Gators Return to SEC Play, Face Familiar Foe Also in Transition Phase

Florida players dog-pile in the south end zone after Feleipe Franks' game-winning bomb to Tyrie Cleveland last September at the "Swamp."

Gators Return to SEC Play, Face Familiar Foe Also in Transition Phase

Monday, September 17, 2018 | Football, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After he took over as head coach at Florida last December, Dan Mullen didn't spend a bunch of time going back and reviewing how the Gators played during the 2017 season. And what he did watch, he neither penalized or offered a bunch of praise for how certain players performed. Different coaches, different systems. Fair enough.

But he did see the end of the Tennessee game.

"It was on highlights shows all over the place," Mullen said Monday.

Correct. And everybody saw it. The Gators and Volunteers were locked in a 20-20 tie when UF quarterback Feleipe Franks dropped back, shuffled to his right, then let fly a bomb down the middle of the field that Tyrie Cleveland sprinted under, dove for and caught in the UT end zone for a 63-yard touchdown strike and 26-20 victory as time expired.

Hail Feleipe!

Great win, right? What Mullen said struck him more about that game, as he previewed Saturday night's date between the Gators (2-1, 0-1) and Volunteers (2-1, 0-0) at Neyland Stadium, were the circumstances leading up to that dramatic play that gave UF its 12th win in the last 13 meetings between the Southeastern Conference East Division rivals. Florida scored a touchdown with just over five minutes remaining in the game to take a 20-10 lead. So, why did the Gators need to win on the last play?

"We were up two scores," Mullen said during his weekly news conference on Monday. "That was kind of my talk about it to our guys. We didn't get first downs and put the game away. Get that mindset of, 'We got to finish it off!' "

Consider this as a subset of a bigger conversation the UF coach has had with his players about intensity, attitude and aggression. These traits were topical last week as the Gators were in the process of rebounding from their first loss to Kentucky in 32 years. He liked what he saw in Saturday's 48-10 drubbing of Colorado State, and now wants to see the building process continue. As the Mullen way — and his culture — becomes further engrained, he wants to see his players learn how to flip a switch. In explaining this, he actually started with a Jekyll and Hyde reference, probably like he did with his team, but then updated the concept with a reference that no doubt resonated more with a room full of millennials.

The Incredible Hulk.

And not the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno circa '70s version, either.

More like, Mark Ruffalo/CGI.

Yes, the guys got it.

"[Going from] being nice on the outside and in the community and being soft spoken [to] being on the field wanting to get after it and being ready to play in big games," junior wide receiver Josh Hammond said. "Yeah, I understand."

Mullen flushed it out a little more.

"When we go out to the practice field, we cross that line, we need to flip a little switch and kind of become the Incredible Hulk where [we] can't control that violence and getting out there and going and hitting somebody and getting after people and how hard we go. I mean, like …," Mullen said, finishing his thought with a Hulk-like groan. "We need that mindset of how we attack on the field and how physical and tough we are and aggressive. That type of deal. Especially up front, especially the front seven. I mean, especially those guys."

In the game last year, the UF front seven was a part of a defense that let the Vols go 75 yards in two plays to close within three, then 31 yards in eight plays to kick the game-tying field goal all in the final five minutes. In between, the Gators' offense didn't help their cause, either. Franks threw an interception to give Tennessee the ball and a chance to tie the score, which it did with 50 seconds remaining.

The Hulk mentality needs to manifest itself on both sides of the ball.

And is even more necessary on the road.

The trip to Knoxville, Tenn., will mark UF's first road date of the season; the first of two straight games away from the "Swamp," as well as three of the next four.

Even the most uninformed Florida fan will have little trouble identifying the upcoming opponent, should they wander past the practice fields this week, given how many times (and how loudly) "Rocky Top" is blasting from the speakers. Come Friday, the tune will be playing a loop in every players' head.

"I'll be whistling 'Rocky Top' by the end of the week. You just hear it over and over, like every other or every third song, and it'll roll through the crowd noise that we play at practice. You get used to it … and it's a catchy tune," Mullen said. "I hope we hear it a lot more at practice than we do on game day."

Tennessee, like Florida, is in a rebuild phase after going 0-8 in the Southeastern Conference last season, firing coach Butch Jones and turning to Jeremy Pruitt, who came to UT with five national-championship rings (2009, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2017) collected at Alabama and Florida State. He was secondary coach at Bama for three of those titles, defensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide and Seminoles for two ('13 and '17), with a stint as Georgia's defensive coordinator in between.

After that historically bad season of a year ago, the Vols opened the Pruitt era with a 40-14 neutral-site loss to No. 17 West Virginia, which racked up 547 yards of total offense, including 429 yards and five touchdowns passing from Will Grier. In the two weeks since, UT crushed East Tennessee State 59-3 and Texas-El Paso 24-0. In the latter, the Vols rolled up 345 rushing yards against the Miners, with Ty Chandler accounting for 158 and a touchdown on only 12 carries.

Tennessee tailback Ty Chandler fends off a tackle attempt by Florida's Marco Wilson during the 2017 meeting in Gainesville.

Sophomore quarterback Jarrett Guarantano currently ranks 10th in the nation with a completion percentage of 72.2. He's hit 39 of his 54 attempts for 494 yards, two touchdowns and has yet to throw an interception. Of his wide receivers, Marquez Callaway has been the top target (12 catches, 149 yards), but Brandon Johnson has averaged 24.7 yards on six receptions.

Defensively, besides keeping opponents out of the end zone, UT has give up an average of just 164 yards — only 54.0 on the ground — in the two games since being sliced up by WVU's high-powered offense.

UF lost backup running back Malik Davis to a broken foot, but Mullen was optimistic that both junior inside linebacker David Reese, the team's leading tackler last season, and reserve defensive back C.J. McWilliams would return to action against the Vols. Safety Shawn Davis remains questionable.

We want to see how our guys handle a different adversity this week," Mullen said. "I mean every week is a fun, new challenge."

The Gators hope, obviously, this one doesn't come down to needing a sling and a prayer at the end.

"We're just trying to focus on our game plan that we're going to have for this coming week and just working hard with our guys and being ready to play," Franks said. "It's a whole other year, a whole other game. It will be fun and exciting to get out there, and for an away game, too."