KEVIN TRAINOR: We're first
joined by the head coach of the Florida Gators, Coach Will Muschamp. We'll ask
coach to make an opening statement, then we'll take your questions.
COACH MUSCHAMP: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's great
to be here. Going into year three. Appreciate what you all guys do for the
Southeastern Conference and the University of Florida in promoting our league
and the university.
Certainly as a player,
assistant coach, and now as a head coach, have enjoyed working with all of you
through the years, well actually most of you through the years, not all of
you. But it's great to be back.
We made some strides in our
second season. I think as you look back from year one to year two, obviously
the record was better, which is good. But more than anything to me, the roster
in our locker room is much better.
From a discipline standpoint,
from a character standpoint, from a buy‑in standpoint. When you have
eight come‑from‑behind wins in a season, that says a lot about where
you are as a program and where your kids are as far as the buy‑in is
concerned, which obviously excites me.
Two things we emphasized last
year was turnover margin in 2011, we went from ‑12, to 2012 we went to
+15, which is a difference in a season, difference playing in a BCS bowl game.
As far as scoring in the
fourth quarter in SEC football games, my first season we were outscored by 50
points, 72 to 22; this past year we outscored our opponents by 41 points, 61 to
20. You're talking about a 91‑point swing in a season.
You have to credit we
inherited a young, talented team. Number two, the job Jeff Dillman and our
strength staff did in the weight room. Our guys believing in winning the game
in the fourth quarter, understanding the importance of playing with a certain
physical style we're going to play with at the University of Florida.
Really pleased with our staff
at this time. Since the first time at 2010, we'll have the same offensive
coordinator which our kids are relieved to have. When I first took over at
Florida, I wanted to change philosophically offensively what we were. We want
to be a run‑back dominated team that is a balanced offense and efficient
in throwing the football.
We certainly need to be more
consistent and efficient in throwing the ball. I thought we ran the ball
extremely well last year.
Brent and I sat down last
spring and said whoever wins the quarterback job, however we look at it, we're
going to have a young quarterback, new system, same philosophy of what we want
to do, as we continue to evolve our offense. We're still a little deficient as
far as depth and talent in certain areas.
What do we need to do? I know
we can play good defense. We can play special teams. Let's make sure we
protect the ball and play good team football. That's what we did. That was a
good formula for 10 wins last year.
It's tough sometimes for
coaches to do that. Brent has been a guy that put up a lot of numbers at Boise
State and different places. Really pleased with the addition of Joker
Phillips, our wide receivers coach, a guy that played the position, coached the
position for over years. He's been an offensive coordinator and a head coach,
which I welcome in the room.
That's something that I think
gives you great ideas and benefit from a guy that has sat in the chair before.
Certainly when I was defensive coordinator of having guys in the room that have
called it before and they see the big picture. Really pleased offensively
staff‑wise.
Defensively Dan Quinn took the
defensive coordinator job at Seattle Seahawks, which says a little bit about
the coaches we hire at Florida. The NFL is coming to hire coordinator from
us. Dan did a fantastic job for us. He's an outstanding coach and a great
friend.
We promoted D.J. Durkin, did
an outstanding job at Florida. He's an outstanding football coach. More than
anything, he understands how we want to play defense at Florida. He does a great
job of relating to our players. As we move into fall camp, I'm excited about
what he brings to the table.
I always felt as an assistant
coach your tape was your résumé. You can get up on of the board and draw fancy
X's and O's, but at the end of the day, what you put on the field is who you
are as a coach.
I really watched South
Carolina's and the job that Brad Lawing did there, a guy that has 33 years of
experience, you talk about developing players. A guy did an outstanding job.
After 15 days of spring practice, I totally understand what he did there. He's
an outstanding football coach and really a great addition to our staff.
Lastly, Jeff Choate was hired
to be our special teams coordinator. Recruited in the state of Texas. A guy
that's an outstanding evaluator, recruiter. Philosophically he's the same as
we are as far as special teams are concerned. Really excited about what he
brings to the table.
