Head coach Urban Meyer and several members of the Gator Football team met with the media on Monday to discuss what the team worked on during the bye week, preparations for the Georgia game, and more.
GatorVision was at today’s Media Day session and has the full press conferences available for viewing now.
Head Coach Urban Meyer
On any modifications that have been made to the offense:
“Yes, I’m not going to share much with you, but we have modified quite a bit. I’m obviously not going to say, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do,’ but things are modified and the injury issue, the personnel issue, is real so that’s going to help, I’m thinking. I’m going to let you know later this week and see how it goes, but it doesn’t look like us out there. It doesn’t look like BANG. I want to have the thud. We all want that. How do you get that? You recruit it. You develop it. You coach it. You make sure you’re practicing the mess out of it. That’s kind of where we’re at. “
On if he saw what he was looking to see from the team last week:
“I think 18- to 22-year-olds are all motivated differently. Obviously differently than maybe a grownup or a coach or a parent or something like that. I think the moment I put the standings of the SEC East and they see what’s going on, because I didn’t think that. Someone handed it to me last week and I didn’t know that, so it lifted my spirits and I think it lifted a lot of guys’ spirits around here. We had three really hard days now. We went Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday as hard as we’ve ever gone. More contact than we’ve ever had for development. But we had them in this morning at 7 a.m. and we’re ready to go.”
Junior QB John Brantley
On how excited he is to get back out on the field and work towards trying to get a win:
“Really excited. We had a great short practice week last week and a great bye weekend to get everyone a little healthy and just to get our minds right for the second half of the football season. We’re real hungry to get back out on the practice field and have another great week of practice and carry that over to Saturday.”
On what stood out to him about last week’s practice:
“Everyone was still ready to play. We wanted to practice, and we wanted to succeed. To see that, especially after such a hard weekend, to see everyone come in and know that we had the weekend off and know that these guys still wanted to be out there practicing hard and getting better, it was a great thing.”
Senior S Ahmad Black
Senior Safety Ahmad Black
On the mood of the team during last week’s practices:
“It was great. You would’ve sworn we had a game. Everybody went hard, went tough. We’re just excited to be out there again this week.”
On how bad the team needs a win:
“Real bad. These next couple games are huge for us. Like Coach said a couple times, we need to get urgent about everything, and urgency is a key factor.”
Senior OL Mike Pouncey
On the week of practice the team had last week:
“I’m seeing a bunch of guys that really want to win. We came out and practiced hard on the bye week. Most teams don’t do that. We did. We went out and practiced like we had a game that Saturday.”
On if the team needs to increase efficiency at practice:
“You practice like you play, and it’s something we’ve been trying to key on this last week, executing a lot better than we have and finishing.”
Senior LB Brandon Hicks
On whether he notices any changes in the team’s attitude or execution:
“I would say yes. It’s been definitely more focused, more technique looked upon, and basically more accountability from not only sides of the ball, but position groups as well as individual players. We’ve all taken great accountability for each other and the techniques that we have to accomplish and the plays that we have to get done.”
