Mullen looking for more consistency

As the Gators enter the final week of spring practice, there’s one primary thing that coach Dan Mullen wants to see – improved consistency of performance.

Mullen said that his players are making a bunch of big, exciting plays this spring but are also committing too many small mental errors at every position. Those mistakes will cost them games in the fall if they go uncorrected. He wants to see those peaks and valleys give way to more even and predictable performances.

“If you want to talk about how you did, don’t start with your best play and then work down,” he said. “Start with your worst play and work up. That’s going to get you to really understand and pay attention to the consistency of your performance. Young players want to say, ‘Did you see my one spectacular play? Look at my highlight play I can put out there.’ Don’t do that. Show me your lowlights, and start at the bottom and work up. And if you can work and continue to get better in the consistency of your performance, you’re going to be a great player.”

That being said, Mullen isn’t close to pushing the panic button yet. Sloppiness tends to happen in the spring, especially when more than half of the players haven’t participated in a spring practice before and you have three new coaches like the Gators do. The Gators might not be ready to play a game right now, but they don’t have to be for nearly six more months.

“Too many small mistakes being made with guys,” Mullen said. “That happens sometimes in spring because you’re worried about, ‘Am I making plays? Am I competing for a position? I’m learning what we’re doing.’ That loses the attention to detail on some small things, so that was probably something that we’ve got to constantly focus on, is making sure we’re on top of all the little details.”

It also shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that there’s inconsistency this spring given how the 2020 Gators fared. Other than the passing game, there wasn’t an aspect of the team that performed at a consistently high level. You can’t expect that to change overnight.

No position has epitomized UF’s inconsistencies more in recent seasons than the offensive line. You would think that having a pass-heavy attack like the Gators had under Kyle Trask would result in greater efficiency in the running game. After all, to slow down the passing game, opponents had to take some of their big defensive linemen and linebackers off the field and replace them with extra defensive backs that aren’t as well suited to stop the run.

That didn’t happen, though, at least statistically. UF ranked 11th in the SEC in rushing yards per game and eighth in yards per carry in 2020 after finishing 13th and 11th, respectively, the year prior.

There were flashes of brilliance up front, however. Despite throwing the ball more than every SEC team other than LSU the past two seasons, UF only ranked near the middle of the pack in sacks allowed. They’ve also had some success at generating explosive running plays. So, the offensive line has demonstrated an ability to get the job done in spurts but needs to be more dependable.

With the Gators likely to become a more run-heavy offense this year with Emory Jones playing quarterback, finding a way to dominate up front is paramount.

Mullen doesn’t seem overly concerned. Despite averaging more than 80 yards per game and a full yard per carry more in 2018, he believes the 2020 offense had the most efficient running game he’s had as Florida’s head coach.

He believes the statistics don’t tell the full story. Your rushing numbers can be skewed based on how many running plays you call, the tempo you play at, how many long runs you break off and how many short-yardage situations you face. Because the Gators were a pass-happy team last year, they probably called a disproportionate number of short-yardage runs. Those two-yard runs on third-and-1 don’t look good on the stat sheets but are obviously successful plays.

That’s why Mullen and the rest of the staff use a more result-oriented metric to gauge offensive line play. Their goal is to gain at least four yards on first down, and then that target changes depending on the down-and-distance. Last year’s team had the highest rate of positive outcomes during Mullen’s time at Florida. He’s confident that they’ll be able to keep that up over a larger sample size in 2021 if called upon.

“The guys we’re most comfortable with on the offensive line are definitely Richard Gouraige and Ethan White on the left side of the line, left tackle, left guard,” Mullen said. “Feel very comfortable with those two on that left side.

“We’re in the evaluation stage of what we’re going to be. I mean, heck, I can go run the wishbone if we want to. You can do anything you want to do. You can go lead the nation in passing if you want, but the key is trying to make sure you’re fitting around the strengths of your players, and that’s why we’re still in the evaluation stage.”

Mullen was also asked about a couple of individuals on the other line of scrimmage in defensive tackle Gervon Dexter and BUCK Brenton Cox. Not surprisingly, his responses eventually looped back around to a philosophical discussion of what it takes to be consistent.

Cox is an exceptionally gifted athlete with a knack for rushing the quarterback. However, he plays with reckless abandon against the run, often vacating his gap in pursuit of a big tackle-for-loss. Mullen wants him to focus on making his worst snap of every day better instead of trying to get on SportsCenter.

The big plays might get talked about more, but the critical errors that the casual fan never notices often have a larger impact on the outcome of the game.

“Even in this last scrimmage [on Friday], you’re looking at a guy who’s an older, veteran guy that makes huge production, but there’s still some critical errors in there,” Mullen said of Cox. “That gets into, to be a great player, it’s ‘I can’t make great plays and then make terrible plays. I’ve got to be a consistent performer with great plays.’ It’s not so much raising his top-end bar; it’s raising the bottom up within his performance.”

The same can be said for just about everyone else on the team. As poor as the defense was last season, the Gators were a fumble against Texas A&M, a thrown shoe against LSU and some costly third-down penalties against Alabama away from being undefeated SEC Champions. That isn’t a talent problem; that’s a consistency and discipline problem.

For the 2021 Gators to contend for championships, the consistency needs to improve. That is priority No. 1 this offseason.

Ethan Hughes
Ethan was born in Gainesville and has lived in the Starke, Florida, area his entire life. He played basketball for five years and knew he wanted to be a sportswriter when he was in middle school. He’s attended countless Gators athletic events since his early childhood, with baseball being his favorite sport to attend. He’s a proud 2019 graduate of the University of Florida and a 2017 graduate of Santa Fe College. He interned with the University Athletic Association’s communications department for 1 ½ years as a student and also wrote for InsideTheGators.com for two years before joining Gator Country in 2021. He is a long-suffering fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars. You can follow him on Twitter @ethanhughes97.