So staff‑wise, very
pleased with where we are. Obviously extremely pleased with the job Jeff
Dillman and our strength staff has done. From year one to year two, that's
where we made a tremendous step.
We need to be more efficient
in throwing the football. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. We
have to create more explosive plays for ourselves down the field. I believe we
will be able to do that. I think we did that throughout spring. It's been a
point of emphasis for our staff.
Limit negative plays, whether
it's a tackle for a loss, self‑inflicted wound for penalties. That's
something we can't afford to do in our league as good as defenses are.
Also scoring touchdowns in the
red zone, we felt like we left a lot of points on the field in games, cost
ourselves as far as moving forward in the game.
Again, year two in the system,
Jeff Driskel, it's his football team, a guy I thought attacked the off‑season
the way you're supposed to, as far as his mental preparation, watching film.
Certainly understands what we're doing offensively much better than a year ago,
which is expected. A guy I'm really excited to see play.
You see the leadership taking
over on our team and more than anything, other than maybe the tight‑end
position, I think we got a chance to be better than we were at all positions
than we were last year offensively. Really excited about him.
A lot said about his signing a
non‑compete contract with the Boston Red Sox. Jeff came in my office
after Boston drafted him and said, Coach, this is the deal. They want to sign
me. If I ever want to play baseball, I have to play for the Red Sox. Haven't
picked up a bat in two years and I have no intention of playing baseball, but
they're willing to cut me a check. By NCAA rules, it's legal.
I said, "Jeff, if you
were my son, I'd tell you to sign the contract."
His commitment level to the
University of Florida is outstanding. But he had a great opportunity there
with a great organization. If he ever does want to pick up a bat or a glove,
certainly being a part of the Red Sox organization would be outstanding.
We're better up front, more
talented and deeper. We have seven guys on our campus right now. Jon Halapio
is with us today, as well as Jeff Driskel. Jon is going into his third year as
a starter and an outstanding leader. All of the tangible things you want in a
football player, Jon has it, and a guy that I'm really excited for his senior
season.
Jon Harrison, again, another
guy that's a three‑year starter at the center position, a guy that has
played outstanding football for us.
Chaz Green has started for now
for two years. D.J. Humphries is up between 285, 290, started some games for
us as a true freshman.
Kyle Koehne has started games
for us. Ian Silberman has played a lot and Trip Thurman has played a lot.
So we got seven guys on campus
on the offensive line that have played a lot of football at Florida.
You add with that Max Garcia
and Tyler Moore, both guys that started at their respective universities before
they came to Florida. We have nine guys with Division I experience. That's a
far cry from where we were two years ago.
We were a little banged up in
the spring, but coming out of the spring, one man's misfortune is another man's
opportunity. We had some guys take some very valuable reps at the offensive
line position.
I feel really good at the
runningback position. Matt Jones I think is primed for a big season, a guy
that's worked extremely hard in the off‑season, spring ball. I have
tremendous confidence in Mack Brown, some of the younger backs we have on
campus.
I think we need to improve the
tight end position. You lose Jordan Reed in the third round to the Washington
Redskins, by design was our leading receiver last year, a guy that was a tough
mismatch issue for defenses, and had a phenomenal season for us.
But we need to improve at the
position. I'm not telling you anything I haven't told them.
I think we've made some
positive steps forward at the receiver position. Quinton Dunbar is one of our
most improved players at the receiver position, really on our entire football
team. Excited about him taking the next step as a receiver.
Andre Debose and Solomon
Patton, heading into their senior years. Troy Pittman and Raphael Andrades are
two guys that continue to develop as young players. And we signed five young
receivers.
Loucheiz Purifoy will have a
role on offense. That will be really predicated on two situations, how well
the five young guys and the guys we have on campus develop at the receiver
position and how well we develop with some of the other defensive backs, how
big a role he will have on offense. He will have a role on offense. He
probably won't take any snaps on the first 12 to 14 practices because we need
to find out what those other guys can do and how we've progressed from spring.
