Coming off of a thrilling, last-play victory over Tennessee, Florida head coach Jim McElwain met with the media on Monday.
The following are highlights from McElwain’s press conference:
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* Notebook: Thrilling ending to a must win game
* Cleveland: "Give me a chance."
* Instant Analysis: Thrill of victory
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* McElwain said it was great to be back in the Swamp after 308 days. The fans and the atmosphere contributed to the win over Tennessee.
* He praised Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops for the skill-level of his players.
* Injuries: Cornerback Duke Dawson will be highly questionable. He won’t go today. Linebacker Kylan Johnson is highly doubtful. He is only 75% healthy. They are flying wide receiver James Robinson to see a specialist. They should know more about his situation by the end of the week.
* The young guys in the secondary will need to pick up the communication with the absence of Dawson in practice and potentially for the game.
* On clock-management toward the end of the game, McElwain said that he thought the Gators had gained the first down. Said they lost about 9 seconds in transition. The clock mismanagement is completely on him
* Despite talk to the contrary, he said he did not take over play-calling in the fourth quarter.
* Tyrie Cleveland is invested in getting in shape and understanding the position. McElwain said he’s learning some of the technical details of the position and has learned how to practice.
* There were six critical plays where he felt like Feleipe Franks pre-determined where he was going to go with the ball before the snap. He said that Franks owned those mistakes and he feels that Franks is verbal about his mistakes.
* McElwain said that Franks has confidence in himself. He’s done a good job of getting better with his feet and his knowledge.
* Florida is going to try and get their guys in space in order to make some plays.
* On Luke Del Rio being the number-two quarterback: “He’s back, he’s healthy.’ Said that it does not mean that Malik Zaire is buried at the bottom of the depth chart.
* McElwain stated that Kentucky has big, long corners that can cause some trouble on the outside. Says that they do a good job of stopping the run and making a team one-dimensional.
* On Jachai Polite’s tackle on Kelly: “He was one of our defensive players of the game.” Both he and Kyree Campbell were the two guys that got to Kelly because they never quite.
* He thinks that Malik Davis brings a little juice. He brings a different dimension to the position in that he is more of a slasher. He can put his foot in the ground and make those arm tacklers miss. He said that he will learn from his fumble against Tennessee.
* Late in the game, they didn’t tackle worth a “hill of beans.” Said they need to do a better job of wrapping up.
* McElwain said that he will continue to let Piñeiro continue to get touchbacks (he has 9 so far). Has not thought about asking him to change how he kicks the ball.
* He is not that he is not concerned with the long win streak over Kentucky. Says they are both 0-0 right now.
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