McElwain Notebook: Hostile environment helped
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Coming off the first home win of the season, Florida head coach Jim McElwain gave credit to the fans for making Ben Hill Griffin Stadium a hostile environment.
“First off guys, just kind of a recap. It was just great to be back in The Swamp after 308 days (since last home game),” McElwain said “The fans, the people who put the time in and made the effort to make the game happen. I think ultimately, The Swamp, the atmosphere, the fans had as much to do with us winning that ballgame as anything. It was just great.”
With the thrilling 26-20 win officially in the rearview, McElwain was ready to move on to preparing for a Kentucky squad which has won its last five regular-season games.
“Now, the key is to build on that, get ready to go play on the road against a team that has won a bunch of games in their last bit that’s playing as well as anybody is in the league,” he said. “It’s going to be a crazy place. I know they’re looking forward to it. Our guys have got to understand in order for us to go in and play well with confidence, we’ve got to do the things we need to do in practice this week to give us an opportunity going against a really good team.”
McElwain said he has seen the Wildcats, now considered a potential contender in the SEC East, transform under coach Mark Stoops, who is in his fifth year at UK. The Wildcats currently have the SEC’s top rushing defense, allowing only 57 yards per game.
"Like I said, he in his fifth year, I don't know exactly what it is, but they're playing the way he wants it played. I think they've done an outstanding job of fitting those pieces,” McElwain said. “They've got big, long corners that can really disrupt you on the outside. They've got some, what I've noticed is they've really increased their size on the inside.
“And nobody's running the football on them. Then when you're not running it, it makes you one-dimensional. So I think that's a credit to what he and his staff have been able to do. They've done some really good things there as a program emphasizing football. They've really given him some good things there to recruit to and obviously he's done a heck of a job. I've seen it come a long ways. I mean, like you said, when I look all the way back this is a totally different Kentucky football team."
WHERE FRANKS NEEDS TO IMPROVE
Redshirt freshman quarterback Feleipe Franks was part of one of the most exciting plays in Gators history, but before the game-winning 63-yard pass, he was 17-of-27 for 149 yards with a touchdown and an interception. If the pass had been incomplete or intercepted, Franks comes away his first SEC contest with a mediocre statline. McElwain identified multiple areas where the young signal-caller needs to improve.
“Well, there were six critical plays where. … just take what the defense gives you, don’t predetermine where it’s going to go,” McElwain said. “In particular, Kadarius [Toney] got hot. We called a play and they jumped on him and we had a huge play over the top. Just reading low to high to low. Just base. So, obviously, the interception, we should have gone somewhere else. Had a critical third down, kind of coming out, they tried to force into [Brandon Powell]. That read was clearly on the other side.
“Those (are) things that you can’t predetermine it. You’ve got to key your safeties. You know, this is a weak. You’ve got guys that are going to show you closed and roll the open and end up in forms of Tampa Two. They’re going to start in split safety and roll the close and roll their safeties down from a coverage standpoint.”
As far as correcting the six miscues, McElwain realizes it won’t happen overnight. He likened it to the maturation he’s seen over time since the Wakulla High School product enrolled in January 2016.
“I think it’s just kind of a complete maturation and body of work from the time he was here as an early enrollee,” McElwain said of the quarterback’s growth. “He’s done a good job of getting better, especially with his feet. His knowledge, I think I already talked about the six plays that he’s got to make.
“You know, he’s got to make three of those six next week. Then he’s got to make four of those six and then five of those six and then he’s got to be six-for-six. When you start to do that you’re gonna have a pretty good deal going.”
BRINGING TONEY ALONG
Toney has been asked to learn a lot as a true freshman. In the spring, there were only two other healthy scholarship signal-callers (Franks and redshirt freshman Kyle Trask), so the three-star athlete out of Eight Mile, Ala. worked with the quarterbacks. During the summer, redshirt junior Luke Del Rio was healthy enough to throw again and graduate transfer Malik Zaire joined the team, prompting the coaches to move Toney to wide receiver. McElwain said the staff has been careful with how much they’re asking of the first-year player.
“I think in his case, learning a new position, you overload guys and then they paralyze themselves,” McElwain said. “So we do it bit by bit, but what’s helped him actually is playing the quarterback position, because understanding where all that comes from has been good for him; the technical aspect of it, because he’s never been able to see it. But he’ll continue to learn. As he does that, that part keeps coming.”
Toney had five touches – four catches and one run – in Saturday’s game. The moves he displayed in turning a short catch into a 19-yard play led to McElwain calling the freshman a “human joystick” Saturday in post-game.
TWO BIG ISSUES: FUMBLING AND TACKLING
Despite being a point of emphasis in practice last week, tackling was a problem for the Gators defense on Saturday. McElwain was particularly frustrated with some of the veterans in the secondary.
“Late in the game we didn’t tackle worth a hill of beans,” he said. “What bothered me was the secondary tackling, especially from some of our, quote, some of our good guys, veterans. That’s been pointed out and will continue to be pointed out.”
Florida fumbled twice on Saturday. Sophomore running back Lamical Perine fumbled on a 21-yard carry to start a second-half drive. Freshman Malik Davis had what was originally called a 74-yard touchdown overturned and ruled a touchback because the ball was out before crossing the goal line. McElwain said it’s frustrating because fumbles are addressed regularly, but he gave credit to the Volunteers.
"And it's interesting because that's an everyday drill. It's an EDD,” he said. “You know, my hat's off to their guys. I showed it to our team about what hustle is. On the one with Malik, that was a heck of a play. He really still had it and then he got stripped. And then with Lamical's, they did a great job of stripping. You know, Feleipe in the first game, he was loose with the ball. There's Tyrie [Cleveland] on the kickoff return. You continue to work on it. That's the big thing, and I think the big piece there as well is understanding the play is never over."
Despite the fumble, Davis’ role looks to be expanding. The freshman from Tampa Jesuit has recorded five carries in the first two games. With the team’s longest run of the season, Davis has a substantial lead on his teammates in average yards per carry (20.4).
"He brings a little juice, there's no doubt,” McElwain said. “He's a little bit different. He's a slasher. He does a really good job of sticking his foot in the ground and running through inside arm tackles. And yet, he's a guy, like I said, with a lot of these young guys, expanding their roles as they continue to learn. And no one felt worse after the game than he did, and yet he'll learn from it. It's good to have him, especially where we're at (with) that position."
FRESHMEN, BACKUPS WILL HAVE TO STEP UP IF DAWSON CAN’T GO
Senior cornerback Duke Dawson was the headliner of the injury report. Dawson will not practice Monday as he’s dealing with a head injury. In his absence, freshman cornerback C.J. Henderson will be asked to step up along with others.
"He'll obviously be in there and he's had a pretty expanded role anyway,” McElwain said of Henderson. “Obviously, it puts some pressure on us. I think getting C.J. [McWilliams] back, you saw him make a big play as a nickel down in the red area when they tried to run the wheel with the back late in the game. He was in great position. He's a guy that we'll need to get more out of.
“Obviously Brad Stewart and Quincy Lenton, there's some things there that we're going to need to do on the back end, especially with the nickel spot. Obviously at corner, some guys are going to have to step up. That's what they came here to do."
Redshirt sophomore linebacker Kylan Johnson, who has dealt with hamstring issues, is “doubtful” for Saturday according to McElwain and only at about 75 percent. Freshman wide receiver James Robinson is being flown to see a heart specialist after UF doctors noticed an issue on an echocardiogram approximately two weeks ago.
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