GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Florida football held its second scrimmage on Saturday and Dan Mullen was pleased at the progress he saw.

"There’s some positives, a lot to teach off of for us. A lot to show guys," said the Gators head coach on Monday afternoon. "I thought it was pretty positive in teaching."

There were several players that had flashes in the scrimmage, including wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland that had a few touchdown receptions. According to Mullen, Cleveland received more reps over the weekend because Van Jefferson was unable to practice due to a family issue.

"He’s a guy that understands what it is to go be a team player," said Mullen about Cleveland. "He’s a dynamic special teams player for us, as well, made a lot of special teams plays. When you become a mature guy like him, when guys become mature guys, they understand if you want to play after college being a dynamic special teams player is as important as being a dynamic receiver. When you really understand how critical that part of the game is and what your factor is on the team, those are some of the most important plays you can make in a game."

However, for the staff these scrimmages are not meant to show off skills of the players they know well from last season; it is about seeing what the younger talent can do; how they can help these same guys take their game to the next level; and help their team understand how to react to certain schemes they might face.

"I just want to make sure that we have the right teaching moments and are we headed in the right direction? Are we getting all the different stuff in," explained Mullen. "There will be times where I’ll walk over to Todd [Grantham] and say, ‘Hey, I need you to play this defense for three straight plays because I want to call these plays against that defense.’ They’ll be, ‘Hey, can you these type of pass routes. Get into bunch, get into empty, let’s got three straight plays of empty.’ So we can get it on film to teach.

"As I was telling the coaches, our [job] is making sure we’re getting taught what we need taught, we’re getting to evaluate what we need to evaluated or putting players in positions to go be successful," added Mullen. "Overall, I would say it was pretty successful because we have a bunch of teaching moments. We got to see guys do things. It helps us to make better decisions of where everybody is at.”

One of those young guys is Chris Steele. The former five-star cornerback that early enrolled this January, has received plenty of first team reps since Marco Wilson remains limited - after suffering an ACL tear last fall.

"He’s doing good," said Mullen. "He’s getting reps with the top group, so he’s handled that pretty well. I think, again, when you get put in with those groups, you’re held to a certain standard. And so, it accelerates your growth and development and your level of play. I think he’s had a pretty solid spring.”

Although not quite a young group, scrimmages also allows the staff to see the quarterbacks in action.

"They’ve done good," said the Florida coach on the signal callers. "You see them a lot more comfortable in the system in year two.”

This is Florida's final week of spring practice. The Gators will hold their spring game on Saturday.

GATOR CHOMPS

How challenging is the recruiting calendar?

"Yeah, I think it is a little different now. I think it's been accelerated. I think it's changed. I think it's interesting to see though, what's amazing is there's a bunch of sports that used to have like a really early recruiting and by NCAA rule, they've changed it back, or they've slowed everything way, way, way down. And then football, they keep trying to accelerating up and you know kind of doesn't make sense with the NCAA, which way they wanna go with that of 'Oh these sports have a lot of early recruiting, that wasn't successful so let's slow them way down but while we're doing that let's accelerate football and speed that way up.' But it is what it is and I mean we just, you just adapt and you move on. We had the officials on campus this weekend, they did the SEC officials meeting here; you talk to those guys and I ask certain questions, so whatever rules are made, we're gonna find a way to adapt and we'll tweak and change around what we thinks best for the game. I don't know if the coaches all that much say in how things get changed."

Any reason for significant number of SEC coordinator changes?

"I have no idea, to be honest. We didn't have any so I guess it's something I maybe will study in the offseason. I certainly hope it's for better opportunities. I was here. I had a great gig as the offensive coordinator here. We had won two out of three national championships. Had a lot of guys coming back for what probably would have been a third in four years and I had a great opportunity to go become a head coach in the Southeastern Conference. It's very much like guys have opportunities to go leave early for the NFL and do that stuff. I looked at it. I hope it's for better opportunities, but obviously there's the other side of it where the job's not getting done and guys end up losing their job."

Guys in transfer portal practicing other places, what’s your take?

“Everything to me is case-by-case basis. If one of the guys comes in, I’m pretty simple about everything, if they come in and say, coach, I’d like to enter the transfer portal, I’d like to transfer, usually my first question is, why? If they don’t have a really good reason, I might try to talk them out of it and say, you really need to think about it. And then my next question is, what’s your plan? Because if they don’t have a plan I might try to talk them out of it again. We’re in it for the kids, I want to see guys succeed and go on to be successful. Usually we’ll have a discussion, and I’ll talk to guys about that and say, ‘Hey, where are you at? Do you want to be on the team through spring and see what happens and practice? How do you want to train? What’s the reason for your departure and what’s your plan for departing and how are you gonna accomplish that goal?’ Those are the things we really discuss in those meetings. I think it’s tough for the guys to be thinking, ‘Hey, I’m not gonna be on the team.’ And still to be out there practicing and just that whole mindset of being around the other players, but it’s not a rule that we have.”