Mullen blames penalties, but should have trusted Gators QB Emory Jones

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There was a time on Saturday night when you knew the Florida Gators were in trouble.

No, it wasn’t Kentucky’s blocked placement that was returned for a touchdown. It wasn’t Emory Jones’ interception all the way. It wasn’t the Wildcats touchdown in the fourth quarter.

That’s when Dan Mullen took the ball from Jones’ hands as half-time approached, although he had no reason to, and in fact had three. timeouts with 1:56 to do while leading in threes. Until the fourth quarter interception, Jones played pretty much perfectly in Mullen’s game plan, but Mullen didn’t trust Jones enough to run the two-minute drill and potentially take a lead of two points at halftime.

One of the many examples that identifies Mullen’s game plan as not-so-good.

Mullen would disagree with that sentiment, stating after the game that he didn’t believe he had been coached when asked the question. Instead, he blamed the Gators’ abundant offensive penalties as momentum killers – rightly so, but at the same time, he fails to recognize the obvious lack of confidence he has shown in his quarterback.

“No, but 382 yards, I guess that’s crackling.” I do not know. We had 382. They had 211 yards. I don’t think it would, ”Mullen replied to the question.

“I think the guys did some really good things there, going up and down. I think we really need to look at the penalties that we have and how to put ourselves in a better position that way,” he said. he continued. “We passed them. We passed them. We won them overall. The possession time, we were better in the third downs.”

Nothing Mullen explained is wrong: Florida edged Kentucky 34 yards on the night, passed the Wildcats 137 yards, won the battle of possession time by exactly ten minutes, and – well let it not be impressive – outscored the UK in third goal conversions. by more than 18 percent.

So, of course, blaming eight false starts against the Gators offense and 15 yellow flags thrown against UF as a whole, makes sense.

“The penalties… I think that was a big factor,” said Mullen. “You look at it, if you get into a rhythm in a game, you look like – the penalties weren’t little things like tough things, you talk about taking third downs off the board, you know, the third try and back us up, take conversions, knock the first downs off the board with holding penalties, those were the problems. “

However, what didn’t make much sense was Mullen’s strategy with his quarterback, especially in big moments.

Jones is yet to prove himself as Kyle Trask’s second coming in five starts, but he has played by leaps and bounds in the last three games than he has in the first two of his season. first season starting.

Before the last practice of the first half, Jones posted a 10 of 11 pass line for 105 yards and a touchdown. Still, Mullen kept things cautious with two short passing game calls and two rushes on the disc before heading to the locker, not using any of Florida’s three timeouts or allowing Jones to take chances. Jones had earned the right to push the ball down the field and rush the attack at this point.

Still, Mullen practically admitted he was afraid the Gators offense would make a mistake in this situation.

“You’re on the road, your back to the wall, we were making mistakes there,” Mullen offered. “… I thought we were playing, we’re doing good things, let’s be nice. To calm everyone down and not create a potential problem there.

Until he was forced to increase his passing calls towards the end, Mullen also called the rest of the game out of fear of a mistake. Considering he couldn’t build momentum, Jones ultimately pulled one off by throwing his first interception since the game started in Alabama two weeks ago in the fourth quarter. Kentucky would go on to score after turnover and create a two-possession lead.

Without many designed deployments and pass-friendly RPO concepts to expand routes, as we’ve seen Florida call Jones in recent weeks, the quarterback relied on quick passing play to move the ball. in the air during the second half. The offense was vanilla, but Jones still connected with receivers on the left and right, extending late practices with impressive throws on the sideline, in narrow windows and during pressure controls.

However, from 11:46 in the second quarter until 11:32 in the fourth, Jones did not – and did not have many opportunities to – throw 15 yards or more. Mullen clearly showed a lack of confidence in his caller, although Jones should have earned it through his performances in recent weeks and even against the Wildcats. As a result, the offense fell asleep for a long period of time.

Jones made two more throws over 15 yards in the fourth quarter and was always precise outside of the INT, while attempting to lead a late-game comeback. In response to the pick, Jones scored 9 of 13 for 67 yards, making five particularly impressive and well-timed shots – albeit short to intermediates and quick – on both drives to end the game, four of them coming off. converting for the first few tries with a few more that were completed and passed the sticks.

Jones had a touchdown set up on a swing pass to Jacob Copeland with space in front, but Copeland slipped as he caught the ball at the nine-yard line on the last practice.

This led to the final play for UF’s offense, fourth and goal from the eight-yard line. Mullen eventually called for an intermediate pass concept – delayed by four greens with Trent Whittemore releasing the movement – against a defense with seven defenders hovering over the goal line. It was never going to work in the first place, and to make matters worse left tackle Richard Gouraige was beaten in protection which eliminated a run / scramble lane for Jones to play on his own.

Which left Jones with only one choice: target Whittemore during the primary read. The window was narrow and a defensive back made a big play on the ball. Game over.

Penalties ruined the final streak for UF as two false starts (and an extending face mask against Kentucky, to be fair) were announced in all seven of the red zone games, as Jones warmed up in a downturn. With that in mind, Mullen made a good case for the Gators shooting themselves in the foot.

But Mullen could have trusted Jones more given his consistent performance on the night, on many occasions and especially on great occasions, and he didn’t. If the last two weeks and most of Saturday night’s game have taught us anything, it’s that Jones could run practice well with a script suited to his strengths.

Instead, the lack of confidence in Jones played just as big a role in Florida’s loss to Kentucky as the penalties.

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