Dan Mullen: Learning and Improving for Tennessee Matchup

Florida Gators head football coach Dan Mullen spoke to the media on Monday about what went right and what went wrong in the game against Colorado State last Saturday.

While he was happy with the team’s performance, he felt that there was still a lot of room for improvement.

Determined to Improve

Mullen spoke about how well the team’s defense did against the run. Florida allowed just 70 rushing yards on Colorado State’s 42 rushes. Mullen, however, thought the team could have done better defending the pass.

The Gators allowed the Rams to convert eight third-down situations. Mullen said that this needs to improve heading into conference play.

Mullen mentioned that the offensive line will be another area to improve. He said he felt the line did better opening up holes for the run game, but he still feels that it needs to be better.

“We have high standards for [the offensive line],” he said. “If you’ve got a great offensive line, you got a great opportunity to be successful.”

Florida ran for 222 yards on 29 attempts, which was a marked improvement over the previous week against Kentucky.

Looking Ahead

Tennessee will be a familiar foe for Mullen, who has coached in the SEC for over ten years this season.

The Gators coach said on Monday that the Vols are in a similar situation as Florida with a new coach who is trying to improve every day.

The Volunteers are 2-1 on the season and are led by a solid defense with new head coach Jeremy Pruitt.

Mullen said that the team will throw many looks at quarterback Feleipe Franks and the Gators offense on Saturday.

Tennessee held UTEP to 134 total yards and just seven first downs in the shutout win at home last Saturday.

Mullen said that Franks’ reads of the defense will be key heading into the game. He mentioned that the quarterback will need to prepare hard before the game even starts of the Volunteers’ tendencies in order to play well against Pruitt’s defense.

Florida will travel to Knoxville to play Tennessee on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.