The 2019 season has just one game left. The Florida Gators will host the Florida State Seminoles on Saturday at 7:30 for a chance to win 10 games this season. Florida State comes in with an interim head coach and a 6-5 record.
Dan Mullen spoke to the media on Monday to preview the game.
Injury notes
Florida expects both Amari Burney and Jabari Zuniga to be healthy and available this weekend against the Noles. The Gators have only had Zuniga for five games this season but two of those he was limited to just a few series in the game. Burney has played in seven games this season while dealing with multiple injuries.
This will be the healthiest Florida’s defense has been since the opening game against Miami.
Offensive balance
It’s not groundbreaking news to say that Florida’s offense has lacked balance in 2019. The Gators haven’t been able to run the ball well all year. They’re dead last in the SEC averaging 124.18 yards-per-game this year and have three games where they rushed for 56 yards or less. Despite that, the Gators have the sixth-best total offense and the fourth-best scoring offense in the league. Dan Mullen was asked if it’s hard to call plays when the team can’t run the ball effectively.
“It’s very easy. Call other plays. You guys have heard me, there are so many plays and so little time, you know? We’re still probably, we have a whole list of every play that’s been in all the game plans this year and if I just called plays that we had in-game plans but hadn’t run this year we could probably get through two to three games with just those plays. It’s pretty easy,” he said.
Mullen was then asked a follow-up question about the offense being balanced and his response channeled Steve Spurrier.
“Well, when you look at us I think we have unbelievable balance. We throw it equally to all the different receivers.”
State Champions
There was once a time when Florida, Florida State, and Miami played each other every season and it was common to claim a “state championship” if your school beat the other. That isn’t the case anymore with the infrequency that Miami and Florida play one another but this season the Gators are looking to win a state championship. Florida handled Miami 24-20 to start the season and they’ll get a chance to go 2-0 against the other two Power 5 in-state schools.
It’s also a big recruiting weekend for the Gators. Florida only had six true home games this year and after Auburn, this will be the biggest recruiting weekend. Dan Mullen doesn’t subscribe to the theory that one game is an end all be all when it comes to specific recruitment, but he is aware of just how important this game is to his program and the fan base.
“I think it’s huge. I don’t even know if it has as much of a recruiting effect, to be perfectly honest with you. But it’s certainly the taste-in-your-mouth effect, is huge, winning this game. You want to finish off the year with a win. And obviously, you want to finish off, in-state, you want to finish off the year with a win. And I know when you have in-state rivals like this, it is such a big deal. It’s not like, hey, it’s our state against their state, people you don’t see. These are people that you see, and your neighbors with you year-round and the bragging rights. When you have an in-state rivalry game that you win, I think they are a little bit different than other rivalry games. Not just for us or the team. But the fans. And for everybody, because this is a neighbor-to-neighbor, not a state-to-state rivalry.”