What are you doing before halftime
With 1:56 left before halftime the Gators' offense trotted out to the field on its own 13-yard line. Florida had all three timeouts, which afforded the opportunity to be aggressive and at least attempt to get in field goal range to extend a 10-7 lead.
Dan Mullen sat on those three timeouts.
Emory Jones completed a pass to Justin Shorter for two yards.
Clock runs.
Jones completed a pass to Trent Whittemore for 14 yards and a first down.
Clock runs.
Malik Davis carries the ball twice for 10 yards and the team stands on the field watching the clock run out on the first half while taking all three of their timeouts into the locker room where they would be turned in like an overdue library book.
Dan Mullen was asked why he chose to go conservative right before half rather than pressing the issue and being aggressive.
“You're on the road, you're back to the wall, we we're making some errors right there. You get out, you know, in order to kind of … you're looking at the clock, you got about 30 seconds, I think it was. We got the ball on our 30-yard line. On the road, you're like, you know. Like I said, I thought we were playing, we're doing some good things, let's just go kind of settle everybody down and not create a potential issue right there.”
What it looked like from high above the artificial turf in Kroger Field was a coach that was scared and didn't believe in his team. The play calling was intentionally conservative and the excuse that there were only 30 seconds left when Florida was on their own 30 can only be made because Mullen was holding on to those timeouts with a deathgrip.
Dan Mullen is a great offensive mind. He didn't show it right before halftime and then balked at taking any responsibility when asked about it after the game.
Most undisciplined football game/team in a while
The Gators were penalized 15 times for 115 yards Saturday night in Lexington. The offensive line accomplished the feat of eight false starts — six of which were on third or fourth down, completely killing drives and any sort of momentum Florida's offense was attempting to muster.
This is the most penalties Florida has received in a game since September 17, 2011, when they were flagged 16 times for 150 yards in a 33-23 win over Tennessee.
The sold-out crowd of 61,632 got loud at times but eight false starts is inexcusable even if you're playing in the Roman Colosseum and there are lions on the field.
"The penalties weren't little like, ticky-tack things, you're talking taking third downs off the board, you know, third down and backing us up, taking conversions, taking first-down runs off the board with holding penalties, those were the issues," Mullen said. "I mean, you're gonna sit there and say, you know, there's a lot of things you're gonna point out and say, 'guys played really well,' playing the game, it's just the mental errors were just, you can't do that and expect to win a game making that many mental errors."
At the end of the day, the entire program needs to look in the mirror and fix it.
What happened to playing the hot hand?
Dan Mullen has made it clear that Greg Knox handles the running back rotation and maybe that should change.
Dameon Pierce showed up to Lexington like a man possessed and he touched the ball nine times. Florida ran 71 plays and Pierce — who averaged six yards per carry and 6.8 per touch, only got nine opportunities. Malik Davis had just 23 yards on the same number of carries that Pierce did and Nay'Quan Wright had just seven yards on five carries but did have a great catch to move the chains.
Early on it was clear that Pierce showed up in Lexington ready to go and rather than feeding him and going with the hot hand Florida continued to rotate running backs. Florida has a lot of running backs to keep happy but when one of them is clearly running hot it doesn't make sense to take him out of the game.
Special teams are a disaster
Outside of Jeremy Crawshaw special teams have been forgettable at best in 2021. There was a missed field goal that changed the course of the Alabama game and tonight a blocked field goal that was returned for a touchdown. Florida hadn't had a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown since Devin Hester accomplished the feat against Florida in 2004.
"You can't have a blocked kick. That was seven points. That's a 10-point swing right there," Mullen said. "That's a big, big deal so we got to get that fixed.
The Gators don't go after punts, they're dead last in the SEC in kick returns (12.43 yards per return).
When Dan Mullen was first in Gainesville, Urban Meyer made special teams a priority. Florida was feared in the third phase of the game. They blocked kicks and punts. They returned punts and kickoffs for touchdowns. They changed the game on special teams.
Now, in 2021, Florida's lucky to get off the field without some sort of catastrophe happening.
Two losses to Kentucky in four years
In just four years Dan Mullen has accomplished something twice that the previous five head coaches at the University of Florida never accomplished a single time in 31 years.
Lose to Kentucky.
To be fair, Mark Stoops has done a very good job building the Kentucky football program. They're not the doormat they used to be. They're a tough, physical, football team and they've played Florida tough dating back to before Mullen arrived in Gainesville.
That being said Mullen set the standard at Florida. The Gators Standard, as he calls it, is competing for and winning championships. You're never going to compete for SEC Championships by losing to Kentucky or by losing two of your first three SEC games.
Florida hadn't lost in Lexington since 1986. Can't say that anymore. How's that for the Gator Standard?
After the game Dan Mullen was asked if he was out-coached in the 20-13 loss.
“No, but 382 yards, I guess that's sputtering. I don't know. We had 382. They had 211 yards. I wouldn't think that would be the case. I think guys did some pretty good things right there, moving up and down. I think we got to really look at the penalties that we have and how to get ourselves in a better situation that way. I got to a better job coaching up the PAT/field-goal group. They’re a physical group. We outrushed them. We outpassed. We out-total gained them. The time of possession, we were better on third downs.”
You didn't out-score them, Dan. Take some responsibility.
What are you made of?
Florida's not going to Atlanta, which was their goal this whole season.
What will they do now?
Will Florida crumble in on itself and sputter to another 8-4 season, maybe worse? Or will they pick themselves up, figure something out and play with pride the rest of the way?
