Dan Mullen apologizes for ‘pack The Swamp’ comments, updates virus situation at Florida
By Keith Farner
Published:
Florida coach Dan Mullen stirred some controversy on Saturday when he said Florida should “pack The Swamp” for the upcoming LSU game after he saw the spirited atmosphere in the loss at Texas A&M.
On Wednesday during the SEC coaches media teleconference, he apologized for these comments he made on Saturday.
“I know our governor passed that rule so certainly, hopefully, the UF administration decides to let us pack the Swamp against LSU — 100 percent — because that crowd was certainly a factor in the game,” Mullen said.
On Wednesday, he struck a different tone, even after he face multiple questions on Monday about regretting making those comments.
“I think they’ve done a great job for us here in Florida and I think, you know, one of the things I think, I think a lot of my comment maybe got taken into what I’m demanding but it was more than whatever our health, health officials allow us to have in,” Mullen said. “That’s what we want to have in the stadium to keep everybody safe and healthy, and as well as create an unbelievable environment for players and create energy within the stadium and I thought today I’ve had a chance to look at the news over the last 24 hours and Saturday he’s like the you’re looking at that the (New Orleans) Saints are trying to play games in that group of fans in the stands. And those things so I certainly apologize if I offended people or anybody out there, I think anybody that knows me knows our program knows how we do things. We have great respect for, you know, our all of our local health officials, and for what they’ve been able to do and what we’ve been doing here. Since July well really, you know, I mean going all the way back to march and since July was brought our team back on campus.”
Mullen said Florida is waiting on today’s test results, and he wouldn’t speculate on if the LSU game will be played. He said two assistants have tested positive, but he hasn’t.
“So the next step is where we’re currently at right here which is, you know, for us right now to take everybody through a little bit of of our situation of what’s going on,” he said. “I think our medical staff has done a tremendous job since back in July. Putting safety protocols in place you know with an abundance of caution here within our program. I think, you know, the month of August and September we only had one positive, as you know, in talking to some of my peers around college football I think we’re still on the, on the very low number of positive tests.
What we did is our medical people we saw a slight spike with positive tests on Sundays tests, and a couple guys showing a combination of not just COVID symptoms, but with cold symptoms and we so we immediately started testing guys for both the flu and COVID we went through the change and that’s the only protocol we have changed.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
