- Sep 8, 2014
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https://www.seccountry.com/florida/live-blog-jim-mcelwain-meets-the-media-monday-2
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida coach Jim McElwain met with reporters Monday to review the Gators’ loss at Tennessee and preview the upcoming trip to Vanderbilt.
Here were the highlights from his comments:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida coach Jim McElwain met with reporters Monday to review the Gators’ loss at Tennessee and preview the upcoming trip to Vanderbilt.
Here were the highlights from his comments:
- “The mood in that locker room, there were a lot — a lot — of hurt guys. I’m not sure a couple of the losses even last year I could feel that sense of hurt. And as I told them, it should hurt, because if it doesn’t something’s wrong. It means you really don’t care, it means you’re in it for the wrong reasons We’ll see where we (go) from here.”
- Injuries: DT Joey Ivie has a thumb injury. “Right now he’d be out.” RG Tyler Jordan “will get back a little bit this week, but it will be no contact. I won’t know anything there until Thursday.” … DE Jordan Sherit is “still a little banged up with that leg. But I say that and I don’t anticipate him missing, just because of who he is.” … CB Quincy Wilson is out today and probably tomorrow. “That will be a Wednesday decision there with a leg.” … QB Luke Del Rio won’t do anything today and will get eased in on Tuesday. “The reason we had him dressed at the last game is I really felt he did a great job with Austin on the sideline. I think it was really good for our team, (he) said a few words afterward in the locker room as well that really resonated with some guys. He’s a valuable piece of this. I would say he’d be highly doubtful for this week, but I’m still not going to count him out.”
- On QB Austin Appleby’s INT and play overall: “Other than taking the (interception) back, when you scramble, we’ve got a flood-third drill that we do and your eyes have got to go to the boundary and not back inside. That was a throw that he’d love to have back, and yet, he learned from it later in the game. He threw another third down, a flooded third, and we got a first down out of it. So I thought he played pretty darn good, good enough for us to win a ballgame.”
- On the secondary’s struggles: “I think you’ve got to look at the first half on the dropped passes. I think they did a great job of coming back to the things that we’re there and not saying, ‘Oh, they took it away.’ Because we really didn’t. They had three or four big drops on some of those over routes that they didn’t give up on. Now the flip side of that coin is the disappointing thing from our side, is not understanding what leverage you need to play with in some of those situations. Obviously when you’re playing a quarterback like this, there’s some spy moments there where you’re hoping not to allow him (to run), which now takes a guy out of coverage. I think they did a great job of taking advantage of that. They did a really good job in their bunch stuff and motion. I thought they had a great plan — didn’t get it executed in the first half, but didn’t panic. They came back and took advantage of some of those plays in the second half. Could we have been in better position? Yes. Are there things that we worked on and talked about? Yeah. But give them credit, they took advantage of it. The one bust on the wheel, we actually had covered early, the same application, but there again they executed and we didn’t.”
- On Appleby’s work at the line of scrimmage and delay in getting audibles called and what not: “That hurt. I mean, you go before half and you have to waste two timeouts in the first half and we’ve got the ball before half trying to go down and steal some points after the field goal. We shouldn’t have had to use them. Now, some of that is simple communication on the field as loud as it was in there — which is awesome, that’s fun — but I think we let that rattle us a little bit. Being aware of where the shot clocks are, I think we lost focus of that a couple times. To me, there were a lot of telling things in that game, but after the pick right after half, having two missed signals back to back on second and third down, and yet, the third-down call, just block it and we get a first down. That wasn’t earth-shattering. That’s the disappointing things. We never flipped the field at all.”
- On whether calling a timeout in the second half could have helped slow Tennessee’s momentum: “I don’t know, I didn’t do it, but yeah, that’s obviously one of those deals, and yet, even with some of the things that we’re happening, it wasn’t like they were just tempo, tempo, tempo. That’s one of the beauties of playing nationally televised games is you get some extra commercials.”
- On the collapse: “Our effort was good. They took some things away, and we didn’t take advantage of what they were taking away and stuck a little bit to the mom and dad and didn’t go to brother-in-law and sister-in-law. In layman’s terms, that (means) you have to counter what they’re doing. … They outplayed us, plain and simple. The interesting thing, as I’ve said before, is what you learn. The past and the future, they don’t exist. The key is you learn from the past, you learn from history, and future is determined by what you do right now. It’s that simple. So what’s our approach moving forward, from each individual, each position group and then as a team is really going to tell how we come out this week.”
- On the offensive line: “I don’t put it on the offensive line. They took it to us. I’m not (blaming) the offensive line. They gave us opportunities. No, I’m not putting it on them at all.”
- On Appleby: “I thought he did pretty good, what did you think? … I thought he played well. I mean, I said that. Do I think he can play better? Yeah. Am I upset about a couple of throws? Yeah, he should be able to make. Am I upset Antonio Callaway slips on a curl route wide open when we had a chance to flip the field? Yeah, get down on your toes. There’s things that happen, and at the quarterback position, you know, he’s got to do those things better. Which he’ll learn this week and see how we go moving forward.”
- On special teams: “I’ll tell you what, I’m really disappointed in how our gunners covered. We’ve got to get better there because we had them in place and the guy made us miss a couple times. Our net was pretty good as far as a coverage net, but we’ve got to get better at that.”
- On Callaway’s fair catches inside the 5: “You’re supposed to put your heels at the 8 and not go backwards. He went backwards.”
- On what lessons he wants his players to take: “Understanding that no matter what you do in anything, there’s going to be adversity. Now the key is, do you allow your body language and everything shrink because things aren’t going right? It’s easy to be excited when things are good. I think reflecting back, learning from the past and learning from history, how conscious were you really taking care of details every day that made an impact on what occurred. There should be some guys looking in the mirror a little bit.”
- On Brandon Powell’s phantom punch ejection: “I haven’t heard yet. … I don’t know when that comes about so we’ll find out.”
- On Les Miles’ firing: “Yeah, and yet, being in this business, as rough as it is and the decision is, my feelings go out for those families, those players. He’s obviously had an unbelievable relationship with the players over the years and the impact he’s made on their lives. It’s just, you hate to see it.”
- On Florida’s struggles with noon games in recent history: “We put ourselves in position to play at noon, so we better get used to it.”
- On players talking about national championship hopes after the game: “There’s a lot ahead of us. I like the way they think. That’s good.”
