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Friday, March 29, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

Three things we learned about UF from SEC Media Days

<p>Coach Dan Mullen and the Gators released their depth chart ahead of the 2018 season opener against Charleston Southern.</p>

Coach Dan Mullen and the Gators released their depth chart ahead of the 2018 season opener against Charleston Southern.

Tuesday at SEC Media Days was the Dan Mullen parade.

The first-year Florida coach took a break from being a golf caddy for his son to strut around in orange and blue Jordans and reveal a little bit about the state of the program under his tenure. And of course, defensive end CeCe Jefferson, offensive tackle Martez Ivey and linebacker David Reese were there, too. 

Here’s what we learned from the Gators’ media event:

Mullen is very comfortable with his surroundings

Jim McElwain never looked close to this relaxed when he was UF’s head ball coach.

How can I tell? McElwain never put his feet on the table during a media event, revealing his “swagged-out” Jordans.

“I’ve got more swag than CeCe (Jefferson) does,” Mullen said.

The coach is not only comfortable in a $200 pair of basketball shoes, he puts tremendous trust in the coaches under him, a characteristic he said he didn’t have when he took the Mississippi State job 10 years ago.

“Boy, I was a control freak,” he said. “I was paranoid. I had to do everything myself.”

Now with assistants like defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, who Mullen called “the best defensive coordinator I’ve been around,” (and that includes Charlie Strong) he gives his coaches greater power and control and trusts that they’ll do their job to his expectations.

The kicking competition is wide open

The Gators have four kickers on their roster, and with Eddy Pineiro becoming an Oakland Raider, they have to replace arguably their best player from a year ago.

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Freshman Evan McPherson hasn’t even kicked in front of his head coach, but he may be the frontrunner to take the starting position.

The Fort Payne, Alabama, native will be competing with redshirt freshman Chris Howard, redshirt sophomore Daniel Justino and redshirt senior Jorge Powell.

The players can already see the difference

Ivey, a 315-pound behemoth, should’ve been pushing a lot of defenders around last season. Instead, he said he felt weak.

“Coming in you could just tell people are stronger than you,” he said. “The weight room wasn’t what it needed to be.”

Both Ivey, Jefferson and Reese all cited that the energy is different now under the guidance of Mullen and strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage.

This was evident during spring practice, when the thrill of being at Florida was fresh for Mullen and his staff, but continuing to hear it from three of the team’s leaders shows that there’s consistency to the energetic attitude. And the players haven’t experienced that in a while.

“It’s definitely different,” Jefferson said. “We have a staff that brings the type of energy everyday that you have no choice but to feed off of.”

 

@mstinejr

mstine@alligator.org

Coach Dan Mullen and the Gators released their depth chart ahead of the 2018 season opener against Charleston Southern.

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