Dan Mullen explains why Arkansas has found success, his impression of Feleipe Franks
Coming off a big win over Georgia, Florida gets set to play one of the hottest teams in the SEC in Arkansas, which has exceeded expectations already this season and drawn rave reviews for its coaching staff.
That coaching staff will be altered this week as coach Sam Pittman has tested positive for COVID-19, and defensive coordinator Barry Odom will serve as the interim coach. Odom, of course, is familiar with playing Florida from being the head coach at Missouri.
Florida coach Dan Mullen on the SEC coaches media teleconference explained how Arkansas has found success.
“Mental and physical toughness,” Mullen said. “There comes a lot in that, believing you can win and expecting to win. they could have a better record than they have. they fell down behind last week and the fought and climbed back in. There’s a lot to be said for that. Toughness doesn’t show on the stat line.
Mullen doesn’t believe there will be any drop off with Odom at the helm.
“I have a lot of respect for him… for him, when you’ve been a head coach, he has a certain experience… you can see the identity of the program and I think Barry will continue that,” Mullen said.
Florida, of course, will face former QB Feleipe Franks.
“I knew he would be successful wherever he went,” Mullen said. “When he told me he was moving on, he wanted to start. we had two guys that could start… I’m really happy for him, I’m not surprised, he’s a competitor, he’s a leader, he will push himself on and off the field.”
About the second half issues in the Georgia game, Mullen said, “We missed some reads in the pass game, we got a little more conservative… we were up 3 scores for a better half of the second half, so the mentality is different.”
Odom is very familiar with Mullen’s offense and Defense. Franks is familiar wit Florida’s defense as well. Hogs win this one.
Wow! You are going to in for a shock when Florida wins the game! No way Arkansas going to win this game and Florida is number 6 right now and where is Arkansas rank? Huge difference!
Arkansas already knocked off one ranked team this year in Mississippi State (16 at the time) and should have knocked off another in Auburn (13 at the time) if not for a bad call by the refs.
Rankings don’t always matter. Anything can happen on any given Saturday. Do I expect the Hogs to win this Saturday? No, I don’t, but you never know until the game is played.
As a Hog fan please don’t compare MSU and AU to Florida. MSU is awful and AU is way overrated. This will be the best team we have played this year outside of possibly A&M (UGA is overrated).
I wouldn’t be shocked, this is a game Florida could very easily lose if we aren’t disciplined. Don’t get me wrong, Florida is the better team, but you should feel good about the Razorbacks chances this weekend.
I’m an Arkansas grad but our only hope is Florida has a UGA hangover (where my freshman son goes ironically) and missing Pitts actually makes a difference. I think is similar to the A&M game for the Hogs. We might take an early lead but we will trail the rest of the game and probably cover again. I’m going 38-24 Gators with a late Hog TD