GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The No. 7 Florida Gators are preparing for yet another Top Ten opponent this weekend, No. 5 LSU.
UF is heading into the game against the Tigers riding a ten-game winning streak.
The crowd at the Swamp certainly did their part on Saturday to help Florida secure the win over then No. 7 Auburn last weekend.
"Our fans are some of the best fans in the country," said Gators quarterback Kyle Trask. "I think they did a great job on Saturday of being loud as they can."
“I’ve been there a lot through the years," said Gators Head coach Dan Mullen about Death Valley. "It’s a great environment for college football, an intimidating environment. They have a great crowd. The place is loud, intimidating, a crazy environment. That’s SEC football. That’s what it’s all about. We’ve got to go in and try to manage the environment and try to do a good job executing.”
The Gators managed to beat a Top 10 team, rising in to No. 7 this week. However, Mullen knows with the No. 5 team on the horizon, the Gators do need to take another step.
“We practice this afternoon so you better come out ready to go," said Mullen. "One of the great challenges in this league is it's not the one game, it's the multiple games in this league. That's always the challenge. That's not true in every league. A lot of times you don't have these type of games in every single league where you have consecutive weeks playing top seven opponents. That's one of the great challenges in this league, one of the fun parts about being here. It's why you want to be part of the SEC. We were the biggest game in the country last week. We're the biggest game in the country this week. That's what makes you want to play at Florida and be a Gator so you can play in the biggest games in the country every single week.”
Nick Sproles is the No. 3 QB
For a moment in Saturday's game, the Gators were down to one scholarship quarterback. After Trask went down in the first half, Emory Jones was called upon to take over under center.
“It’s always a concern," said Mullen. "We can’t go sign a free agent this week. That’s stuff you’ve got to deal with.”
Who would be the next man up if Jones were to get hurt? According to Mullen, Nick Sproles would be the No. 3 guy.
“He’d be a great player. He does an unbelievable job for us," Mullen said about Sproles. "He does a great job with the scout team every week, he’s the quarterback of the scout team. He’s got a lot of respect within the team. He’s extremely intelligent and a really good decision maker. He’ll understand, he’ll know every aspect of the game plan, I know that.”
“I think he’d do fine, actually," said receiver Josh Hammond. "Nick Sproles is really good. He’s really good. I don’t know how much of the game plan he probably knew, going into Saturday, which probably would have been a bigger concern. But he sits in quarterback meetings with those guys. He stays after practice and sits in QB meetings with those guys. I’m pretty sure he was probably prepared for the situation.”
The hit heard around the Swamp
The only time the Swamp was quiet was when Trask went down in obvious pain.
Early in the second quarter, Trask threw an incomplete pass to Josh Hammond. As it fell, Stone Forsythe blocked Auburn defensive lineman Marlon Davidson, sending Davidson tumbling right onto Trask's left leg.
Trask went to the locker room for treatment.
During his halftime interview, Mullen told the reporter, "you know, hopefully the league tries to keep quarterbacks safe from dirty plays."
On Monday, Mullen slightly backtracked those comments.
"I'll put it this way: Maybe the use of that word, maybe that wasn't the right word at the time," said Mullen. "I don't think that was being coached or there was intent to go injure him on that play. I think that's something when you look at player safety, we've got to really pay attention.
"I know as a league everyone wants to preach player safety, player safety, player safety... talk about it, but what are we doing about it? On those type of hits, I bet if those type of hits happen on Sunday they would have been called because they're talking about player safety," added Mullen. "Maybe the choice of words at the time was wrong, but it's more a debate of 'I think those plays we want to try to get out of the game.' Plays where guys have a significant opportunity to get injured. Those are the plays, helmet-to-helmet hits, plays where players have a great chance of being injured we want to get out of the game.”
Davidson searched for Trask after the game to apologize to the quarterback.
"I really respected that," said Trask. "After seeing the play, I didn’t think he was trying to hurt me intentionally or anything like that. I felt like that was a, that was—says a lot about his character to come up and apologize even though he obviously wasn’t trying to do it on purpose. He just wanted to let me know and I really respect him for that.”
Medical Report
Although Kadarius Toney is still not expected to feature on Saturday, however, the Gators have plenty of good news on the injury front.
