Florida Gators Football: DJ Durkin Notebook

DJ Durkin met with the media Wednesday for his weekly press conference. The Gators are in the middle of game week preparation for Eastern Kentucky, a team that has a talented offense to go alongside a 9-2 record. Last week the Colonels defeated Murray State 43-36. EKU had 683 total yards of offense and forced an interception. The Gators are looking to become bowl eligible with a win Saturday.

Here is some of what Durkin had to say:

Linebackers stepping up in absence of injuries to Jarrad Davis and Neiron Ball:

“Yeah, I mean obviously Mike Taylor and Antonio [Morrison] will get more reps now, and they’ve been playing quite a bit prior to that as well. Alex Anzalone, who’s been getting some reps the last couple of games we’ve been getting him in there, his role will increase. And Daniel McMillian will get in there and play, too. It’s a good opportunity for him. Man down, man up. Those are two great kids and great players that we lost, but both of them will bounce back and recover and they’ve got a lot of football ahead of them.”

Reaction to Sunday’s news:

“I think I guess one of the good things about our sport and how we do things is you get into a routine week to week. So obviously there was a big occurrence that happened that kind of upsets that routine for a little bit, but then again we just get right back into it. And so yesterday was a normal Tuesday and today’s Wednesday and it’s as normal as it can be. Our guys they know that, they know our routine. We’ve been doing it for a while here. We had a good practice yesterday. They were out there and did a nice job. I expect the same from them today and expect them to be prepared and go play on Saturday.”

Not overlooking Eastern Kentucky:

“That game last year, there were a lot of extenuating circumstances going into that. That’s something we talk about with our guys. I don’t know if it’s just the 12th game or however you want to phrase it, but it’s consistency in performance, no matter who you’re playing. If you’re playing the best team on your schedule or whoever they are. A conference team, a rival, this, that, it’s about playing consistently. That’s the challenge for our guys. For those guys to learn a lesson throughout life. Be consistent in your performance, don’t base your effort or how you do things or make decisions on how you feel what you’re going against is gonna be, it ‘s got nothing to do with the opponent, we’ve told that we’ve shown that on film I think we know that.”

Emotions on Senior Day:

“Yeah. I mean we haven’t talked about it too much to this point other than it’s Senior Day and it’s our seniors’ last time in the Swamp and we need to go play well for them. Those guys put a lot into this program and have done a lot of great things for us. So we need to as a team — coaches, players alike — go perform really well for those guys and send them off the right way out of the Swamp. We’ve talked about it and addressed it in terms of the emotion, but again I think every guy might be a little different. Some guys might be more emotional about it than others, but at the end of the day, we have to play a football game. That’s the most important thing.”

Dante Fowler, Jr., who announced he will enter the NFL Draft next year:

“I think he’s had a bunch of nice games, I think he’s playing great and I think, you know, sometimes we get caught up in stats of how many sacks and.. he’s a very disruptive guy. He’s a guy that’s accounted for every time he lines up by the opposition, they have a plan for him and he’s overcome that and been very disruptive and he’s played great for us. He’s played hard, he’s played consistently, you know, he’s made a bunch of plays in the backfield and when he wasn’t he’s creating it for someone else a lot of the time, so, yeah, I’m very happy with how he’s played, and I think the world of him as a player and a person.”

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_

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