The clock is ticking to the start of the season.
And in what coach Dan Mullen considers the craziest schedule he’s faced, he believes his team needs to maximize the 22 remaining days until the season-opening kickoff at Oxford, Mississippi.
His team is still sloppy, he says. With only a month of allowed preseason practices and less than a month until the season opener, Mullen thinks the team is on the right track, and he credited the coaches’ and players’ adjustments to the anomalous schedule they have. However, Mullen admits things may start sloppy.
“In about a 10-month period, (the players) have tackled somebody once,” he said. “You probably wouldn’t want to go rushing to the hospital to have surgery with someone that’s done a surgery twice in 10 months.”
The areas of concern? Tackling, special teams and general execution, Mullen said.
And though the team had a full-contact scrimmage last week, there’s one more—the last on the schedule—for Mullen and company to prepare before sticking to a practice-only schedule. He said he needs to see cleaner tackling, ball security and execution four days from now.
With these constraints and the forced adaption to coaching during a pandemic, Mullen finds himself in an unusual space. Because normally at this time, he’d be full from a Friday meal and preparing to play Eastern Washington; instead, he’s fielding questions on a Zoom call.
“That's kind of depressing,” he said. “The whole thing's like a blur to me because it's just so unnatural."
COVID-19
Following the latest round of tests, Mullen says there are no positive results from his athletes.
He credits results to the efforts his players made, especially with the start of the semester Monday.
"It's really encouraging,” he said. “I think it shows their commitment to excellence, their desire to be a great football team, their commitment to each other, and how serious they take everything.”
The next test will be to see if the team’s efforts hold out through December. But for now, he’s happy with the results—or lack thereof—he’s seen.
“There’s a growing comfort with what we’re doing,” he said. “I think (the players) realize we’ve tried to create a really safe environment. They look at their teammates and have a lot of respect between each other and guys on the team.”
Death to home-field advantage
The last time Mullen found himself coaching at home with fewer than 17,000 fans in the stands was in 2002. He was the then-quarterbacks coach of Bowling Green University, and they were hosting Eastern Michigan.
It was 33 degrees and there were 12,974 fans — though Mullen suggests that figure should “lose the one in the 12” — that braced the cold to watch a 63-21 victory.
This season, attendance at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is capped at 17,000 fans, a fifth of what the stadium typically holds. It’ll be an unusual experience for Mullen and his players.
“One of the things people come play at Florida for is to be able to play at the Swamp and have 90,000 fans going crazy,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a little awkward. Almost have like scrimmage feels than game-day feels.”
While the team will stick to SEC rules which say artificial noise can’t be played once the center’s hand touches the ball, Mullen will explore all possible options to make up for the lack of fans.
“I got to call Jurgen Klopp and see what he thought,” he said, citing Liverpool’s Premier League victory in front of empty seats following the league’s resumption.
Mullen added that he might talk to people from the NFL, whose season begins Thursday, to see how they managed artificial sounds.
Contact Christian Ortega at cortega@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @unofficialchris.
Coach Dan Mullen believes it will be "awkward" having only 17,000 spectators in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for home games this season.
