GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- No. 9 Florida could be without two of its best pass rushers this weekend when it takes on South Carolina on the road.
Rush end Jon Greenard and strong-side defensive end Jabari Zuniga both left Saturday's game against LSU early with ankle injuries - Greenard injured his during Florida's win against Auburn, while Zuniga was making his first return to the field after suffering a high ankle sprain against Kentucky.
"Injury-wise, we've got to see with our [defensive] ends, they'll be game-time decisions, so we'll have to see how that goes this week for them," Dan Mullen said on Monday.
The Gators head coach told reporters after their loss to the Tigers that Greenard did not practice last week leading up to the game in Baton Rouge. He played only a handful of snaps against the Tigers.
Meanwhile, Zuniga did feature a few times over the weekend, however, appeared to aggravate the injury in the third quarter. Zuniga recorded Florida's only tackle for a loss prior to leaving the game.
"Injuries happen," Mullen said. "You come into the year and say 'Hey if you're going to have to have a great year, (if) most teams are going to have a great year, you're going to stay injury-free.' We're probably the furthest thing away from that in America of staying injury-free this year."
The Gators felt their loss keenly.
LSU was able to amass over 500 yards of offense, rushing for 218 yards and passing for 293 yards, in its win. Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow threw 21-of-24 passing for three touchdowns, while adding 43 yards on the ground.
“It's a big loss when they're not out there," said safety Donovan Stiner about playing without Greenard and Zuniga. "We can't let the quarterback get comfortable so those guys always make sure he's uncomfortable for us and that in turn helps the DBs because the balls have to get out quicker and stuff like that.”
Jeremiah Moon, Luke Ancrum, Krhis Bogle and Zach Carter all tried to fill the void, and may have to do so again on Saturday in South Carolina.
The good news for the Gators is that quarterback Kyle Trask is feeling "100 percent." The Florida signal caller walked into the presser on Monday wearing no knee brace.
"Yeah it is feeling back to where it used to be," Trask said about his knee. "Ready to go."
"He's fine, he came out good," said Mullen. "Yeah he did better, nothing recurring so, which is good because he did a great job last week, had to limit his reps some in practice, you know he did a good job preparing, but he came out fine and should be good to go."
The Gators are heading into the game against the Gamecocks a little banged up, however, Mullen is confident in his team's tenacity.
"Our guys have shown some, having to deal with adversity and come through that, and continue to perform and find a way to win games, despite all of the injuries that we've had to deal with," Mullen said.
Other Injury Note
Mullen was asked about the status of Florida receiver Kadarius Toney.
The Gators head coach said there is no update on the receiver at this time. Remember a few weeks ago, Mullen told reporters that Toney was not expected back prior to the bye week.
Managing the Two-Quarterback System
Although the Gators are down to just two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, Mullen will not hesitate to use both Trask and Emory Jones moving forward.
"Statistically speaking, they can roll an ankle walking to class today," said Mullen. "Hopefully, that doesn't happen. You know, one of those deals. So you just go play."
Mullen did in fact use Jones plenty last weekend.
Jones went 1-of-3 for one touchdowns, while also adding 36 yards on the ground on nine carries.
"That was kind of a game-plan thing for us, and we had some things we liked to have Emory in there for that we thought were good for us," explained Mullen. "And you know some stuff, usually there's stuff that it really doesn't matter who's in, there were some things we wanted Emory in, especially with Kyle not getting as many reps during the week, Emory got some more reps and there were some things we wanted to take off of Kyle's plate."
According to Mullen, the decision to go with Jones on certain drives all depended on the scripted plays planned - including when Florida had put up 28 and decided to go with Jones instead of Trask.
"Plays we thought, ‘OK, here’s a series, here’s a couple of plays we want to have.’ And he was in there," said Mullen. "The first two plays we wanted him to run. We were hoping not to get a third down, but we had a third down and short. We thought we had a good play called for him on that situation. They ended up getting a pass rush on us. And we had an incomplete pass. It was more like our scripted series of what we were looking to run. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, he’s playing that whole series.’ If we get a couple first downs we’ve done what we did the whole game, which was roll those guys through.”
Although Jones only had two passes in the loss to LSU, Mullen will not hesitate to let the redshirt freshman air the ball out.
"It's just kind of the scheme we had going and what we're looking for out of it. One was a drop and we had a receiver running the wrong route, one of the other guys, and he would have been open. He would have been 2-for-2 with two touchdowns, which would have been a pretty good day. I mean part of it is what we're trying to set up."
GATOR CHOMPS
Five wide receiver sets. How fun is that to plan?
“I think one of the things you’re always trying to look for is matchups out there on the field and how to create advantageous matchups. We run — I don’t know how people describe offense. In my mind, we run a pro-style offense, which is we’re going to try to spread the field and create matchups. Go watch a game on Sunday, and that’s basically all they do. How do you create advantageous matchups? I think that’s why when you look at our guys, they have so much success playing in the NFL and how fast they can adapt to that game because we run that style offense. And so part of it is that. We’re looking at our personnel we’re trying to create mismatches across the board. When you spread people out, you can kind of define what they’re going to do at times. You have the opportunity to create mismatches. LSU’s a big man-to-man team. They love to play man to man. They’ve got some good players. What we’re trying to do is mismatch, get a mismatch with one of our players where we thought our player was better than theirs.”
Thoughts on Marco Wilson at STAR?
“Similar deal defensively for us. How are we creating the good matchups against people and putting guys in position to make plays? The opportunity if we can stay healthy, the more health you have, the more depth you have, the more you can move guys around to create mismatches or try to take certain things away that they’re going to try to do. That’s what we do as coaches. Our job’s to put people in the best position that they can be in.”
How was the execution of the offensive game plan?
"Pretty good except for the end. Those two red-zone drives. And that's on me. There's a lot that goes into it. But we've got to call better plays, we've got to get the ball into the end zone."
How much does Lamical Perine’s effort inspire the team?
“I think a lot. He is running hard. I thought our guys played hard. I don’t look at the game. I look at the guys. I’m not disappointed with our effort or our attitude or our preparation. In a big-time game, we had an opportunity to make some plays we didn’t make. That’s what happened. There’s a lot we can build off of that. You continue to build with where you are and how the season goes. This is a big point of our season right now, where we’re at.”
Is it easier to make schematic changes after a loss?
“I’m similar. I’m one and this. I’m probably, after a win, it’s now what … I mean, everyone after a win thinks it’s the greatest thing in the world and after a loss that it’s the most terrible thing in the world. It’s really not. Instead of like this [uses a linear scale demonstration using his arms to illustrate his talking point] it’s probably more like this and how we are correcting things. We’re going to correct things just like we would every single week. The same thing applies: if we don’t practice better, if we don’t prepare better, and if we don’t perform better, we can’t expect to win this week. But that’s the same thing that goes every single week throughout the year. Hopefully that goes all the way through January or whenever we play the game.”
