Even though Kyle Pitts was already committed to Florida when Dan Mullen was hired as coach, Mullen made sure to have a conversation with him as soon as possible.

On the SEC coaches media teleconference on Wednesday, Mullen shared his early impressions of Pitts, who has become one of the more dynamic players in college football this season, and a matchup nightmare for defenses.

“He was here when I when I got hired,” Mullen said. “He was committed to Florida and so he’s one of the you know we got on the phone to him right away watch them on film. If you watch high school film, knew he was a dynamic playmaker on offense. As you can imagine he was pretty explosive pass rusher on the defensive side of the ball. But I knew for him, he always thought he was an offensive player and that’s the first discussion we had, which was, he was a guy, I called him I say ‘You can do just about anything at the college level.’ And he’s like, ‘Coach, I think I’m an explosive offensive player,’ and I said sounds good to me. Let’s go.”

Mullen and the Gators will travel to Tennessee this week, and he said the Vols have talent across the board.

“They have a bunch of weapons,” Mullen said. “When they are clicking, they can put up points in a hurry… they have a veteran defense, they’ve had a few tough breaks but earlier in the year, they had one of the longer winning streaks in the country.”