Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham hasn’t always been the most popular man among the fan bases where he’s coached, but it’s safe to say he has the confidence of Florida head coach Dan Mullen. The Gators head man had some high praise for Grantham, who has been his defensive coordinator the last three years, on Wednesday.

Mullen called Grantham “probably the top defensive coordinator in all of college football” and went on to praise him for having “complete control of his system.”

Grantham is known for being a very aggressive coordinator, bringing heavy pressure even on third-and-longs, but Mullen said Wednesday that his defensive coordinator also knows when to drop into coverage and is good at making in-game adjustments.

Mullen hired Grantham to be his defensive coordinator at Mississippi State in 2017. When Mullen left for Florida following that season, Grantham followed him to Gainesville.

Also in his press conference Wednesday, Mullen addressed the current status of the college football transfer portal. As many coaches, players and fans have said, Mullen would like more “consistency.” Without referencing specific names, the Florida coach said he was reading about two different cases that sounded very similar to him, and yet, one player was eligible immediately while the other had to sit out.

Here is the best of the rest from Mullen on Wednesday:

  • On Sawyer Smith: There are going to do – they are not going to put in a new offense… they are going to do what they do… Even if they are running the same plays, they will have some twists in there.
  • On UK run game: They are really physical, it will be a real challenge for our guys. Anytime you play UK, you expect a physical game.
  • On UK running in between the tackles: One, we have a bunch of guys back in our interior DL – they’ve had a year to grow in our system. One of the issues last year, they were physical and we had some poor run fits… they find creative ways to run the ball. We have got to keep gap integrity.
  • On Feleipe Franks: he has grown in a lot of ways. look at his decision making on the field, we have had two very different challenges and this game is another different challenge… I think he has done a really good job.