Dan Mullen seeks his 15th win in 18 games as Florida's head coach on Saturday when Towson visits "The Swamp." (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Mullen's Mission is to Have Gators Focused on Right Tigers
Tuesday, September 24, 2019 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – On Saturday at "The Swamp," a pair of top-10 teams will meet underneath the late afternoon sun. Don't tell Towson head coach Rob Ambrose that it's not the top-10 matchup people are talking about along University Avenue.
Ambrose is fired up and plans to have his team ready.
"Everybody wants to go play the best of the best in one of the greatest venues that exists in college football,'' Ambrose said Monday on the Colonial Athletic Association's media conference call. "That's a great thing for anybody involved. It's going to be fun. We're going to go down there and have a blast. We don't line up to lose."
In his 11th season, Ambrose has built the Tigers into one of the top FCS programs in the country. Towson, a suburban university located eight miles north of downtown Baltimore, is ranked 10th in the last FCS poll following a 52-45 overtime loss to Villanova last week. For Towson (3-1), a game against the ninth-ranked Gators (4-0) not only represents a big payday for the athletic department, but a memory to cherish for players who toil far from the spotlight of a program like Florida.
HBO is embedded with the Gators this week for an upcoming episode of "24/7 College Football." The network is not planning to drop in on Johnny Unitas Stadium in Maryland where the Tigers call home anytime soon.
The Gators are heavy favorites Saturday and if they take care of business as expected, the following week's homecoming game against No. 7-ranked Auburn (4-0) should have Ben Hill Griffin Stadium rocking like old times. Auburn must beat Mississippi State at home on Saturday to remain undefeated.
Gators head coach Dan Mullen coached in a pair of top-10 clashes in his nine seasons as head coach at Mississippi State, both coming during the 2014 season when the Bulldogs reached No. 1 with a 9-0 start. Top-ranked Mississippi State lost at No. 3 Alabama and then, ranked seventh, lost to No. 9 Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl.
Less than halfway into his second season at Florida, Mullen has already led the Gators into two top-10 matchups and a possible third looms. A year ago, then-No. 9 Florida lost to No. 7 Georgia in Jacksonville. A few weeks later in Atlanta, the 10th-ranked Gators knocked off No. 8 Michigan in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl to cap Mullen's first season with 10 wins.
Despite another Tigers team in town this week, Mullen addressed the Tigers of Auburn on Monday soon after it was announced the game was picked up by CBS to be shown nationally.
"We talked to the team this week," Mullen said. "Obviously, there will be a lot more hype on next week's game. National hype. It'll be the CBS game of the week. But for us to even have an opportunity to win that game we have got to improve this week."
In last week's 34-3 win over Tennessee, Mullen saw a team headed in the right direction.
Fourth-year junior quarterback Kyle Trask, making his first career start, completed 20 of 28 passes for 293 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Florida rolled up 441 yards of total offense, forced four turnovers and limited the Vols to 88 yards in the first half.
They did it with Trask taking over for injured starter Feleipe Franks, who underwent successful ankle surgery on Monday and is out for the season, and without three key players: receiver Kadarius Toney (shoulder), defensive end Jabari Zuniga (ankle) and cornerback CJ Henderson (ankle).
The Gators practiced Sunday and took Monday off, a tweak of the schedule Mullen attributed to "give guys a little bit of recovery time and try to get our health back."
Toney will not play Saturday and Mullen said Zuniga and Henderson will be game-time decisions. Several defensive players stepped up in their absence against the Vols, including Amari Burney, who returned to the field and had an interception and fumble recovery after missing two games because of an injury.
Junior cornerback Marco Wilson is confident the team's young players are ready for what's ahead – after Auburn, the Gators travel to LSU and South Carolina before facing Georgia in Jacksonville.
"We're missing some pieces right now but the young guys who are getting in are doing a great job of maturing and just understanding what they need to do,'' Wilson said. "So far, I think we're playing great without all the guys we're missing, but definitely, when they come back, it will be even better."
Towson is also dealing with an injury to a prominent player. In a victory over Maine two weeks ago, fifth-year senior running back Shane Simpson was lost for the season due to a knee injury. Simpson is the reigning CAA Special Teams Player of the Year who averaged 171.4 all-purpose yards per game last season. He led the Tigers in rushing (162 yards) in the season's first three games.
Without Simpson, more of the offensive burden falls to quarterback Tom Flacco, the younger brother of longtime NFL quarterback Joe Flacco. A fifth-year senior, Flacco started his career at Western Michigan (2015-16), spent a year at Rutgers (2017), and has found a home at Towson the past two seasons. He threw for 3,251 yards and 28 touchdowns a season ago, and through four games this season, Flacco has passed for 1,092 yards, six touchdowns and an interception.
"He plays with his brain, his heart and his body,'' Ambrose said. "He plays with a little recklessness, and because of it he puts himself in some crazy situations. I see him getting better every week."
Ambrose called the Gators "one of the best college football teams I have ever seen on film," so he is prepared for a stiffer challenge than what the Tigers face in the CAA.
The challenge for Mullen and his staff is totally different. The Gators have Towson's attention. Does Towson have the Gators'? Or is Auburn already on their mind?
Mullen is determined to make sure they don't get their Tigers mixed up.
