Transcript: Dan Mullen’s Postgame Presser
Opening statement…
“Obviously, a tough game for us against a very good football team. I give them a lot of credit. They have very talented players and they play with great effort. They take advantage of opportunities. They play really good team football and you have to give them a lot of credit. Looking at us right now, we’re not where we want to be. I’m certainly not where I want to be and our players certainly are not where they want to be at this point of the season. It’s a mindset right now that we have to go change. Football is a great team sport, the ultimate team sport. As the head coach, the mindset of the team falls on me… Where we’re at, the attitude, the approach and everything falls on me. Obviously, I know we’re two-thirds of the way through the season right now. I’m certainly not pleased with where we are and I know our players are not pleased with where we are. I know Gator Nation is not pleased with where we are with the standards and expectations within this program. But, in this final third of the season, that’s on me to get this fixed. The approach I take and mindset that we play with, that’s on me to get fixed and I certainly plan on doing that – on changing where we’re at right now with us, creating some positive energy and some confidence for us, and the expectations to feed off of each other. I’m going to work and make sure I get that right.”
On the fans who are feeling the program isn’t going on the right trajectory…
“Here’s the deal – as you start slipping and the rope is slipping, you go on a little rope pull. It really pertains to everything… It pertains to individual games. At times we play really well, and then the rope slips and we kind of let a lot of it go. Against good teams, you can’t do that. Offense, defense – The entire team has to grasp on [the rope]. There are going to be ebbs and flows in the course of each game. As the rope slips throughout your hands, you can either let it drop, which isn’t the answer and won’t fix anything. Then, you’re going to feel that burn and you’re not going to squeeze as tight because of that burn, and that’s not going to fix anything. Or, you can just grab on tight, you hold on, you dig your heels in and you start pulling in the other direction. But a negative attitude or dropping the rope doesn’t fix anything. Grasping the rope does, holding on tight does, and squeezing as it’s burning does. I will say something about me – I don’t drop the rope. I’m not going to even let you rip it out of my hands. You can drag me around by my face if you want, but I’m going to squeeze it and I’m not going to let any inch of that rope go… And I know our players won’t either. For Gator Nation, we have one-third of the season left. Listen, this is not where I want to be right now. At 4-4, this is not where they want to be. But we still have one-third of this season left and we’ll see what we define ourselves by at the end of this season.”
On Dameon Pierce and his carry total throughout the game…
“We roll guys through with different things that are happening. Obviously, there are different scenarios throughout the game. I thought Dameon ran the ball pretty hard today. Because of our injuries, we played some two tailback sets. We had to play multiple backs in the game, which changed things up because of the some of the injuries. I thought he ran the ball hard.”
On Anthony Richardson starting and how he played today…
“We have a lot of things he still has to grow and develop on. He has a great work ethic, I think he’s an extremely talented young man, and I think he does put in the effort and he does put in the time in learning the offenses, the defenses and making the reads. Obviously, when you’re playing a great defense like Georgia has, you give them credit for having really good defensive guys. Overall, Anthony did some things really well and he made a couple of errors as well. But, that’s something we’ll coach him up on and get him better at.”
On his decision to go with Anthony Richardson over Emory Jones for the start… “When we were playing against LSU, I thought he had such a hot hand and played really well in the second half of that game. Both of our guys split reps evenly at practice. Both guys were ready to play, but I kind of kept sticking to where we were when we finished the last game. Today, we’re going to go with Anthony right here and Emory be ready. I think Anthony did some really good things out there on the field, with a couple of mistakes here and there. Unfortunately, a couple of them were big mistakes for us. Emory though, you want to see the character he has – He doesn’t flinch. When we said we were going to go with Anthony right here, his response was, ‘Whatever it takes to help the team win, I’m all in and I’ll be ready. Coach, you just point to me and I’ll be ready to go.’ He came in and I thought he played really well, also.”
Photos: Georgia vs. Florida 2021
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