Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dan Mullen was a few minutes late to his 12:40 p.m. post-practice Zoom meeting with media Thursday. That Mullen was a tad tardy was neither unusual nor a big deal. Issues often pop up that need to be addressed after practice. Sometimes the post-practice talks between coaches and players run long.

In rare cases, they run emotionally high. 

In the wake of the latest quake of social justice unrest — the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and protest and riots that ensued — Mullen and the Gators had a conversation, the contents of which he kept private. 

"I don't want to speak for all our student-athletes, but I can speak for me," Mullen said. 

With that, Mullen spoke about the positive way players can use their "platform," like the Milwaukee Bucks and their NBA brothers did Wednesday in choosing not to take the court for a trio of playoff games in the so-called "Bubble" in Orlando.  He encouraged his players to speak out. 

"People have to try to get a little uncomfortable, and people have to try to go learn about other people. Go expand your horizons. Don't just look at something and judge other people or don't look at someone who is different than you and judge them. Go learn about [them],"  Mullen said. "I've become very educated over the last couple of months. You know what? I would probably look at things and then go form an opinion. Now I look back and I've changed my opinions on a lot of things. What it's taught me is to be very cautious. When something happens you're going to form an automatic opinion, but the smart thing to do is educate yourself and make sure your opinion is well-thought-of and why you would do what you would do or why you believe in what you believe and challenge yourself to think about those things. In every aspect of life." 

None of the first five questions tossed Mullen's way — about the first 10-plus minutes of his Zoom — had anything to do with football, but that hasn't exactly been unusual (see COVID-19) since the team hit the practice field for the first time Aug. 17. Or long before that.

"I've always felt the football field is a very safe place for guys," Mullen said. "You are kind of away from the rest of the world, so I do think a lot of the issues maybe come outside of that when we're not doing our football time. That's something I've noticed the last couple of weeks; something I've noticed since I've been coaching."


A GOOD SITUATION  Given the unorthodox nature of the offseason — and no spring football — a case can be made the Gators might have one of the most enviable quarterback situations in the Southeastern Conference. 

Maybe in the country. 

Fifth-year senior and incumbent starter Kyle Trask completed 67 percent of his passes for 2,941 yards, 25 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. He was spelled situationally by Emory Jones, who as a redshirt freshman hit 66 percent for 267 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and was the team's No. 3 rusher with 256 yards (averaging 6.1 per carry) and four scores. 

UF has experience under center to burn. 

"We always try to go with the pace of our quarterbacks where we're able to go pretty fast with our installation and everything that we do," Mullen said. "I think it certainly gives you a lot of comfort and certainly gives you the opportunity that you can get reps in, you get a lot of quality reps in because. … so the other positions, they have a guy that is always getting us into the right check, is trying to check the right protections, making good reads in the pass game. It helps the teaching and learning of everybody else on the field. Obviously, it's much easier getting ready for games because you don't have to think about the plan, 'OK, what if?' If you have the guys with experience you're not spending as much time on the what-if because we have guys who have played." 


TIME TO GET HIT … AT LAST  The Gators' first scrimmage of fall practice is set for Friday night. 

It actually will be the first "live" football of 2020, considering the Orange Bowl victory over Virginia was back on Dec. 30 and there was no spring football. 

Mullen put things in further perspective. 

"This time last year, we were 1-0," he said. 

True that. UF defeated Miami on Aug. 24, 2019 in Orlando. Under normal circumstances, the Gators would have scrimmaged twice during spring practice, then played the Orange & Blue Game. In non-pandemic times, they would already have scrimmaged twice this preseason.

"We haven't got hit and tackled and played live football," Mullen said. "That's one of the things I want to see; where we're at that way." 

Asked what position groups might pique his interest, Mullen answered he would be "watching everybody." He's anticipating a night of about 130 plays (around the equivalent of two games). 

What is he looking to get out of it all? 

"I'd love to come out healthy, obviously," he said. "That's the No. 1 thing." 


OXFORD BLUES 

In a normal world (which this isn't), the Gators would be starting their regular-season game routine next week. The scheduled 2020 opener against Eastern Washington, set for Sept. 5, is long gone. COVID willing, UF will open its all-Southeastern Conference slate Sept. 26 at Ole Miss, which means facing an opponent led by a new coach (Lane Kiffin) and thus with very little intel on Kiffin and the Rebels other than what he's done at past stops and what his new players did in a former system. 

"It's a pain in the rear end because you can't watch Ole Miss film because he wasn't there last year," Mullen said. "You're watching Ole Miss film to watch players and you're watching where he was, where the offensive coordinator was, where the D-coordinator was throughout the years and you're trying to mix and match it all together. If you guys can post their depth charts and what they're doing, it will be a heck of a deal for us. I am going to put you guys in charge of that."



ETC. 
 
 

Mullen said the quiet stuff out loud when asked about the potential of this team. "I think we have the potential to go compete for a championship and be a championship team," he said. "Obviously, there are a lot of things that go into that, but I think we have that potential, which is really good and it's really exciting. Like I said being on those [past championship] teams, a lot of things have to happen for it to play out that way, for it to end up being a championship team."  … Third-year sophomore Dante Lang, who played in all 13 games in 2019 as a reserve tight end and did not record a reception, is now playing defensive end. Lang, out of Boca Raton, goes 6-foot-5 and 252 pounds. …  With limited fans allowed in stadiums this fall, the SEC has yet to announce whether they'll allow piped-in crowd noise, like the NBA, NHL and MLB have done in their empty venues. Mullen would like a decision on that front sooner rather than later, so he can start applying it to his practices and scrimmages. The NFL, for what it's worth, has said it will allow 80 decimals, with some teams allowing limited fans and other clubs allowing none. "It's a really easy decision we can make to prepare for such things," Mullen said. "Either the stadium is going to be full; or if it's not full you're allowed to pump in a certain amount of crowd noise; or this is going to be how it's set up. There's going to be one of these multiple scenarios, and here's how we're going to play out any scenario that we can prepare for. We're not going to know by [Friday], but it would be a heck of a deal to know what's going to happen before it happens."