The Florida Gators finished the season with an 8-3 record after falling to Alabama in the SEC Championship game last Saturday.
Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators will finish their season on December 30th when they take on Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.
GatorCountry asked all of our members for their questions on the 2020 season as well as the future of the program.
We answer those questions in this new edition of the football mailbag. I’m going to split this into a two-part series since we had a lot of questions. Here’s part two.
MacDaddyGator: Any chance Trask comes back for one more year?
AS: No chance from what I’ve heard and I don’t blame him. His time to go get paid.
FANEVER: Update on Princely Umanmielen. I didn’t him see play vs Alabama. Easy to miss a player if you are watching on TV. What’s up with him?
AS: Princely looked really good rushing the passer this year but there’s most to play defensive end then that and not having spring practice hurt him. Princely is going to be a problem for teams next year as he’s quick off the ball and strong as well, he’s a true defensive end.
Doctorv: What is the timeline on the Grantham decision?
AS: If a change happens then I would expect it to come shortly after the bowl game or possibly even before depending on how quick other teams hire head coaches so things can shake out.
KyleM923: When watching the game Saturday from the 300 section of Mercedes Arena (50 yard line) I attempted to count the number of missed tackles by our defensive players, unfortunately I couldn’t keep up. Someone once said that 90% of tackling is “want to” if this is true, what is our underlying problem? Is it lack of basic technique that we just have not been able to practice due to covid-19 issues. It was embarrassing seeing our defensive backs diving at the feet of Bama’s ball carriers as they constantly gained extra yards after first contact or missed first contact. If this is due to coaching or a lack of it, then yes, changes need to be made.
AS: Tackling is all about a want to and effort but you also have to be in good position. Florida was in good position a lot but just didn’t make the play and other times Alabama was just stronger and more physical and broke those tackles as well. I do know what you’re talking about as I made the comment that Florida simply couldn’t tackle on Saturday and hurt them. The safeties have to be taught that diving at people’s legs is simply not going to work.
Kchomp82: Who do you see our starting Dline and back 4 are going to be?
AS: I expect Zach Carter to go to the NFL so I’m going to base my starting line off of that.
Cox, Jalen Lee, Gervon Dexter and Princely.
Dkinggator: Your thoughts on CFP selection? You think A&M got screwed?
AS: This might not be a popular opinion but I’m ok with the four teams. Nobody wanted to see Texas A&M get blown out by Alabama again, the same with Cincinnati. This year they could’ve just had a two-team playoff with Alabama and Clemson and it would’ve been fine by me.
Lewinsonajl: Can anyone do a inside review on the big group of Players that we thought should play.
Hopper,Princely,Hill,Mordeci,TorranceWingo,Summeral,Humphries,Lee,Braun,ect.
AS: This is a really talented group so here’s what I know about those guys.
Tyron Hopper- he played some this year but he’s still trying to get the whole playbook down but he will play a lot next year.
Princely Unamlienen- Princely looked really good rushing the passer this year but there’s most to play defensive end then that and not having spring practice hurt him.
Jaydon Hill- he played a good bit this year and having an offseason to train will help him a lot since he didn’t get much time last year due to COVID.
Mordecai McDaniel- no offseason hurt his development. Going to be a good player.
Rashad Torrence- played really good for most of the year, he’s a freshman who made some freshman mistakes at safety.
Derek Wingo- he didn’t get to practice much at the beginning of the year so his development was slowed even more because of that.
Lloyd Summerall- Summerall needs to continue to add some weight.
Jaelin Humphries- he’s still battling his knee injury.
Jalen Lee- not having an offseason both on and off the field hurt him from playing. The coaches rave about him though.
Josh Braun- he’s the most physical lineman on the team and if he had an offseason to adjust to the college speed, he would’ve played more. Braun is really good.
Jlh6121: Can you explain why Mullen has such loyalty to Hevesy? From your perspective, what does Hevesy bring to the table for Mullen? What does Hevesy do so well that Mullen likes? This is under the complete known factor that Hevesy will return *sigh*
AS: They’re best friends and been together for so long that Mullen isn’t going to let Hevesy go. Hevesy is a good developer of guys but the issue is that he hates and doesn’t recruit. As I explained to someone last week you can have a horse who you train to be a race horse but he will have his limits on how fast he can be and that’s the same thing with some of the guys Hevesy recruits, they can only be developed so much. If you want a line like the great teams in college football then you must recruit those guys.
Gatorconstructor: What is Ethan White’s status. If he’s healthy, seems like he and Braun would be a huge upgrade on a below average OL.
AS: White is healthy and played late in the season but he wasn’t back until after Georgia so the staff decided to keep the current line because they had played together all season. White would’ve moved to center and Heggie would’ve moved to guard but they just didn’t want to disrupt the line. White wouldn’t have helped the issue at tackle.
Gatorconstructor: What was the real story about Pitts not playing against LSU? Was he really injured and was not cleared by the trainers, was he a scratch because he allegedly didn’t practice all week, or was Mullen holding him out because he didn’t think he needed him to win (saving for Bama).
AS: He was held out after warm-ups but from what I was told that was a decision made by the staff as they didn’t think he was fully healthy to play. He didn’t practice that week but from what I was told Pitts wanted to play.