Special teams a focus for Dan Mullen

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Watch any Florida practice and you can see a drastic change. I'm not talking about the 'energy' or the 'physicality', I'm talking about special teams.

"We won a lot of games in nine years on special teams," said Florida head coach Dan Mullen.

Since his arrival in Gainesville, the head coach has tried to change the mindset around special teams at UF. The Gators begin every practice with a focus on that phase of the game with an understanding that it is an area everyone needs to contribute, improve or you do not play.

"We're going to make sure everyone in the program is invested in special teams, every player understands the importance of it," said Mullen. "I know sometimes after a game boy bad special teams day we missed a field goal. There’s so much more to it than that but or we had a bad punt. You know the specialists sometimes get the most attention, but there’s a lot of plays that can be made on special teams with attention to detail on the technique."

According to Mullen, this investment in that area of the game was something he picked up when he was an assistant to Urban Meyer in Bowling Green. As the head coach, he needs to make sure he is always showing his team that it is one of the most important parts of the puzzle - especially unlike kickers or punters who are recruited at those positions, Mullen needs to convince other athletes that were recruited at other positions, how important special teams really is.

"I make sure I’m involved in every aspect of it and special teams is a huge part of the program," said Mullen. "Those guys get special treatment. They eat first at the meals. They’re the one that get, are probably the favorites on the team are the special teams stars, so the guys understand the importance of what that is.

"If they see it from me as the head coach, as the program develops they see it from the older guys, when we get the program developed you’ll have guys who are fifth-year seniors and captains of the teams and you’re trying to save them maybe for other roles and they’re like, look coach I’m not coming off the punt team. That’s not happening. That mindset is the mindset you’re trying to build in the program and that comes from me.”

With the mindset a work in progress, practices are focused on technique and fundamentals (as evident in the video above)

"We're really spending time on individual work, on the technique, fundamentals of special teams before we put in the plays or the scheme and just go practice the scheme," explained Mullen. "Make sure everybody on the team gets reps and understanding of what the technique and fundamentals are involved in special team special teams, because during the season, there's a lot of guys that get opportunity to get out there on the field, so we want to make sure they understand that individual technique."

If anyone still doubts Mullen's attitude towards special teams, he quickly brings out the big guns.

"We show them NFL film of guys on special teams and if you want to be successful and have an opportunity to play football for a living one day, you better be a great special teams player," said Mullen. "I think one of the things we get into when we do the individual drills, everyone is doing it. All the guys on our team that are going to be involved in special teams have to do it, whether you’re going to play special teams or not, you’re learning technique and fundamentals. I think that’s important to give guys the opportunity to play in their future, too. When they leave this program and they want to continue to play, they’re going to have to play a lot of special teams to make it.”