Florida coach Dan Mullen has received a good amount of backlash following his halftime comments to CBS Sports about the hit by Auburn’s Marlon Davidson on QB Kyle Trask.

Asked about the comments since some in the Auburn community have asked for an apology, Mullen said his use of the word “dirty” when describing the hit probably wasn’t the best way to describe the hit. He added that he thought Davidson probably wasn’t coached that way.

Trask suffered the left knee injury and briefly went to the locker room, and returned with a brace on the leg. Mullen said Saturday that it was a sprained MCL, and more of a minor injury than a major one.

“Maybe the use of that word, maybe that wasn’t the right word at the time,” Mullen said at his regular weekly press conference. “I don’t think that was being coached, and I don’t think there was intent to go injure him on the play. I think that’s something though, when we look at player safety, we got to really pay attention. I know as a league, everybody wants to preach player safety, player safety, player safety, talk about it, but what are we doing about it on those type of hits?”

Mullen even added that if happened in the NFL on a Sunday, “I bet it would’ve been called, because they’re talking about player safety.”

“Maybe the choice of words at the time was wrong, but it’s more, to me of we have to, I think those are plays we want to try to get out of the game. Plays where guys have significant opportunities to be injured and those are type of plays, helmet-to-helmet hits, plays that there are injuries or great chance of players being injured we want to try to get out of the game.”