Dan Mullen discusses penalties, improving defense, bouncing back from a loss
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Florida’s 20-13 loss at Kentucky last Saturday night had plenty to do with how well the Wildcats played, but the Gators contributed to the cause as well with a number of self-inflicted wounds.
The 76-yard TD return of a blocked field goal certainly comes to mind, a potential 9-point swing in the game, as do the 15 penalties for 115 yards that Florida racked up.
During the SEC coaches teleconference Wednesday, Gators coach Dan Mullen was asked about the penalties.
“I think obviously a lot of guys haven’t played in the environments, and it’s always a challenge when you go on the road in the SEC,” Mullen said. “… It just means more in the SEC. … There are a lot of things that went into it the other night. We’ve just got to coach it up and improve on it.”
Mullen said one of the highlights from the loss in Lexington was how well the No. 20 Gators played defensively.
Florida held Kentucky to 224 total yards in the game, including just 87 passing yards.
“I think we did a really good job of containing explosive plays,” said Mullen of his defense. “They had 1 big screen pass we had a couple of missed tackles on … We attacked the ball and wrapped up ball carriers. We didn’t give up a whole lot of yards and defensively, held them to 14 points.”
Of course, at the end of the day, the result was still a loss.
But Mullen firmly believes that his team will regroup and play better Saturday against Vanderbilt.
“Our guys understand. It’s about 6 inches between a pat on the back and a kick in the rear end,” Mullen said. “… You look at the realities, what we did well, what we did poorly and how we’ve got to improve. … Our guys have handled everything pretty well. We had a good practice (Tuesday) and I think our guys are eager to get back on the field and compete on Saturday.”
"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."
