Florida Gators Football: Kurt Roper Notebook

Kurt Roper met with the media for his weekly press conference Tuesday. The Gators are looking to pick up the pieces from a rough weekend that included the announcement of Will Muschamp stepping down at the end of the season. With games against Eastern Kentucky and Florida State left on the schedule, Florida is looking to finish out the season strong.

Here’s some of what Roper had to say:

The last 48 hours:

“You know, to be honest with you, it hasn’t really been any different because we’ve got a game at the end of the week. That’s what happens. You go in and obviously we had a couple meetings that were telling us what the situation was. Those aren’t easy. Then after that they say ‘Saturday you’ve got to be ready to go.’ So we’ve been in the room just like normal trying to figure out a plan to put together to win a football game and be prepared, you know. That’s the biggest thing. We still need to be prepared, so we’ve been in there just, nothing’s been different since Sunday about whatever noon, whatever time it was.”

How it’s been for the players on the team:

“We talked a little bit about it yesterday when we met. We put it aside and we go to work. Monday is our Monday. I think that’s one of the best things in football. What you have to do is it becomes a routine, a weekly routine. Once you have that conversation, you get into the routine and you don’t talk about it. There is no reason to bring it up. Our focus is, hey, this is what they do vs. this formation. This is what they do in this field position, or down and distance. That’s the conversation.”

Going back to being conservative in Saturday’s game against South Carolina:

“I wouldn’t say we were ultra-aggressive against Georgia. And Vandy we threw it 20 times. Really our mentality got into after the Missouri game, is let’s not beat ourselves. Let’s get to halftime and not beat ourselves. And we really felt like we found our identity and had a chance with some good field position in the fourth quarter to make it a two score game within that mentality, if that makes sense. And we didn’t get it done. I can’t say that we had a moving pocket in the first half, and late in the third quarter we threw it backward. Those are concerns that you have with a young quarterback. He did a great job making plays with his feet, trying to keep from having catastrophes. I thought we were going to win another one that way.”

On the outside belief that Muschamp handcuffs the offense:

“In my experience, absolutely none of it’s true. You know when we got here it was completely, ‘Hey do it how you best see fit.’ And he doesn’t call plays. You know we obviously talk about situations like the end of that game. Do we want to be aggressive or do we want to take the timeout and use the time and all that? But I’m 100 percent on board with any of those decisions that are made. But as far as calling plays, absolutely. He’s been great. He really is.”

Potential of the quarterbacks on the team:

“I think there’s some playmaking ability there, I do. I think there’s some arm talent there. They enjoy football, they like working at it. I think they like being on the practice field. They’re both young and they gotta keep growing and understanding how do you study as a quarterback. It’s much more than just the weight room and the practice field. Just doing all the little things preparing to be a quarterback. They’re two talented guys and they’re fun to coach.”