Florida Gators Football: Will Muschamp Notebook

It’s a new week and coming off a loss to LSU, the Gators are looking to rectify mistakes from Saturday while getting prepared for this weekend’s homecoming contest against Missouri.

Will Muschamp met with the media Monday for his weekly press conference. The Gators (3-2, 2-2), look to pick up the pieces after a disappointing last-second loss that saw a lot of what has plagued the team throughout the season- communication issues in the secondary, limited options in the running game as well as an offense that failed to convert when needed. However, Florida is still in play in the SEC, but will need to once again make changes in order to stay in competition.

Here are some quotes from the press conference:

Injuries:

“Injury update, Leon Orr is questionable with his knee. Thought he’d be back by now but we’ll see how he works through this week. Matt Jones more was not a knee it was more of an ankle that he had from the previous game, felt it was a little loose in the game but we think he’ll be back Wednesday. D.J. Humphries had a knee in the game, we think we’ll get him back Wednesday. Latroy Pittman, everything’s come out fine, he’s day-to-day. Everything is checked out to be normal and we’ll get Vernon Hargreaves back on Tuesday.”

Missouri:

“Missouri, a good football team, Gary Pinkel is a good friend and an outstanding football coach. Very uncharacteristic, five turnovers last week, a couple tipped balls and interceptions and things. But Maty Mauk, I think is a very good player and throws the ball extremely well. The last couple games, I don’t know if they helped him a lot. They’ve had a couple tipped balls here and there that have gone into other people’s hands. (Russell) Hansbrough and (Marcus) Murphy are two really good backs that have been there for a while. You know, (Darius) White and (Bud) Sasser and (Jimmie) Hunt are three very good, experienced receivers. Three out of five offensive linemen are back.”

Quarterback situation:

“They both will play this week and we’ll work through the week, and we’ll see how things go and we’ll see how it foes there. Right now Jeff will probably start but they’re both going to play.”

The goal line series that resulted in a field goal after a dropped pass by Tevin Westbrook:

“Well, we didn’t get enough movement on either down, you know, to start. Kind of bounced off a guy in a first down situation, felt like we had a shot to get in the end zone, it just kind of bounced around a little bit. On the second down play we thought we might get a different look and they did a good job of getting penetration inside. The third down call was an outstanding call.”

Reason why team went with Brandon Powell instead of Kelvin Taylor and Mack Brown in certain running situations:

“Well, you know, again, it’s not just about carrying the ball, there’s protection and there’s a lot of things that go involved with being a running back and those are things to me… utilizing the running back as a pass catcher in a lot of situations, and Brandon’s a guy that’s got really good hands and he’s a guy that we trust a little bit more in the passing game, which he showed you he’s very good at that end in space, but, those guys, it’s a long season, and those guys have to continue to progress in what we’re doing and they’re both very talented runners.”

On nine turnovers in the last three games:

“Well we had 10 points off turnovers in the last game. Jeff’s gotta hold the ball high and tight. When you got down below his elbow and the situation was not a hard hit that happened there. You can’t underthrow the deep ball in that situation; down the sideline Demarcus had a step on the guy and we gotta execute that situation. We throw into coverage, probably should have taken the ball outside from the slants there late.”

Scrutiny of receivers in light of poor performance:

“Kurt Roper runs our passing game, whether Chris Leak’s the receivers coach, whatever you want to bring in. Kurt Roper runs our passing game. That’s something that the interview process and talking to him, that he was going to have a large say-so in the control of it. That’s something that he does. He does an outstanding job for us. We can’t catch it.”

The recent play of Florida’s linebackers:

“I thought Antonio Morrison played his best football game Saturday night. You know, a lot of times situations and he’s in the hole with a blocker and he’s getting off a block and making a play, which is very difficult to do. I thought Neiron Ball has been very productive. Extremely, plays fast, plays physical, has done a really nice job. I think Jarrad Davis has played really well. Mike’s still coming off the knee a little bit, was slowed a little bit by the knee in my opinion and also coming off being sick. But I think Antonio Morrison played a really good football game.”

Alex McCalister:

“You know he’s a guy that you take, he’s a 10-foot broad jumper, close to over 40-inch vertical leap, so he’s got really good explosive power. He only played two years of high school football, so he was only about 220 pounds when we recruited him. But he had a great frame and he was a very good basketball player, so he has really good athleticism, change of direction and a guy that you project, say ‘OK in two years is he going to weigh 245 pounds, 250 pounds? Can he hold the point?’ And we felt like his frame he was big enough to do that. He’s now consistently about 240, so he can hold the point. He’s got great length, which you can’t coach, and you can’t coach some of his athleticism. Him being able to being a loose athlete and be able to flip his hips on the rush. He’s got all of the attributes you want, but it’s just a matter of can he carry the weight and can he add strength, which he’s been able to do.”

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_

1 COMMENT

  1. Great recap.

    However I’m a little confused about Will’ s response to the passing game question. In your opinion, was his answer geared more towards dispelling the continuing assertion that Muschamp is handcuffing Roper’s offense or vaguely deflecting blame?