Florida Gators Football: Will Muschamp Notebook

A week to go back to the drawing board.

The Florida Gators are using this off weekend to reconfigure the team’s direction with a November 1 matchup against Georgia looming. After watching game film Sunday, the team was off Monday and practiced Tuesday. The Gators will also practice Wednesday and Thursday, then go into game week prep next week.

With the off week, Will Muschamp met with the media Wednesday during the SEC’s weekly coaches teleconference. Here is some of what he said:

On blocking out talk about the season:

“We’ve just tried to control the controllables. We repeat that to our players a lot. Then the things that we can control, we need to play better, that’s the bottom line. We need to coach better. So those are the things we need to focus on: improving ourselves and finding an identity offensively in what we can do and what we can do well. And block out as much as you can. You’re going to hear it, that’s part of it playing at a place like the University of Florida. So our players understand that and we’ve just got to continue to try and improve.”

The tone from the coaches during recruiting Monday:

“It was good. It’s still the University of Florida. I mean it’s still the University of Florida. It’s a great education. We’re moving in the recruiting trail very well and signing date’s in
February.”

What Muschamp needs to do to secure future:

“Well, we need to win some games. That’s the bottom line and we look forward to our preparation this week and next week getting ready for Georgia.”

On Foley’s statement stating the sole focus on supporting the coaching staff as they prepare for Georgia:

“I appreciate it. Again, I think Jeremy sees a lot of the things that are going on in our program and certainly a huge part of that is winning games, and that’s not what we’ve done. But academically, socially, all the things we’ve done within our program in changing the culture have been outstanding.”

Decision to name Treon Harris as the starter:

“Well, again, Treon, you saw what he did late in the game. He has a knack for making plays and making some good things happen for our football team. We’ve struggled with production at the quarterback position, and that’s been an issue for us along with others. But that’s been a huge issue for us. He’s a guy that has a knack for making plays. He’s got a much better understanding as we continue to move forward. We’ve got an open week now where he’s getting a bunch of reps. Jeff’s still going to have a role on our football team as a quarterback. Right now we feel like that was the best move moving forward.”

The possibility of playing against Georgia running back Todd Gurley:

“He’s an outstanding player, one of the best players in college football and one of the best running backs running in the SEC. Again, we want to play somebody at their best and certainly Todd is one of the best players in the country. He’ll be fresh, I would imagine that.”

What has to be done to rebuild the team’s confidence:

“Well, again, we just do a lot of good-on-good work. We’ve just been searching offensively for an identity of what we can do and we have run the ball well at times through the year. We have to develop things in the passing game our guys feel comfortable with and just get in as many practice reps as possible.”

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. Been a loyal fan since 1954 when I attended U ofF. Am a retired high school football coach and booster. The exibition put on last Saturday night is absolutely the worst effort I have ever seen out of a Gator team. I have never left a game early in the last 60 years, but have to admit that I had enough ineptitude by the offense by the middle of the 3rd quarter, so I left. It’s not just one game that the offense has been non-existent, it’s been 3 or more years. Enough is enough.