The dust has settled after Florida’s uninspiring 24-20 season-opening win over Miami. With the team back in Gainesville, the media had the chance to speak with players and coaches after Tuesday’s practice. Here are five of the most interesting quotes:
Quarterback Feleipe Franks on the reaction to him yelling into a camera and his touchdown celebration:
“I don’t play to please anybody. I play to win. I play to help this team win, the program win. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since I’ve been here. I don’t play to please anybody. Anybody outside this building … I come in here every single day, we work our tails off to go out there on Saturdays and win. That’s what I play for, that’s what I do. And we got the win and got the job accomplished as a team.”
Franks on his second interception:
“Ultimately, I was trying to throw the ball away. Somebody was right (on) me, and I was trying to get the ball over him to throw the ball out of bounds. I couldn’t get enough on it.”
Wide receiver Trevon Grimes on Franks:
“People don’t understand, he goes through so much stuff. He goes through so much criticism. And he still has to go out there and play in front of 80,000 fans. So it’s a lot of pressure, and when he shows that he can do what everyone thinks he can’t, it’s a pride-filling presence. It’s just like, ‘That’s my quarterback,’ and I get to brag about that.”
Grimes on the team’s mistakes:
“I kind of feel like in the first half we were making mental mistakes and kind of beat ourselves. … So I really feel like the score should have been a lot different, but at the end of the day we came out victorious, and that’s all that matters.”
Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham on penalties:
“So we’ve got to coach that better and they’ve got to execute better, so we’ll all do better at that. You’ve got to understand your leverage and that goes back to the choices with your eyes, understand that you maintain your proper eye control that allows you to maintain your leverage. And then choices, you’ve got to understand there’s a sideline, when the guy’s out of bounds, you can’t hit him. So that’s pretty basic.”
Follow Sam Campisano on Twitter @samcampisano. Follow him at scampisano@alligator.org.
UF receiver Trevon Grimes (right) on quarterback Feleipe Franks' celebrations: "People don’t understand, he goes through so much stuff. He goes through so much criticism."