"[Our focus] is on our exact attention to detail and our development and our improvement from one day to the next,'' he said. "That's what we can control and that's what we need to worry about. If we're worried about other things, we're worried about the wrong things, we're not going to be able to accomplish the goals we have as a team."
Ambrose is fired up and plans to have his team ready.
"Everybody wants to go play the best of the best in one of the greatest venues that exists in college football,'' Ambrose said Monday on the Colonial Athletic Association's media conference call. "That's a great thing for anybody involved. It's going to be fun. We're going to go down there and have a blast. We don't line up to lose."
In his 11th season, Ambrose has built the Tigers into one of the top FCS programs in the country. Towson, a suburban university located eight miles north of downtown Baltimore, is ranked 10th in the last FCS poll following a 52-45 overtime loss to Villanova last week. For Towson (3-1), a game against the ninth-ranked Gators (4-0) not only represents a big payday for the athletic department, but a memory to cherish for players who toil far from the spotlight of a program like Florida.
HBO is embedded with the Gators this week for an upcoming episode of "24/7 College Football." The network is not planning to drop in on Johnny Unitas Stadium in Maryland where the Tigers call home anytime soon.
The Gators are heavy favorites Saturday and if they take care of business as expected, the following week's homecoming game against No. 7-ranked Auburn (4-0) should have Ben Hill Griffin Stadium rocking like old times. Auburn must beat Mississippi State at home on Saturday to remain undefeated.
Gators head coach Dan Mullen coached in a pair of top-10 clashes in his nine seasons as head coach at Mississippi State, both coming during the 2014 season when the Bulldogs reached No. 1 with a 9-0 start. Top-ranked Mississippi State lost at No. 3 Alabama and then, ranked seventh, lost to No. 9 Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl.
Less than halfway into his second season at Florida, Mullen has already led the Gators into two top-10 matchups and a possible third looms. A year ago, then-No. 9 Florida lost to No. 7 Georgia in Jacksonville. A few weeks later in Atlanta, the 10th-ranked Gators knocked off No. 8 Michigan in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl to cap Mullen's first season with 10 wins.
Despite another Tigers team in town this week, Mullen addressed the Tigers of Auburn on Monday soon after it was announced the game was picked up by CBS to be shown nationally.
"We talked to the team this week," Mullen said. "Obviously, there will be a lot more hype on next week's game. National hype. It'll be the CBS game of the week. But for us to even have an opportunity to win that game we have got to improve this week."
In last week's 34-3 win over Tennessee, Mullen saw a team headed in the right direction.
Fourth-year junior quarterback Kyle Trask, making his first career start, completed 20 of 28 passes for 293 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Florida rolled up 441 yards of total offense, forced four turnovers and limited the Vols to 88 yards in the first half.
They did it with Trask taking over for injured starter Feleipe Franks, who underwent successful ankle surgery on Monday and is out for the season, and without three key players: receiver Kadarius Toney (shoulder), defensive end Jabari Zuniga (ankle) and cornerback CJ Henderson (ankle).
The Gators practiced Sunday and took Monday off, a tweak of the schedule Mullen attributed to "give guys a little bit of recovery time and try to get our health back."
Toney will not play Saturday and Mullen said Zuniga and Henderson will be game-time decisions. Several defensive players stepped up in their absence against the Vols, including Amari Burney, who returned to the field and had an interception and fumble recovery after missing two games because of an injury.
Junior cornerback Marco Wilson is confident the team's young players are ready for what's ahead – after Auburn, the Gators travel to LSU and South Carolina before facing Georgia in Jacksonville.
"We're missing some pieces right now but the young guys who are getting in are doing a great job of maturing and just understanding what they need to do,'' Wilson said. "So far, I think we're playing great without all the guys we're missing, but definitely, when they come back, it will be even better."
Towson is also dealing with an injury to a prominent player. In a victory over Maine two weeks ago, fifth-year senior running back Shane Simpson was lost for the season due to a knee injury. Simpson is the reigning CAA Special Teams Player of the Year who averaged 171.4 all-purpose yards per game last season. He led the Tigers in rushing (162 yards) in the season's first three games.
Without Simpson, more of the offensive burden falls to quarterback Tom Flacco, the younger brother of longtime NFL quarterback Joe Flacco. A fifth-year senior, Flacco started his career at Western Michigan (2015-16), spent a year at Rutgers (2017), and has found a home at Towson the past two seasons. He threw for 3,251 yards and 28 touchdowns a season ago, and through four games this season, Flacco has passed for 1,092 yards, six touchdowns and an interception.
"He plays with his brain, his heart and his body,'' Ambrose said. "He plays with a little recklessness, and because of it he puts himself in some crazy situations. I see him getting better every week."
Ambrose called the Gators "one of the best college football teams I have ever seen on film," so he is prepared for a stiffer challenge than what the Tigers face in the CAA.
The challenge for Mullen and his staff is totally different. The Gators have Towson's attention. Does Towson have the Gators'? Or is Auburn already on their mind?
Mullen is determined to make sure they don't get their Tigers mixed up.
"[Our focus] is on our exact attention to detail and our development and our improvement from one day to the next,'' he said. "That's what we can control and that's what we need to worry about. If we're worried about other things, we're worried about the wrong things, we're not going to be able to accomplish the goals we have as a team."
Players Mentioned
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