GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Florida football held its second and final scrimmage of fall camp on Sunday night.
The Gators simulated a primetime kickoff, with the team working in a more realistic setting compared to their more situational practice during their earlier scrimmage.
"Every drive starts in a set field position in the first scrimmage, so you make sure to hit everything, while in the second scrimmage you play more like a game," Gators head coach Dan Mullen said during his Monday press conference. "You've got to punt in between series instead of all in the beginning or a special teams scrimmage period, team scrimmage period. Special teams is mixed in and more game-like and you have to transition from one to the next."
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According Mullen, he was happy at the progress he saw between the first scrimmage and the second.
"The scrimmage last night, I thought it was better," Mullen told reporters. "The guys on the team took some steps forward. I think it was just cleaner football from top to bottom. It makes it easier to coach off of."
After the first scrimmage, the Gators head coach wanted to see more consistency of play from his side. He told reporters last week that guys would make one big play and then miss an easy one.
On Sunday the Gators executed at a higher clip.
"When there are a lot of MAs [missed assignments] and broken plays it’s hard to coach," he explained. "You get out of weird situations and weird things happen. We had a lot less missed tackles, which is good because you have to be careful with how much you tackle just with player safety.
"I thought overall the breakdowns weren’t massive breakdowns," Mullen added. "Breakdowns were one or two, mistake here or there that you can really coach and see what goes on."
Florida is just 12 days away from kicking off its season against Miami at Camping World Stadium
Mullen will use these last three practices of camp to fine tune things before focusing on the Hurricanes.
"It’s on us quick. I think we have really three more practices," Mullen said. "Today will be helmets, Friday will be shorts and T-shirts, walk-through type practice. There are only three more practices and then game week, so we have to have a sense of urgency."
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Dan Mullen leaves it open for Noah Banks to remain involved with the team
Noah Banks announced on Sunday that he would medically retire from football, after suffering another 'minor episode' due to epilepsy.
Banks was part of Florida's rotation on the line during camp and was expected to feature this season, if his health allowed him to do so.
"No, [did not anticipate it]," said Mullen. "He didn’t go through anything in the spring trying to get himself healthy and then he came to us wanting to come back. He was excited to come back and I think it just took a toll on him a little bit and just decided it wasn’t for his best, you know his health, for the long term and the future.”
Early during Mullen's tenure, Randy Russell was also deemed medically ineligible, however, he is still very involved with the Gators program - he was seen signing autographs on Sunday at fan day and is often on the practice field along side safeties coach Ron English.
Although Banks may not feature on the depth chart, Mullen is leaving the door open for Banks to be involved with the team as well.
“We’ll see, that’s always a personal decision for everybody. We leave it up to those guys," said Mullen. There’s always a path for them to be involved as much as they want. It’s up to them, because it is a personal decision. You know a lot of guys struggle being around the team because they want to play and football’s been taken away from them for medical issues. Other guys - I’ve had guys not be able to be around. I’ve had guys that want to be around for a little bit that can’t. Guys that are always around. Guys that become coaches. It’s a very personal, personal deal.”
GATOR CHOMPS
Where has Feleipe Franks made the most growth these last few practices?
“I think he is just comfortable with the offense. Now it’s a transition. He is comfortable with the offense, now it’s really applying it, about applying it on game day. Because starting next Monday we are going to go against the defense. You go almost 40 practices, I guess 35 practices that we’ve gone our offense against our defense, and now we are going to get ready to go against a different defense. We are going to take the stuff we learned, in your knowledge of the offense and how we are going to use it to attack Miami.”
Feleipe more explosive plays down field?
“Well, I think yeah. I think him managing allows that to happen - you know what I mean? - and his making the right reads, him checking the ball down. The more you check the ball down the more you get to throw it down the field, which might not seem to make sense for people that don’t know what they’re talking about. But the more you manage the game and check the ball down the more shots you can take down the field because you present more opportunities for yourself to keep having positive plays. So I think that understanding of the offense, of when you’re taking your educated shots allows you to be more productive.”
On Jarren Williams' starting at QB for Miami
"We’ll look at him. He hadn’t played a whole lot. None of their guys have really played a whole lot so it’s not like ‘ok, now let’s go study this guy.’ And you know a new coaching staff so you don’t have a lot of film to go on so I was thinking, in the early games, game one, a lot of the focus has to be on you. If you play well you put yourself in a position to win more than relying on ‘hey we’re just gonna out scheme them in some way shape or form’ because it’s game one, you don’t have a lot on their team. We have new players, they have new players, they have a new coaching staff which is a little bit different. I don’t know, I’ve been there. I have no idea what Manny and Dan are planning to do with the offense and whether their gonna rotate guys, get guys in different series, how much of a starter he’s {ASK] but we’ll figure it out in 12 days.”
Where is Jaelin Humphries at?
“He’s coming back. He’s still dealing with some medial issues, some injuries he came in with. So he has not practiced yet. He’s in our training camp roster but has not made it to a practice yet. So hopefully he gets healthy in the next couple of weeks and keep moving forward.”
On Nick Savage
"He was an assistant for us. There was somebody, when we had the change, he was somebody that understood the program a little bit of what we were looking for. It’s hard sometimes to go get outsiders that don’t understand what we’re trying to accomplish. He had been in it a while. He understood what the program was all about. But a pretty unique deal. I kind of gave him an interim position at the beginning of December. ‘You have through the bowl game to prove that you’re ready to be the head strength coach. You have the next month. And then after the bowl game I’ll make my decision on what I’m going to do.’ You know, because he was very young. I wanted to see that he was going to be … in a condensed version, but you touch on a lot in a bowl game. You have kind of a developmental lifting week and then you kind of have a mini-spring ball development training camp week. Then you have a game week and then a recruiting weekend. In that month of December, there is a lot going on that kind of touches on each little thing. He did a great job with it. Despite being young, I thought here’s a guy, I gave him the opportunity, he took advantage of it. He had juice, had energy, handled whatever got thrown at him in that time period. He knows what my expectations are and what I want, so a great opportunity for him. He hasn’t let me down since.”
Anything in particular during that bowl prep where you thought, ‘he’s our guy.’
“I just thought he had great energy and juice. The players liked him. The players liked him, but he didn’t change. He was demanding. He wasn’t going to give an inch. But he understood. He didn’t push too far. He didn’t try to cross the line to impress me or cross the line to impress the players or anything it. He was just him and that kind of fit.”
On Shawn Davis
“It’s been good. You know, he’s come along. He’s worked. He’s taken a step forward. He got an explosive [in scrimmage]. I think he got comfortable in the defense, making calls and getting himself in the right position to make plays. That’s a big positive. I love seeing the guys grown and develop. What you want to see is how they keep taking next steps in their careers, which is what we want guys to do and he’s had a pretty good camp. Certainly to be in the rotation of guys playing.”
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