9-15-14 Will Muschamp Notebook

It took Florida three overtimes, defensive stops and a last-millisecond snap to defeat Kentucky 36-30 Saturday night. The Gators, currently atop the SEC East, enter this week with a litany of questions and concerns from the fan base, especially amongst the secondary and offense, both looking stagnant at times. With Florida heading up to Tuscaloosa Saturday to face third-ranked Alabama, the team will look to fix those issues this week on the practice field and film room. Head coach Will Muschamp met with he media Monday for his weekly press conference.

Offensive players of the game, Demarcus Robinson and Matt Jones:

“But players of the game — offensively Demarcus Robinson had an outstanding night. He and Matt Jones are offensive players of the week. Matt ran extremely well, especially late in the game. He’s 235 pounds. He gets heavy as the game goes on. He showed you guys that. That was the form we saw a spring ago, you know, before last season. And with the runs he was making, really happy to see him healthy. Demarcus played well.”

Brian Poole as the defensive player of the game, Ball Hawk awards and special teams:

“Brian Poole, you know, Brian made a huge play in the overtime, knocking the ball off the guy, had a couple other knockdowns, had an interception, had a caused interception to Keanu Neal. Did a nice job of running out in the open field and showed a lot of range in that situation. You know, had the one ball on our sideline that if he leans a little bit more, I feel like he’s got a chance to work himself and make a play on the ball. Played well, very productive. Ball hawks — Brian had two, Keanu had two and Dante Fowler had one. Special teams, Kyle Christy again punted extremely well. That was huge for us. And hard hat went to Marcell Harris. He did a really nice job of covering kicks.”

On possible changes in the secondary:

“We didn’t play in the slot very well. What happens, a lot of times, and I’ve been doing it a long time, when you have a guy that gives up a play, you start playing a little cautious instead of playing aggressive. You get tentative in your techniques and that’s what happened to us a little bit, especially late in the game coming off the goal line. We just have got to make a play on the ball in those situations and go play the ball, be aggressive and keep that same mentality regardless of the situation and understand that you’ve always got to stay aggressive on the back end. That’s where I felt like we got a little tentative when we gave up the play.”

If it is strange going against Nick Saban, whom he coached under:

“You know, not really. I mean, you know, I’ve got a lot of respect for him facing him as an assistant coach and then now as a head coach. So it is what is. Got a good football team. I think we do too.”

If the team had plans on putting Treon Harris when Jeff Driskel struggled:

“No. We felt good with where we were. We had two drops on third down. That wasn’t Jeff’s fault. We had two protection issues on third down. That wasn’t Jeff’s fault. So there’s 11 of them out there.”

Kelvin Taylor’s back since hit on the ground by Kentucky defensive lineman Regie Meant:

“He’s doing good. Yep, they got a good shot on him, though, didn’t they?”

If Alabama is a statement game:

“They’re all statement games. They’re all important. They all count for one. So we understand the importance of
the game. It’s an SEC game, it’s the next game. We’re in a series of one-game seasons as far as I’m concerned right now, and that’s how we’re looking at it.”

Thoughts prior to the Driskel touchdown pass to Robinson on 4th and 7 in the second overtime:

“Hurry up. Well, we just had a little miscommunication on the original signal of the formation, not the play. Everybody knew the play. So, that was, just from the standpoint of getting the formation right, I think we were right in taking the timeout earlier in the game — I mean earlier in the overtime, excuse me — we had a bad look and we didn’t want to get a negative play.”

Ryan Randall
From Melbourne, Florida, Ryan has lived in Florida since he was three, becoming a sports fan around that age. His passion for journalism rivals his love of sports. Shortly out of high school he covered prep and community sports for his hometown paper in Brevard Country, before moving to Gainesville, where he covered the Gators in the pros as well as prep sports for a few publications. A Telecommunications major at UF, Ryan now interns at Gator Country and ecstatic to showcase his talents for the publication. When not working on stories, Ryan enjoys playing basketball, music, as well as art. Follow Ryan at @_RyanRandall_