Gators on the offense: 'it's different' this year
ATLANTA, Ga.-- Dan Mullen has heard one question over and over since his arrival in Gainesville eight months ago, how is he going to fix the offense?
"I'm used to it, I heard it before walking from in the Swamp walking from the press box to the locker room at half, too," said the Florida head coach. "No matter how many points we've scored, I've heard that, too. We scored 40 and 'still, fix the offense.' I think that's part of it.
"It goes back when coach Spurrier came in and started putting points on the board. Everyone got excited and the exciting style of football and the high-scoring offense that he ran that the Gator Nation got used to that. So I think they enjoy that style of football."
With the 2018 campaign about the kick off all eyes will be on the offense from day one. Failure is not really an option for a team that has ranked in the 100s in total offense for the last few seasons. Good news for Mullen? The team has bought in.
“This is the only time I’m going to answer this question again. This year, with Mullen and his staff, it’s different," said offensive lineman Martez Ivey. "You can tell. The energy. The players, they bought in to it. It’s not about me, me, me, me. You have all of these reads and options and stuff. It doesn’t matter who gets the ball, it matters about getting yards.”
“I believe him [Ivey]," said Jefferson. "I’m around those guys every day. Just the way that they work and their focus level, you can just tell there’s a difference."
Although scoring points will be a priority for the Gators, according to Mullen, he needs a team that can do it all, including grinding out wins.
"It's making sure that, it's always got to be a fit," Mullen explained. "You cannot forget that 'what does it take for us to win football games?"
In order to drive his point home, Mullen pointed to recent World Cup Champions, France as an excellent example of what it takes to become a championship level team.
"They're able to grind it out in a 1-0 win over Belgium, and then they can go out there and they're able to score some goals when they're playing a Croatia," he said. "You can play different styles. But that's a championship team. If we want to be come a championship football team and program we've got to be able to adapt and play the different styles whether it's be high-scoring at times or grind it out at times."
One pitfall Mullen hopes to avoid is making his players fit his system rather than working with their strengths - an error that has proved costly to new coaches in the past.
"I think part of it is making sure you are putting your guys in position to be successful," said Mullen about what it takes to turn the offense around. "A Tim Tebow, when he was my quarterback, we built the offense around his strengths and things that he did well. That's not to say he's going to be a great quarterback in every system, and the same with Nick Fitzgerald. That's what we did with Nick is coach him, develop him, see certain traits that he had while we recruited him and then build around his strengths.
"That's what I've always done in coaching is you look at what guys do well and make sure you're putting them in a position to be successful."