Gators Ready To Roll, Mullen 'Excited' To See How His Team Performs
Football is back.
After several months of postering and debating whether or not it would be deemed "safe" enough to play football, the Florida Gators are set to kick of game one of its 10-game, conference-only schedule this Saturday, Sept. 26 against the Ole Miss Rebels.
Without much of a camp, no spring game at all and limited scrimmages, Gators head coach Dan Mullen isn't exactly sure what to expect out of his team this year, but he's excited to find out.
"It’s like Bizarro World right?," Mullen asked to open up his Monday game-week press conference. "Like Bizarro Jerry if you ever saw that Seinfeld episode, like I'm like this weird deal. I've never been this late in September we haven't played.
"For our guys, obviously it's a huge adjustment this week for us because you got to go full on change into game mode, different types of practice, different preparation, different routine. Different everything for us getting ready from what we've been doing. It's been a long time since we played so we're excited to go."
It is a different mode. It is a huge adjustment. The Gators will have to go in on the same playing field as the rest of the conference, cold. While there could be mistakes, Mullen is confident in the team's preparation, and is ready to see how it all shakes out.
"I know our guys - I think everybody's excited to play," he said. "Excited to get out there on the field and go. I'm excited to see how we respond how we handle it, you know, because I think it's a little bit different. It's going to be a different environment that we play in, obviously — on the road in the SEC is always a big challenge - the environments and how those are going to be played out differently."
While the season is starting, it will be vastly different than in year's past. There won't be very many fans in the stands in Oxford this weekend. Ole Miss will hold just 16,009 or 25% of its max capacity at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium which is 64,038. The home field advantage is slight, if at all thanks to the lack of fans.
Another challenge the team will face this week is the lack of scouting. While the Gators are familiar with the players on the Ole Miss roster - at least most of them -, the team will have very little to work off of from its new coaching staff in head coach Lane Kiffin. Kiffin accepted the Ole Miss job shortly prior to the college football season ending after spending three years at FAU in the same capacity.
"They’re looking at us and saying, ‘Hey, let’s get last year’s film.' Same offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, head coach, special teams coordinator’s all the same. Theirs, everybody’s brand new. So you’re kind of trying to mix and match what they’re going to do offensively, what they’re going to do defensively, what they’re going to do special teams wise," Mullen said.
"Watching all these different other teams from where people have been in the past and then you’re trying to watch their personnel. It’s always tricky. I’m never a big fan of not watching the team you’re playing. Anytime you play a team with a new staff, that’s’ what you have to do.”
The Gators will need to brush up on their FAU film to get further insight into how Kiffin may operate. While with the Owls, Kiffin had the offense humming, becoming one of the most potent offenses in Conference USA, and winning two conference title games as well as multiple bowl games.
Florida is ready, and exicted to take on its first opponent of the season, and we will get a much better look at the new-look Florida offense and defense on Saturday.
"I'm excited. I mean, you know we haven't played in forever so I'm excited for us to play, you keep asking, 'hey how are we going to be this year?' I don't know, we're gonna find out on Saturday."
