The No. 4 Gators will look to finish a little stronger this week against No. 21 Texas A&M.
Mullen Knows Gators' Closing Mentality Needs Practice
Monday, October 5, 2020 | Football
Share:
By: Zach Dirlam
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Always be closing.
Those were not the exact words Dan Mullen used in this morning's team meeting with the undefeated and fourth-ranked Florida Gators, but it was essentially the message he delivered. Because while the Gators are in the top five nationally in points per game (44.5), yards per play (7.8), and passing touchdowns (10), Mullen thought some other statistics were worthier of discussion.
Nine plays, 13 yards, a three-and-out, and a turnover.
Those were the numbers from Florida's two offensive series after senior all-purpose athlete Kadarius Toney evaded five South Carolina defenders and turned a simple third down conversion into a 57-yard touchdown reception last Saturday. Toney's latest viral highlight put the Gators up, 38-14, with less than five minutes left in the third quarter.
"If you look at the game from that point forward, offensively it's not very good at all," Mullen said via his Monday afternoon Zoom call with the media.
Mullen also mentioned 40 and 160. Those were South Carolina's total plays and yards on its final three drives.
Despite allowing a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive on the game's opening possession, the Gators defense was much improved. Excluding the first drive, Florida allowed just 88 yards and forced three three-and-outs. Well, those were the numbers prior to Toney's dazzling house call. Then came 40 and 160 (nearly half of the 329 total yards South Carolina finished the game with), as well as 10 points and a handful of fourth down conversions.
"We've got to understand, when you get the big leads, getting off the field is not just about third down, it is about third down and fourth down," Mullen said. "Middle of the third quarter… they were a four-down team. You have to make two plays to get off the field instead of one. You're a stop, or a score away really from the game being completely out of reach and a lot of backups even playing. And that was disappointing that we didn't do that.
"We just kind of cruised to the finish line. We've got to get that changed."
Given the offensive firepower Florida's shown in its first two games, there will inevitably be more opportunities to deliver an early knockout punch.
In fact, the play of redshirt senior quarterback Kyle Traskand junior tight end Kyle Pitts has been impressive enough to generate some early awards buzz.
Trask's 10 touchdown passes are tied for second nationally, while his 196.42 passer rating ranks sixth. Oh, and his 684 passing yards through two games? The most by a Gators quarterback since 2001, when Rex Grossman combined for 706 against two non-conference opponents and later torched the Southeastern Conference en route to a runner-up finish in the Heisman Trophy voting. Rex Grossman racked up nearly 4,000 yards and threw for 34 touchdowns, but finished behind Nebraska's Eric Crouch in the 2001 Heisman Trophy race.
On the receiving end of those throws, Pitts is tied for the FBS lead with six touchdown receptions. Not just among tight ends. Among all FBS players. There are two other players with more than four receiving touchdowns this year, and both played at least three games. For added perspective, Pitts had five touchdown receptions when he burst onto the scene last season. It took him six quarters to eclipse his 13-game total from 2019.
The last pass-catcher to win the Heisman was Desmond Howard in 1991.
There is no shortage of other weapons for Trask to work with either. SeniorTrevon Grimes already has a touchdown catch. Redshirt freshman Trent Whittemore, a Gainesville native, stole some of Pitts' thunder with a leaping grab in traffic, and his first career touchdown catch. Transfer Justin Shorter and redshirt sophomore Jacob Copeland have four catches apiece. True freshmanXzavier Henderson continues to draw praise as well.
So while Mullen insisted Monday the Gators are running the ball effectively, and only move away from a 50-50 split between running and passing plays once they assess what's working on game day, it certainly appears as though Florida will once again be among the nation's top passing teams.
Hence, the surprise when the Gamecocks extinguished Florida's flamethrower of an offense late last Saturday.
"When you got the ball rolling the whole first half and almost three quarters, to see the production just flatline is really frustrating," Trask said Monday, in addition to emphasizing his needing to avoid turnovers. "But we just gotta do a better job of taking advantage of when we can close the game out like that. We just gotta execute the little things and take advantage of situations like that. If we would have went down and scored… it would have been a lot less pressure on (the defense)."
Trask will look to take some pressure off the Gators' defense this Saturday at Texas A&M's Kyle Field, which his parents – both Aggies – named him after. The Manvel, Texas native grew up watching Texas A&M, where he estimates half of his family attended college. Several members of Trask's family will be making the trip to Bryan-College Station to see him face the team he grew up watching.
Oddly enough, were it not for the COVID-19 pandemic and the SEC's decision to implement a 10-game conference schedule, Trask would never have played at Kyle Field.
Texas A&M's defense has the potential to make it a tough afternoon for Trask in the stadium which shares his name, though. Led senior Micheal Clemons, who ranks second in the SEC with 2.5 sacks, Mullen says the Aggies have "hands down the best defensive front we've seen."
The Aggies' offense, meanwhile, will look to apply pressure on Florida's defense – which ranks 65th among all FBS teams with 471 total yards allowed per game – with dual-threat quarterback Kellen Mond, a Preseason All-SEC Second Team selection who ranks 20th nationally in passing yards per game (253.5).
Building a substantial lead against No. 21-ranked Texas A&M will be a challenge in itself, but the Gators' focus this week will be finishing every play.
"It's getting back into that whole game mindset. It comes from practice," Mullen said. "It's got to be addressed with every aspect and every member of the team, start to finish, the effort we give and the looks we give, whether I'm on the scout team, whether I'm a backup or I'm a starter… everything we do, maximum effort to finish."
Mullen also mentioned he'd prefer a faster start from the Gators' defense this week, noting the first two games featured slow starts, a full-on lockdown in the middle phase, and a sluggish closing segment. And although Mullen nitpicked how the Gators picked up their second win of the season, he knows they took care of what mattered most.
"In the end, our goal is to win football games," Mullen said, "however we need to do it."
He'd just rather not have to remind the Gators they should always be closing.
