Apparently we practiced some ST's on Tuesday. Shannon said our ST's was terrible. Glad someone on that coaching staff took notice!!
Shellshock gone for Gators as they bounce around at practice
Florida players were loose and having fun at Tuesday's practice, just two days after Jim McElwain suddenly departed as coach.
https://florida.247sports.com/Bolt/...shock-gone-for-Gators-as-they-bounc-109768811
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Two days into
Randy Shannon's tenure as interim coach some changes are already noticeable around the Florida program.
Stroll out to practice on Tuesday afternoon and you'd hear Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" over a portable tower speaker. Players belting out some of the chorus as they stretch, coaches and players joking around. Then Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" comes on and a few players start flashing some moves.
You'd never know the team's coach had just been fired two days earlier.
"Coach Shannon just preaching, 'Go out there and have fun. Do your business. Everybody, you got to continue to work no matter what. We have games to play,'" receiver
Brandon Powell said.
"That's all we needed to hear after something like that. Hearing coach Shannon just come out and say, 'Have fun.' That's all we needed to hear right there."
Shannon has put a few new twists on things.
The music was a big one Tuesday, as he broke practice up to be more game-like. Music played between reps on special teams kickoff drills, like it would be in a stadium.
Already Shannon feels like the team is over the initial shellshock of Jim McElwain's sudden departure as coach.
"Yeah, because we bounced around. We bounced around, everybody was doing all the right things," Shannon said. "Wasn't no false starts in practice, wasn't no offside penalties, wasn't no mental stuff. It wasn't anything mental. Usually when you have guys that are in another world they have a lot of mental stuff that happens. Today we had no mental breakdowns."
After a whirlwind of a weekend, the newly minted interim coach sees a bunch of players who are just ready to get back to some sense of normalcy.
"A lot of times that you do things to get away," Shannon said. "Some people say, well I go jog or I go ride a bike or I go fish. Well, football is a getaway for these young men."
For now, that means buckling down for a week of game prep ahead of a road trip to Missouri.
The Gators would love to snap a three-game skid and get back in the win column. It'd go a long way toward putting a painful Sunday in the rearview mirror.
"Everybody is just ready to compete and get on the field Saturday and win a game," running back
Mark Thompsonsaid.