Story from fat Bob at 247:
Mixed review from Mullen about last week’s scrimmage
Mixed review from Mullen about last week’s scrimmage
Not coughing up any names, Florida head coach Dan Mullen said there were things he was happy about and some things he still needs to see from his football team after the first real scrimmage of the spring that the team held last Thursday in front of the media.
Much like his team during last season, Mullen was happy with the effort of his guys, and happy that things seemed to get a little hyped when the team practiced in the Swamp for the first time during the first half of the 15 spring practices.
“I was somewhat pleased how they went after the day,” Mullen said Thursday in front of the Florida media. “I thought guys played hard. …when you step into the stadium … I expect everybody to go hard every day. …I hate the term ‘I’m a gamer’ – because I want to see you do it all the time. I want to see you do it every day. I want to see you perform at a high level and compete every day to be your best and to push yourself. But when you do step into the stadium… there’s gotta be a step up of intensity. It’s like, ‘hey, if I go on my morning run and then I got in a race, it’s a little more intense because you are trying to beat other people.’ Just that slight step up once you hit the stadium, so I was pleased with that.
While most of the team is working on technique and fine tuning an offense and defense they practiced and played in a season ago, there are plenty of guys that didn’t see the field a lot that Mullen is trying to find out if they are ready to take a step in that direction this spring. And for the experienced guys to continue to a positive progression.
Mullen seems much more set on building depth on the roster with new guys that can step on the field on Saturdays and not take a step backward in doing so.
“The key is talking to guys about what their understanding is of what’s important, which is the guys who are getting ready to play,” he said. “Guys are earning reps, so there is separating yourself from other guys. There (are) guys to me that have played a lot of football and I’m comfortable with how they are going to play on Saturday. I’m looking at them to make, maybe not as big improvements, but slight improvements every day in how they are getting better. Then we’re looking for guys that when we step on the field on a Saturday, they’re ready to go start taking reps in a game. And I thought you saw some separation in that. And we want to see how the guys respond… guys that aren’t quite ready, are they going to take a step and get ready? The guys that are 10-play guys, are they looking to take steps forward the next couple of weeks or 10 more days of spring ball to get to 15 or 20 plays, and then hopefully to 30-play-a-game guys as regular rotators in the season?”
On any roster there are going to be guys that just aren’t ready and maybe that one group that needs more work than the others.
“Overall, some good and bad and some areas you can see that we still have some guys – we’re still really, really young and inexperienced on the offensive line,” he said. “But we still have a long time until we have to play a game. You see guys that are not ready to play but are making big strides.”
There was good and bad in the scrimmage that was visible by everyone in attendance. We posted out top players of the scrimmage afterward and had a few quarterbacks and receivers (on the list), Mullen agreed.
"I thought… the thing is the guys you're expecting to make plays made plays,” Mullen said. “I think our quarterbacks and receivers made some pretty good plays. You know? You flip the ball to Kadarius Toney, something exciting is going to happen. Good and bad. If he knows where he's going.”
Mullen reiterated his stance on needing the guys that didn’t see a lot of action last year doing something new. Along those lines, redshirt freshman Emory Jones was unofficially 6-for-17 for 76 yards and a touchdown while running eight times for 64 yards. Redshirt sophomore Kyle Trask was 11 -for-21 for 143 yards and two touchdowns through the air. True freshman quarterback Jalon Jones was unofficially 2-for-4 for 55 yards through the air and ran twice for 17 yards and a touchdown. Redshirt freshman Iverson Clement had the best day of all the running backs running the ball 10 times for 40 yards unofficially in the scrimmage.
He wants to see those young guys step up.
“I can sit there on Saturday's scrimmage and have Perine carry the ball 32 times,” he said. “I could just find just ‘give-it-to’ touches for Kadarius Toney, but we already know that stuff is going to happen. How do we execute the other things? I thought there were a lot of positives with guys that we knew had experience. And to see them actually continue to grow and even get better at what they've done.”
Of course, he’s an offensive coach at heart, but as a head coach it is important for Mullen to make sure the offense and defense grows over the spring.
“I want to make sure we're developing everything we need on both sides of the ball,” he said. “I'm not concerned with whether or not the offense or the defense wins the scrimmage as much as 'are we developing as a program?' The offensive guys all want to win and the defensive guys all want to win. In between I want to make sure we develop."