Trey Burton will play
everything, wideout, runningback, quarterback, he'll have a huge part of our
offense.
Defensively I said it
upstairs, I'm young but old‑fashioned, in any sport you better be strong
up the middle. When you lose Hunter and Floyd, Jenkins and Bostic, and Elam
and Evans, it ought to create some sleepless nights for you.
I think we've recruited well
and I think we've developed players extremely well at the University of
Florida.
Dominique Easley is with me
today. A guy that can play inside or out. A guy that had a productive year.
Especially at the latter part of the season, once he got over some of the
issues he had with his ACL from the year before, a guy that has been very
productive in his time at the University of Florida.
He, Leon Orr, Damien Jacobs,
Darious Cummings, some young guys inside defensively. At linebacker Antonio
Morrison and Mike Taylor, Darrin Kitchens are guys I certainly feel comfortable
with at the linebacker position inside. We feel like we recruited pretty well
at that position as well.
We did not end the spring at
safety where I would like to as far as the production we're going to need to
have in our league to be successful. Valdez Showers, Jabari Gorman, Marcus
Maye are three young men we had on campus that I think have the ability we can
win with.
Jaylen Watkins and Cody Riggs
are two wild cards for us. They can play safety, corner. Jaylen will start
camp at both positions and Cody will be a full‑time safety as we start
camp right there. Obviously we have some young guys coming there.
Feel very comfortable at the
corner position. Loucheiz Purifoy I talked about already, is a coverage
corner. Marcus Roberson, Jeremy Brown, Brian Poole are all guys we think are
capable of playing. Also can play in the nickel positions, and dime. We'll
probably play more combinations of six DBs, losing Jelani, who was a guy that
could cover in space as a linebacker, we'll probably play more six DBs.
Our defensive end and our
outside linebacker positions, feel comfortable with Jon Bullard, Dante Fowler,
both of them started as true freshmen, two quality guys that have a huge upside
as players.
Neiron Ball and Bryan Cox,
probably the guy I'm most excited to see, is Ronald Powell. Here is a guy who
has been through a lot of adversity, he's been cleared to go after it in fall
camp, a guy I'm really excited to get back on the field to see No. 7
running around in orange and blue. A guy that's been through an awful lot.
Two surgeries. Never complained. Never got down about anything. Is truly a
great individual and excited that he's a leader of our football team as well.
Injury‑wise going into
camp, we ought to be pretty healthy. Trip Thurman and Alex Anzalone are the
only guys limited going into camp. Both of those guys have shoulder surgery in
the spring. They may be limited as far as contact till the 10th or 12th
practice. I can update you as we go there.
Special teams, you lose Caleb
Sturgis, I've had some sleepless nights on that one. Brad Phillips and Austin
Hardin, in my opinion are talented enough. It's a matter of them going out in
game time situations and getting it done.
Kyle Christy, I thought, is
the best punter in the country, a guy who was huge for us as far as flipping
the field, controlling the vertical field position in every game. We got good
team speeds. We have some returners that are certainly capable.
Schedule is always hard. We
lead off with Toledo, who won nine games last year. Matt Campbell and his
staff do a great job. Everybody back on offense.
We go to Miami in week two.
Al feels like this is his best football team. They have 20 starters back.
Then we start our SEC
schedule, which is difficult. We end with Georgia Southern, which will be our
hardest preparation defensively because of what they do offensively since I've
been at Florida, then a Florida State team at home.
Excited about year three,
making positive strides in our program. I'm pleased with where we are at this
point.
I'll open it up for any
questions.
KEVIN TRAINOR: We'll open it
up for questions for Coach Muschamp.
Q. Besides the final score,
what was the most disappointing thing about the Sugar Bowl?
COACH MUSCHAMP: Well, I think more than anything, in preparation, I
wasn't as pleased as our practice in games was, as I was when we were in New
Orleans. I felt like we had good preparation as far as that was concerned. I
blame myself. We got away from our formula.
Our formula is playing good
defense. We struggled on third down mightily. We got away from what we should
have been on offense.
