Florida "evaluating" snap count issues that led to false starts
False starts are going to happen in football and especially on the road. They can hurt kill a play, stall a drive, ruin momentum, but they're something that may happen a time or two over the course of a game when you 71 plays. It shouldn't however, under any circumstances, happen on 11% of your offensive plays.
Kentucky had a sold-out crowd of 61,632 and it certainly was a great environment, one that was hostile to the visiting Florida Gators. Eight false starts are still inexcusable.
The Gators didn't have an issue getting the plays in from the sideline but they had multiple issues communicating the cadence and getting everyone on the same page to snap the ball.
Florida had three false starts in the first half. The first was on right tackle Jean Delance the next two crippled a promising drive. Running back Malik Davis was flagged on a third-and-one play and left guard Ethan White was hit on the very next play, turning third-and-one into third-and-11.
Florida was penalized 15 times, the most under Dan Mullen and the most Florida has been flagged in a single game in a decade. Mullen took responsibility.
"We had 15 penalties. That's on me. The penalties are on me," he said Monday. "It's my responsibility to make sure the discipline this team plays with and executes at a high level. I'd love to say it's more than that, but you go watch the film and it's pretty obvious."
It's good for Mullen to take responsibility for that. Florida entered the game 65th in the country in terms of being penalized and now sits 118th in the country.
The question still begs to be asked. If you had three false starts in the first half why didn't you make an adjustment in the locker room to fix that?
"I mean, the snap count, our snap count we’ve used it, most people use it around the country. The teams we’ve played have used it in the Swamp," Mullen said Monday. "That’s something we’ll look at with our guys. It’s something we use and most teams around the country use. It’s something we’re looking at to make sure we’re communicating everything the right way.”
It is puzzling for a coaching staff that has historically made in-game adjustments that have worked out and changed the course of games to not make a change or adjustment while committing the same mistake over and over.
"I can be a lot louder," Emory Jones said, taking responsibility for his part in the false starts. "Part of that was my fault and my job, but we just have to go back to the drawing board and try to get better with that."
Florida clearly had a plan going into the game for a clap count. Dan Mullen asked how easy or if possible to make a change in the middle of the game.
“You can do it, yeah. Obviously, it's much easier said than done. There's a lot that goes into what we practice and how we do things so," Mullen said. "But, you know, we're gonna continue to look at each one of the different scenarios and everything that happens and we'll go improve on it and coach it up and get it fixed.”