Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — College football was unleashed across the country over the weekend (albeit in a scattershot and mostly mid-to low-major form) with some of the big guns in the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences getting set for their 2020 pandemic-delayed debuts this weekend.

Locally, the Florida Gators are staring at two more open weekends before opening their season Sept. 26 at Ole Miss. There was football on the UF campus, however, in the form of the team's second and final scrimmage Monday night at Spurrier/Florida Field. In a Zoom call with media Tuesday, UF coach Dan Mullen provided few details about what went on in "The Swamp," though the term "sloppy" did come up a few times. 

Not playing a lot of football this calendar year will lead to such things. 

"Some errors, some mistakes. I did see some good football, you know, where obviously we're improving," Mullen said. "Obviously, you'd like to be further along a little bit as a whole with some of the sloppy, little mistakes right now. But we're all pleased with our guys. I really like some of our guys' effort that we have out there on the field, how our guys are playing hard and trying to figure out how to play the game. Now we've just got to start putting it all together at this point. That's your last scrimmage. We're going to have a little bit lighter of a week to let guys recover this week and then one more stretch of padded practices until we get into game week." 

So what to do regarding the sloppiness? 

Well, there's only so much a team can do, given the Southeastern Conference limits of 25 practices before the first week of games. The UF staff will do what it can to clean things up, but Mullen reiterated that his top priority is keeping the team healthy and safe as the Gators try to navigate these once-in-several-lifetime circumstances. 

How the team emerged from the scrimmage on the health front — as in injuries — was something Mullen would not address in specifics, other than to say a couple guys "were banged up." 

Same with any standout performances. 

"I don't know if anybody really jumped out," he said. "Obviously, we limit reps of certain guys and play some other guys more. I think the biggest improvement, I thought it was better football played. So I do think we're headed in the right direction. When guys are flying around, executing and popping pads, it looked more like, you know, better football, and probably cleaner football, if you will that way. When I talk about the errors, the critical errors that you see out there, are the little things you can't do. But overall, the sense of the 22 guys on the field playing at a higher level was much higher than it was in Scrimmage 1 on a more consistent basis. But the mistakes, a lot of little mental things. It was much more consistent, but not consistent of where you want to be to go play an SEC game." 


SUNKEN NAVY  By definition, Brigham Young is not a Power Five football program, but try telling that to Navy after the Cougars, a marquee FBS independent, blew the Midshipman out of the water Monday night with a 55-3 bloodletting on the road at Annapolis.  

After the game, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, upon seeing his plays flattened in the total-offense category to the tune of 580 to 149, turned a finger on himself. Niumatalolo said he was "1,000 percent" to blame because he erred on the side of trying to keep his players safe in the run-up to what he called "the worst Navy football game ever played." 

Niumatalolo: "The last time we tackled anybody was the bowl game, nine months ago. I made a decision on the safety side of it, and we weren't prepared."

Asked if Niumatalolo words might resonate with some other college coaches, Mullen admitted the UF staff had a late night Monday and did not see the game. 

"Well, I saw the score. He's a great coach. I didn't see the game, so I don't know what happened," Mullen said. "You would guess what their plan was didn't work real well. I'm not saying. … you know what I mean? Everybody right now is dealing with different scenarios [and] trying to figure it out. Maybe BYU is that good of a team. I don't know. I just saw the score and it was in last night's game. I don't know a whole lot about it."


TRACKING TRASK  What would a post-scrimmage notebook be without a mention of quarterback Kyle Trask? The fifth-year senior who completed 67 percent of his passes for 2,941 yards, 25 touchdowns and was intercepted just seven times last season, is considered among the top returning players at his position in the SEC. 

On the scrimmage front, Trask was just "OK," according to his coach. 

"I don't think [Monday] was his best day, but I think he has improved a lot. You're always going to have little off days here and there. I thought he was a little crisper in Scrimmage 1, and we gave him a little bit more work [Monday] as we continue to build up and get ready to go," Mullen said. "But I have seen him —his decision-making, his leadership — and we're putting a lot more on him right now. … [We're] going to start to simplify things. Instead of going from this massive installation of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of play calls going against every defense known to mankind, you're going to kind of go to our specific game plan of how we want to attack this team. That'll make it even easier on him and allow him even more comfort with a little bit smaller packages going forward with the details of how we want to check it to these plays, what we want to do, where we want to go with the ball. But I think he has really improved the speed of how he decides things and, obviously, which is a big one, his knowledge of the game." 
 

YOUNG BUCKS UP FRONT 
 

The one area of his team that Mullen reserved some of his highest praise for during the call was on the youthful defensive front. 

The question put to him was about potential leaders stepping up in the position group, but Mullen took his answer in another direction, with good things to stay about the younger players in that room. 

"They're coming nicely," Mullen said of the unit under the tutelage of defensive line coach David Turner. "You just look at some of those guys and their ability level I'm really excited about. Obviously, there's a learning curve and some of them missed some time. We missed time in everything that we had in missing spring and then a couple of bumps and bruises here or there to missing a practice or two [and] when you're a young guy and your time's limited; those become bigger issues. But I'm really excited about the future on the defensive line and building a premiere D-line with those guys."

Mullen mentioned Jaelin Humphries, a redshirt freshman who missed nearly the entire 2019 season due to knee injury he brought with him from high school, along with true freshmen Gervon Dexter and Jalen Lee on the inside, and Antwuan Powell and Princely Umanmielen on the outside. 


ETC. 
 

Junior tight end Kyle Pitts, who led the team in receptions last year with 54 and is considered the No. 1 pro prospect on the Florida roster, was held out of the scrimmage Monday as a healthy scratch. "He's had a great training camp," Mullen said. "I didn't see a need for him to go play in the scrimmage when I've seen what I've seen of him and what he's been able to do so far every day on a consistent basis at practice." ... Speaking of Pitts, read senior writer Scott Carter's deep-dive into the connection Trask has developed with his All-America candidate tight end here. ... Asked (again) about the release of the 2020 roster, Mullen remained steadfast. It's coming, but not until the first game week, along with a depth chart. … Wide receiver Jordan Pouncey, a third-year junior who transferred from Texas to play with defensive back and true freshman brother Ethan Pouncey, has not heard from the NCAA regarding a request for his eligibility waiver. … Mullen got a question about who might be lining up as potential kick-returners. "Sure, let's see," he said. "There's about 15 guys in the rotation," adding that in the mix were "a lot" of running backs, receivers and some defensive backs. … He was equally clear as to who might start at the center position, which presumably is a battle between sophomore Ethan White, a converted guard, and fifth-year senior Brett Heggie, who has played all three interior spots on the offensive line during his career and figures to man one of them this season. "I love that you guys get so caught up in who the starters are," Mullen said. "I really don't because I'm one play away from having to play a back-up. I'm two plays away from having to play the third-string guy, and having to move guys all around."