I told Brent we needed to pick
up the tempo in the game, struggling on defense, needed to make a change in the
game. Probably pressed early in the game and I shouldn't have done that.
I look back on it now, we
needed to stick to our formula. That was the one regret I had coming out of
the game. Felt like we lost our composure a little bit in the second half.
That was disappointing as well. We hadn't done that all season. We'd been
behind eight times and came from behind. That was disappointing.
Q. You've indicated you want
to be a runningback, physical football team. What is your feeling on that
philosophy versus the no‑huddle that you're seeing more of in the SEC?
COACH MUSCHAMP: Well, I think it's personal preference. I think at
the University of Florida we're going to be able to recruit student‑athletes
that can line up and play our style. I do think at some schools they're going
to have a harder time finding that type of back and that type of offensive
line.
We're going to be able to do
that at Florida. Mike Gillislee was our first thousand‑yard rusher since
2003. That's not going to be the exception any more at Florida, that's going
to be the norm. I'm excited moving forward with our style. Everybody has their
own preference of what they feel like they need to do to move the football.
In my opinion, we will do some
more tempo on offense this year and it will be in our style. To change tempos
in the game, I think is good. When you're a tempo no‑huddle team, you're
going to play 20 more snaps a game. The more opportunity you give an offense,
the more chances they have to score. Sometimes you have to be careful in those
situations. That's just my preference.
Q. Dominique Easley coming
back this year, was never quite right last year with the ACL, he said he wanted
to come back because of his mom. Can you talk about that. Maybe keeping him
inside. I'm curious your thoughts on opening your first two games with
basically new games in the Florida heat?
COACH MUSCHAMP: Dominique and I had some talks, Dan Quinn was still
a part of our staff who has extensive experience in the National Football
League. We felt like the input we got from the people in the National Football
League, it would be in his best interest to come back. Dominique's mother
wants him to come back and finish school, which he will.
Again, I think he made a very
mature, smart decision in coming back to school. He looked at the positives
and the negatives of his situation and what would benefit him and his family.
It was coming back to school.
Again, very mature decision.
Then as far as starting out the season, that's something we need to prepare our guys in camp for that, playing in that sort of heat. We need to continue to recruit well and have a lot of depth on our football team. That is something you need to be able to handle.
Other thing you got to be is
fresh when you go into your first game. I have to make sure they have their
legs. We need to have a hard, tough training camp, which we will have. But we
need to be fresh when we hit that first game.
Q. How do you respond to the
people that say Florida may have a worse record this year but field a better
team?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I control the things I can control. Whatever the
prognosticators want to predict, that's fine. I worry about our football team,
our preparation for camp, offense, defense, special teams, our psyche as we
head into fall camp and out of it. I don't worry about what anybody else says
or thinks.
Q. Can you talk a little bit
about you've been in the Big 12, the SEC, Coach Stoops had the controversial
comments a few weeks ago about the SEC, a lot of it is propaganda. Can you
respond to that?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I never went to a Big 12 Media Day. If I was Bob, I
would say the same thing.
Again, the Big 12, when I was
in there for three years, offensively were very good. You talk about some of
the quarterbacks, Sam Bradford, RG3, Graham Harrell, Colt McCoy, some guys that
could really spin it. Offensively fast‑paced tempo offenses, on the
ball, constant pressure on the defense.
I think you're seeing a little
bit more of that in our league. Kentucky is going to that. I know Butch is
going to some tempo things at Tennessee; obviously Kevin at Texas A&M. To
me it's all about the preference of the style you want to play.
The thing about our league
that I think is a little different, you have to prepare for the two back. You
can't do that in a week. That's a physical style of play that you got to
understand how to fit the power, the counter, the direct runs, the north and
south runs, which are an issue if you haven't done it and your guys aren't used
to it.
I think you saw us wear some
people down last year because of the physical style of play.
Q. You said that you were
going to go to more six DB sets. Is that a personnel‑based decision?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using that set against more up‑tempo
spread offenses?