Kyle Trask, who sprained his MCL in the win over Auburn, did finish the game last weekend and "should be good to go this week."
"It's just day by day, I'll be ready to go on Saturday," added Trask on Monday.
The other good news is the return of Jabari Zuniga. According to Mullen, the defensive lineman was cleared to play last weekend, but Florida decided to hold off.
"I don’t think he was 100 percent," explained Mullen. "Going into the game, our thoughts were, ‘hey, if we cannot play him this week, gives him the opportunity to be 100 percent next week, instead of kind of playing at 80 percent on consecutive, you know, week after week as he was battling. I know he wanted to play. He didn’t get into the game, but that’s a good thing for us because we expect him to be 100 percent coming into this game.”
On the other hand, Florida is still waiting word on running back Dameon Pierce.
"Pierce’s got a chance to play as the week goes on," explained the head coach. "We’ll see where he’s at coming off the hit he took in the game."
Shawn Davis and Jonathan Greenard, both who got some Nix on Saturday, should be able to go.
Awaiting word from the SEC
Pierce was sidelined on Saturday after getting into a head-to-head collision against an Auburn defender. The hit resulted in a fumble and Mullen tried to challenge the call but was denied.
“It's a reviewable play. They can review it," explained Mullen. "So I thought we could challenge it since it's a reviewable play but it's not. We can't challenge it. They could choose to review it – the officials – but we can't challenge it.”
Mullen has yet to receive a reason why they did not review the call.
“I haven't gotten any reasons from the league on all that stuff yet. They usually get it back. A big question for Steve Shaw.”
Gator Chomps
On Lamical Perine's run
“Yeah, that was pretty cool. That was kind of neat. I don’t think Lamical knew that and I don’t think Emmitt knew that either that it was going to be the longest run since his. So, but I’m going to tell you, it came at a great opportunity for us, at a great time in the game and it couldn’t have happened at a better time. He’s a guy that, you look at what he’s been able to do so far this year, maybe not put up the numbers that people thought he might put up to this point in the year. But certainly, hasn’t changed his approach, hasn’t changed how he’s play, hasn’t changed his playmaking ability. And really made the biggest play in the game on Saturday. When he was ready for that moment. When he hit the crease, he had to break a tackle, make a guy miss. He was fast enough to get to the end zone.”
What worked on the Perine Play
“We got good spacing and we got them into an advantageous front for us to block. What really worked is that Brett Heggie fell off a block but Perine was able to block that tackle. At that point it was one-on-one with the safety. I think one of the great things was by the formation we got everybody else on the defense out of the play. He was one-on-one with the safety and he did a really good job of squaring the safety up. If he just kind of stays and tries to outsprint him to the end zone the safety can use the sideline. He did a really great job of squaring him up and then getting back out to the sideline. He gave himself a two-way go, then when he got to the sideline he was able to break the arm tackle. I guess he was fast enough. Auburn said he wasn't fast enough but I guess he was.”
How much time spent with Grantham during the week?
"That happens daily in and out. Those are quick things, 'Hey, we're looking at doing this. What are your thoughts and how it affects it?' He and I will briefly get together every day about just what's going on. But those ideas as you pass, generally, those are exchanged. Offensive and defensive staff rooms are right next to each other, so guys kind of stick their head in, "What about this or what about that? How would you guys handle it if we did this or do that?' Just a kind of check with the other side of the ball."
Make a case for UF as DBU
“Yeah. It’s pretty easy. Go look at all the players that have come here, all the players that have had success here and gone on to the NFL. Not just over the last 5-10 years it goes back and back and back the great defensive backs that have played here. We have some pretty good DBs here this year that are continuing that tradition. We have some good young guys that we expect to continue in the future. A lot of players in America want to come be a part of that here and continue that tradition in the secondary.”
What does it mean to admire your throw?
“It's about being on balance with your throw. Young players, one of the things they want to do, especially in seven-on-seven, they want to automatically turn to get the next play. If you're admiring your throw, you're able to finish the throw. You're over-exaggerating being on balance and checking where you're at. If you're admiring your throw you can see. If you are on balance you'll stay on balance on the throw. If you make a throw and you're falling off one way or the other you weren't on balance on that throw and that's probably why you were inaccurate. So it's really about learning your own balance of how to become more accurate as a passer.”
