After 'impromptu' protest, Gators knock off rust in first scrimmage
When Florida coach Dan Mullen left for work Friday, he wasn’t expecting to return home at 2 o’clock in the morning Saturday.
But an “impromptu” protest with his players delayed practice a few hours, and the team scrimmaged late into the night for the first time in eight months.
“(The march) started everything really late. It was a real impromptu thing, so it turned into a really late night last night,” Mullen said. “Yesterday, I was supportive of our guys. It was great, I was all in. I wish we were a little more organized with it, but I think we’ll do some stuff in the future with some little more organization that maybe gives us a bigger voice.”
Some standouts Friday were running back Malik Davis and quarterback Kyle Trask, who led the offense to a couple touchdown drives. His go-to target, tight end Kyle Pitts, sat out the scrimmage.
“I didn't give Pitts any reps. I know what he can do, and I see a lot in practice,” Mullen said. “Kyle [Trask] got a couple of series, I thought he looked really sharp. I thought he handled that situation, being on the field, thought he had great leadership. … I was really pleased with how Kyle did out there and what we'll be able to do with him, both on the field and how he came out ready to go.”
Mullen was also pleased with the performance of Davis, who is beginning to return to his freshman form after suffering back-to-back season-ending injuries.
“I thought our backs ran the ball well,” Mullen said. “I want to say, Malik Davis to me looked like the Malik Davis I saw when I got here before I became the head coach. I haven’t see that in a couple years. I’m thinking, ‘Boy, he’s really back to where he wants to be.' I was really impressed with Nay’Quan Wright running the ball.
“Young receivers I thought really for their first time being in the Swamp in that big scrimmage situation, I thought those guys stepped up, played well. The young safeties I thought came up and really hit. … I was pleased with our freshmen D-linemen. And Jaelin Humphries, who’s almost a freshman because of the injury last year.”
Miami running back transfer and former five-star recruit Lorenzo Lingard Jr. has also shown off his ability, but is still behind Davis and Dameon Pierce at this time due to his lack of experience in the offensive system.
“I think he's running the ball hard,” Mullen said of Lingard. “Good job catching the ball out of the backfield. I think, for him, you’re looking at some guys that have been in the offense for a while, so just picking up some of the little things, he's probably behind those guys in doing it.
“This is year three for Malik the offense, year three for Pierce, year three for [Clement], Nay'Quan year two. And [Lingard] is at practice ten. So, mentally he's going to be a little bit behind those guys, but he runs the ball hard. Plays hard, has great effort. I love his attitude, I love who he is as a person. We’ve just got to keep working with him to pick it all up.”
Freshman safety/returner Fenley Graham suffered a fractured forearm and will be out a couple weeks, Mullen said. The Gators will work on situational football this coming week and hold one more scrimmage a week from Monday. There’s plenty for Mullen and his staff to address at practice until then.
“We have a ways to go. Not a ways to go with our attitude, not a ways to go with understanding the scheme. We haven't played football in a while,” Mullen said of Friday’s scrimmage. “We had missed tackles, we had too many balls on the ground fumbling because you're going live football. I was pleased with some groups more than others. I thought I saw some efficiency, especially with some of the older guys who have been in that situation. I thought we handled situational football.
“I did see some good awareness of guys trying to understand down and distance and what's going on out there on the field, so that was a positive. But just the overall, 'Are we ready to play a game?' I mean, that's the first time we've tackled or done anything since last December, and we've got a little ways to go.”
After discussing his protest with the players, Mullen was asked what the overall experience meant to him. He responded with a long, thoughtful answer about racial profiling and injustices, which you can read below in full.
“If everybody just stops and listens, OK, and put your own ego, put your own beliefs, put your own selfishness aside, and spend time listening to people. I tell our team this: I can’t put myself in their shoes. When I went out and got in a car when I was 19 years old and went out with my friends at night, I wasn’t worried about being pulled over unless I was doing something incredibly wrong. … If I was pulled over, I was worried about maybe what sort of discipline structure I might get in.
“I go out and I run at 6 a.m. I’m probably more worried if I get into a really dark area of the run or one of those, is there some kind of lunatic, psychopath, serial killer around? Not, I’m running through a neighborhood and people might profile me that I don’t belong there. I can’t even fathom what that feels like or to understand. But if you stop for a minute and think about how that would feel. …
“My son’s 11, so a couple years from now he’s going to go out with his friends and get in a car and go out on Friday night with his friends. So I’m hoping they don’t do stupid things, they make smart decisions, they’re safe and I’m kind of worried they don’t get a car accident or one of those. I’m not worried about, is someone going to pull them over for the way they look? And maybe treat them poorly, and profile them. I think you’ve got to put people in those shoes.
“If you just stop and really think and try to respect other people, and respect what their thoughts are. I’ve done police ride-alongs, but I’ll be honest with you: I’ve never pulled somebody over and had to walk up to that window and had no idea who’s on the other side of that car. I’ve never done that, but if everybody can stop and think about that for just a second … where they’re coming from.
“You can’t put yourself in their shoes, OK? But if you try to listen, you try to understand, and you try to have respect for them, we’re going to get ourselves headed in the right direction. And to become part of that, you have to put some of yourself aside, OK? You have to put some of yourself aside. You have to get out of the extreme-isms. And that’s what (the march) was for.
“I’m trying to be around our guys. I’m trying to listen. I’m trying to see where they’re coming from. I’m trying to see what their thoughts are and what their feelings are and how I can best help them and how I can best help myself, how I can educate myself to be smarter on all the different things that we’re dealing with in society, because you know as the coach I’m responsible for these young guys. I’m responsible to help develop them as football players to men. OK? But if I don’t understand and I don’t educate myself on everything that’s going on, and I don’t try to better myself every day, how can I help them? And we have this huge voice because you know what, we have the opportunity to go out and help other people.”