COACH MUSCHAMP: Well, with the up‑tempo situations, you got to
be careful to be out substitutions. If they don't substitute, you can't.
What I meant is more third‑down
defense. Jelani Jenkins was a guy that could play multiple things for us. He
could play in space, cover in the slot. He provided a lot of things for us
that not many linebackers can do. He was a very unusual athlete. He's a guy
that we certainly will miss.
But we feel to get the best
speed on the field, the best coverage ability on the field, then you can be
more multiple defensively when you have another cover guy in the game like
Jelani last year.
Q. Talk about Driskel's
development as a quarterback. How much better do you feel going into this
season with the experience he's got?
COACH MUSCHAMP: There's no question year two, I feel much more
comfortable. I know who our quarterback is today as opposed to last season.
But he's a guy, Jeff is a hard
worker. He earns the respect of his teammates because of how he handles
himself. He's a great leader. He's a great athlete. He's a guy that has
tremendous arm talent.
When the game slows down a
little bit, you get a little more mental quickness, of where to take the ball
down the field, first progression read to the second. Understand where the
pressure may come from.
There's a lot of things in the
off‑season where you can sit and watch tape of someone else instead of
watching yourself and learning in those situations. Jeff is extremely bright.
He'll learn from those situations. That's part of the growing process of a
young quarterback.
Q. On the schedule, you have
the Hurricanes back on the schedule in week two. How important is that for the
Gators to have them back on the schedule and for the state?
COACH MUSCHAMP: Our first concern is Toledo, a good football team.
That's what we need to prepare for. Again, I think Al Golden has done an
outstanding job at Miami, a team that should have played for the ACC
championship last year. They're going through a tough time as far as those
things are concerned. But during that time, he has done an outstanding job
recruiting and signing good talent. He's a really good football coach.
I do think it's important for
the in‑state schools to play each other if possible, if it's good for
everybody involved. I know that will be good for our state.
There's so many good football
coaches in our state, high school, and there's so many good high school
football players in our state. I always tell guys, If you don't come to
Florida, go to an in‑state school. That's where I'd rather see them play
anyway.
Q. What do you think of
Jadeveon Clowney? Where would you rank him?
COACH MUSCHAMP: Number one (smiling).
Q. Would you like to see a
defensive guy win the Heisman?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I'd like to see him come out early before our game.
He's an outstanding player. He's a guy you better account for every snap.
He's an explosive guy. Got great football instincts, initial quickness. He's
got power. He's a guy that can play finesse on the edge and power. He's a
really, really good football player.
Q. How much is a head coach
responsible for the off‑the‑field behavior of its players? Can a
head coach know everything that's going on, and control that?
COACH MUSCHAMP: Well, you're 100% responsible. When you sign a
student‑athlete to come to the University of Florida, I look at his
parents, guardians, whoever is important to him in his life, tell them it's my
job to be an extension of what's already happened at home. But you're a
hundred percent responsible for the young man. Everything that happens.
I can't possibly know
everything that happens every single night with our football team. You also
can't stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is okay either. You
need to be very aware of the kind of guys your guys are hanging out with. I
encourage our assistants, our life skills coordinator, Terry Jackson, to be
with our guys, help them grow and mature.
But you're 100% responsible
for every student‑athlete on your football team.
Q. You talked about all the
come‑from‑behind wins. What do you have to do as a program where
you're not in that situation?
COACH MUSCHAMP: My wife wants us to give better talks before the game
instead of halftime. I don't think that's it (smiling).
Again, I think being a little
bit more explosive offensively, being more of a threat offensively, which I
think we will be. I'm excited about our offense. Then continuing to play well
on defense.
In our league, there's going
to be tight games. Look at it week in, week out, doesn't matter who you play,
it's a tight game. Very similar to the NFL, it's going to come down to the
last two to three minutes of the game. You better coach and play well in those
situations.
I'd love to have some 40‑point
wins. At the end of the day I worry about one stat, and that's winning, and it
doesn't matter how you do it.
