisit and re-evaluate such things, well, welcome to the world of a college football rebuild. There's a reason Mullen is here and the previous coaching staff is not, but that doesn't mean old habits are easily broken.

"Change takes time. Change is uncomfortable for people," Mullen said. "I think our attitude has been fantastic. I thought the attitude of the guys after the game was actually impressive. I think they didn't know what to think. In talking to them and explaining to them after the game, we'll see. I put it pretty clearly for them; what's necessary for us to progress as a program; the reality check that they have to go through. I thought after the game they kind of understood that. I think they're trying to still figure a lot of things out. We have a lot of young players, young players have to figure a lot of things out. A lot of them have never been in these situations."

Good example: Exactly, none of them (or any of the previous 30 Florida teams) had ever lost to Kentucky.

Mullen, though, used the Wildcats and Coach Mark Stoops' six seasons guiding that program as an example of perseverance and growth with a culture. In fact, Mullen in his previous nine seasons at Mississippi State — like Kentucky, a difficult place to win consistently win football games — saw some of the same things Stoops no doubt has seen along the ways to celebrating an historic win at the "Swamp."

"How he's built the program, it's a great example to me, if you have a coach who has a vision and you have an administration who believes in that vision and is going to have patience to let him build stability within the program," Mullen said. "The issue today with a lot of football is that we live an instant-gratification society, right? It's not about tomorrow's newspaper, it's about how fast can I get the message out. Everything is instant. I got to have it. How fast can I check my phone? What's new? Everything is the immediate. When you build a program those aren't always immediate results."

Instead, there are growing pains. Another example: How 'bout 20 missed tackles. That's the number Mullen threw out Monday. Those whiffs led to 168 yards after contact in a game that saw UK roll up 454 total yards, including 303 on the ground, and convert eight of its first nine third-down situations to open a double-digit second-half lead. If it wasn't a wake-up call for the defense, nothing ever will be.

Gang tackling like this by the Florida was the exception, rather than the norm against Kentucky. The Gators missed 20 tackles that led to 168 yards after contact. (Photo: Matt Stamey/UAA Communications)

Along the way, UF lost one of its top players, sophomore cornerback Marco Wilson, to a season-ending knee injury. The Gators were already dealing with depth issues in the secondary, so throw another splash of gas on the adversity fire.

Florida hopes to have back a pair of front-line defenders in linebacker David Reese, who missed the first two games with an ankle injury, and suspended defensive lineman Cece Jefferson, as well as backup cornerback C.J. McWilliams. That should help.

Mullen confirmed another player, seldom-used backup running back Adarius Lemons, was no longer with the team. Lemons posted via social media mere moments after the loss that he was transferring. Obviously, the timing of a such an act was poor and the issue was addressed head on.

Now, it's time for the hundred or Gators who are still around to address some things in the same manner.

"A lot of guys, we held our heads down. Tears were shed. But like I said, it's early in the season," junior defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson said. "We don't want to drop nothing. That was hard for us to swallow, but you can't go out to practice thinking about the last game because it's going to affect this [next] game. So guys are going to get out there this week and focus up. You have to put your helmet on, shoulder pads on and get ready to practice. Pretty simple."

Added junior wide receiver Josh Hammond: "I think the biggest thing is just staying focused. Trying to stay on course and just trust the process and trust everything that he has going on. Coach Mullen's a great coach and the things he's done to the program, we've seen it change since he's come to the program, seen the gains in the weight room, seen the gains throughout our team and I think everybody's still bought in. Everybody wants to listen and wants to grow and wants to move forward."

Now, here comes Colorado State, which trailed Arkansas 27-9 with less than three minutes left in the third quarter and rallied for 23 unanswered points and the win. Quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels, a transfer from Washington, went 32 of 50 for 389 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Wideout Preston Williams, a transfer from Tennessee, caught 12 passes for 154 yards and two scores.

The Rams have been atrocious on defense, having given up 617 yards (537 through the air) in a season-opening loss to Hawaii, another 596 yards (258 on the ground) in a blowout loss to Colorado, and then 437 yards (299 on the ground) in the victory over the Razorbacks.

CSU's strength, though, is its offense. The Rams likely will watch tape of UF this week and come to town believing it can move the ball. And score.

The Gators' corresponding beliefs will be what Mullen watches for in the days to come.

"Is their energy level woe is me? Or is their energy level, I'm ready to go attack?' That's an important part," Mullen said. "The next step, when it gets to the physicality part, is when we get to scout teams. I mean, when you have the program rolling, to me, and we split up on scout teams, I have to be like, 'Whoa! Hey, these are our own guys. Be careful. We can't be hitting guys this hard. Just wrap 'em up and keep 'em up. Let's not be just laying guys out.' And the offensive line with a nastiness. I mean, just trying to maul people. When I have to say 'Whoa' instead of 'Sic 'em,' we're going to be in much better shape."

The sooner the Gators get there, the better.