Florida Gators Football: Will Muschamp Notebook

In what has been a week unlike any other in Florida Gators football history,  head coach Will Muschamp had his first press conference of the week Wednesday. Two days removed from the usual Monday, it was the first time Florida has ever pushed back a press conference. However, given the sexual assault allegations placed against freshman quarterback Treon Harris, the program decided to take a step back from football for a few days.

However, there are games to be played, and the Gators are in the midst of preparing for LSU. The Tigers are currently winless in the SEC, including a 34-29 loss against Mississippi State under the lights of Tiger Stadium. Florida will look to build upon their win against Tennessee, the 10th straight in the series.

Here are some of the news and notes of Will Muschamp’s press conference:

Muschamp on the Treon Harris situation:

“I know a lot of you guys will have questions about the Treon Harris situation. The statement that the university released Monday I think was pretty self-explanatory. It’s a very serious charge and there’s been no change in his status. So that’s kind of where we are. I don’t have anything additional to add. I know some of you still will ask questions, but I’m not going to have any other comment on the situation. To reiterate what Steve said, sorry to inconvenience you guys, but with the situation Monday and the seriousness of it, I felt like it was a little insensitive to have a football press conference. I think it is today, too. But we’ve got to move forward.”

Offensive and defensive players of the game:

“Players of the game offensively was Matt Jones. I thought Matt ran extremely hard, extremely well in the game. Offensive line, Max Garcia continues to have an amazing year. Defensively, we gave it to our defensive unit. We felt like from a front standpoint we had some guys who could rush and get pressure with four, we were able to do so. We covered well on the back end. There were so many positives.
Within each group we had some guys that had productive days; Bryan Cox had a great day, Jalen Tabor for a freshman had an outstanding — for any player — had an outstanding game. Bryan went through a very tough time with his grandfather last week and managing that situation.”

Ballhawks:

“(Jalen) Tabor and Keanu Neal, who continues to play outstanding football. The interception at the end was a big time play. Dante Fowler continues to play well. Marcus Maye played his best football for us this year. Vernon Hargreaves and Alex McCalister. Special teams players of the game, Austin Hardin with a big field goal and also Marcus Maye and Jabari Gorman. That’s two guys that started the previous game, didn’t start on defense but they didn’t’ hang their head and went out worked extremely hard and were huge contributors for us on special teams. So very proud of their efforts.”

Injuries:

“As far as injury right now, Leon (Orr), I would say, is questionable for the game. He has worked out with us the last two days but we’ll see how he continues to progress through the week. Mike Taylor, his knee is fine. He’s got the flu. He’s missed the last 48 hours with us but he’ll be at practice today and will practice and will play in the game. He’s ready to go. Brandon Powell looks great. He’s moved extremely well. Will Grier is good. He’ll be ready to go. Matt Jones a little swelling on the knee but should be fine, game time. Valdez Showers is out with a high ankle but we will get him back next week. I feel very confident in that. And C.J. Worton is back and he will play in the game Saturday. So it’s good to get him back.”

Plan with Will Grier prior to the Treon Harris situation:

“We hadn’t really made a decision considering the length we still had to go in the season. So, you know, we had not had that discussion as far as redshirt at that time. Given the situation of having two guys that had played to that point in the season, that’s probably where we were headed. Certainly given the situation right now, obviously not.”

Receivers needing to step up:

“I look at the situation with the receivers, we’re trying to get some things going in the throwing game. We drop a slant on the first drive. It’s like the air comes out of you a little bit. We’ve got to overcome those situations. We’ve got to finish on some plays. We’ve got to be able to place the ball on 3rd and 6 to an out route, to a tight end on the money. There’s a lot of things involved in it, but I think from a standpoint of us making some plays, creating some confidence for our guys right now, it’s critical.”

Defensive back Jalen Tabor’s play against Tennessee and going forward:

“I hope he’s that productive. That would be nice, but not many times are you going to come off the edge on a blitz and nobody blocks you. He played the deep ball well. We outnumbered them in the box and they took a shot at the end zone in the red zone. I thought he made a really nice play against a very good player and a very good throw. He had a couple opportunities to defend balls. The first third down I thought was a very good play, outstanding coverage. I think he’s a guy who just continues to improve.”

Loss of players to the NFL Draft affecting LSU, similar to Florida’s secondary:

“I don’t think there’s any question, they’ve lost 18 players to the NFL draft in the last two years to the NFL draft. You can’t recruit, in my opinion, to replace that that quickly, no different than we lost three players in the secondary that have played a bunch of football and bunch of quality football for us. It’s very difficult to overcome those, but nobody wants to hear that. At the end of the day, I can say it for Les, he can’t say it. It’s hard. It’s hard to replace that. It’s hard to recruit for that, and a lot of situations you’re finding out the first of January the young man wants to try the NFL and you’re saying, ‘You got to be kidding me.’ But that’s the life of where we are now in college football.”

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_

2 COMMENTS

  1. FSU has also had 18 players drafted in the last two years. I guess Muschamp is wrong about not being able to overcome that difficulty since they are the number one team. It helps to have college football’s best player, but they even won without him so I guess you can recruit well enough to overcome losing so many players to the NFL.

  2. You’re right Snowflake, reacing 18 players through recruiting is easy. Muschamp sucks. …good god you need therapy. I don’t know how you function throughout the day. Listen, Clemson, BC, NC state, Wake and the U on the conference schedule is not BAMA, LSU, Georgia, Mizzou,