Gators Offense
• Florida posted its ninth-highest season point total – including bowls for seasons prior to 2002 – in school history (478 points), moving past the 2000 Gators (468 points in 13 games) this evening.
o 2008 – 611 (14 games)
o 1996 – 611 (13 games)
o 1995 – 558 (13 games)
o 2007 – 552 (13 games)
o 2001 – 538 (12 games)
o 1994 – 538 (13 games)
o 1993 – 513 (13 games)
o 2009 – 502 (14 games)
o 2020 – 478 (12 games)
o 2000 – 468 (13 games)
• With his 12-yard completion to Rick Wells on the opening drive of the third quarter, Kyle Trask passed Kentucky’s Tim Couch for second on the SEC single-season passing yards record list.
o Joe Burrow, LSU, 2019 – 5,671 (15 games)
o Kyle Trask, Florida, 2020 – 4,283 (12 games)
o Tim Couch, Kentucky, 1998 – 4,275 (11 games)
• Trask also broke the single-season school record for passing yards per game (356.9), narrowly finishing ahead of Rex Grossman’s 2001 season (354.2).
o Trask’s average of 356.9 passing yards per game also ranks third in SEC history, only trailing LSU’s Joe Burrow (378.1 in 2019) and Kentucky’s Tim Couch (388.6 in 1998).
• Trask finishes his fifth collegiate season with 7,386 career passing yards, which ranks eighth on Florida’s career records list.
• With his third completion of the game, a 13-yarder to Keon Zipperer on Florida’s second drive, Trask broke Rex Grossman’s single-season school record for completions (287 in 2002).
• Trask finished the game with 158 passing yards, snapping his school-record streak of 200-yard passing games at 19.
• The Gators finished the season with an average of 378.6 passing yards per game, which ranks fourth in SEC history and second in school history behind the 2001 Gators (405.2).
• Anthony Richardson’s first career touchdown pass – a 27-yarder to Jordan Pouncey for his first collegiate touchdown reception – was Florida’s 46th of the season, adding to the second-highest season total in school history.
• Florida finishes the season with a 67.9 completion percentage, tying the 2019 Gators for the third- highest percentage in school history.
• The Gators finished 2020 with 509.8 yards per game, the third-highest average in school history. Only the 1995 Gators (534.4 per game) and 2001 Gators (527.5) had higher averages.
• Florida’s season average of 7.28 yards per play this season ranks third in school history, only behind the 1995 Gators (7.40 yards per play) and the 2001 Gators (7.36).
• Florida posted its 14th game of 500-plus total yards in Dan Mullen’s 38 games as head coach, equaling its combined total from the 115 games comprising the 2009-17 seasons.
o The Gators logged seven games of 500-plus total yards in a season for the fourth time since 1990 (2007 – seven; 2001 – eight; 1995 – nine).
o Florida had seven games of 500-plus total yards against Power Five Conference teams in the same season for the second time since 1990 (the 1995 Gators also did it seven times).
Florida’s six games of 500-plus total yards against SEC teams this season tied a school record previously established by the 1995 Gators.
• Tonight was also the 25th time Florida amassed 400-plus total yards under Mullen, equaling its number of 400-yard outings from the 88 games comprising the 2011-17 seasons.
o
o Florida finishes the season with 11 games of 400-plus total yards, tying a single-season school record previously established by the 1996 and 2001 Gators.
Ten of those 11 outings came against SEC teams, shattering the previous school record (seven in 2004, 2001, 1996, 1995, 1994).
o The Gators have eclipsed 400 total yards in 23 of their last 29 games.
• Florida has 10 consecutive games of 400-plus total yards for the first time since at least 1981.
• Florida’s streak of nine consecutive 300-yard passing games – its second-longest streak since at least 1981 – came to a close, as it had just 271 passing yards tonight.
Gators Defense
• Khris Bogle’s forced fumble was the first of his career.
• Trey Dean III’s fumble recovery was the first of his career.
• Mohamoud Diabate’s forced fumble was his second of the season and third of his career.
• Kaiir Elam’s fumble recovery was the first of his career.
• James Houston IV’s forced fumble was his first of the season and fourth of his career.
Explosive Plays
• Emory Jones: 14-yard rush, 1st quarter
• Trent Whittemore (from Jones): 25-yard reception, 1st quarter
• Trent Whittemore (from Trask): 22-yard reception, 1st quarter
• Dameon Pierce: 11-yard rush, 2nd quarter
• Nay’Quan Wright: 26-yard rush, 2nd quarter
• Nay’Quan Wright: 18-yard rush, 3rd quarter
• Malik Davis: 18-yard rush, 3rd quarter
• Emory Jones: 22-yard rush, 3rd quarter
• Dameon Pierce: 17-yard rush, 4th quarter
• Lorenzo Lingard: 13-yard rush, 4th quarter
• Anthony Richardson: 28-yard rush, 4th quarter
• Jordan Pouncey (from Richardson): 27-yard touchdown reception, 4th quarter
Other
• Florida falls to 1-1 in games against Oklahoma, as it won the previous matchup, 24-14, in the 2009 BCS National Championship Game.
• The Gators fall to 4-5 against Associated Press top-10 teams under Mullen. From 2010-17, Florida was 5-11 against top-10 opponents.
• Florida Game Captain: Stone Forsythe
• Oklahoma won the toss and opted to receive; Florida defended the west end zone
• Attendance: 17,323
Florida Quotes
Head Coach Dan Mullen
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas
1 Quotes provided by Caption Pros – (480) 419-3809
www.captionpros.net
COACH MULLEN: Yeah, tough game for us. Appreciate we had a lot of young guys. A lot of opportunities for guys to go out there and play in the course of the game. Give Oklahoma credit, did a great job, made a bunch of explosive plays, ran the ball well, made some plays in the pass game, played disciplined football. They really weren’t penalized; we had a lot more penalties than they did as well. We turned the ball over a couple too many times, which you can’t do playing good teams. But a lot of guys got some really good experience for us out there tonight.
Q. What’s a fair takeaway for people from this game, I mean, for your team, Kyle Trask, the future of the program after a performance like this?
COACH MULLEN: Yeah, I think the future’s really bright. You look, we had a guys get an opportunity to get experience on the field tonight, go play. We were down a Kyle Trask, you know, I couldn’t be prouder of him and the season that he had with our team this year. A special, special year for him. Coming out of what he was able to accomplish during the course of this
year, I thought was special. I’m really happy for him. I mean, you’re talking about a young guy that is came in, I think only played a couple plays in his career before he even graduated college. Didn’t play much in high school. And now he’s a Heisman Trophy finalist, and he’s going to be an NFL draft pick. So that says a lot about him. For the program, I’m excited. You look at the experience we were able to get out there on the field tonight, all the different young guys. A lot of the guys that were out there playing tonight
were on the scout team most of the year for us, so very few guys that were playing had even really we kept things simple. Some simple things for them, because they just haven’t really had the chance to even to play with the within the normal game plan week. Some really good experience for those guys, and a lot that we can teach off of with that group.
Q. Just building off of that, you knew coming into this game it was going to be young guys and a lot of young guys. Can you see now maybe where there are some depth issues in certain positions and where other you might have to recruit a little bit differently this next cycle?
COACH MULLEN: Well, I think, yeah. It’s hard to say. That really with the number of people that were out for the game, we were under numbers, actually. To be honest, we could have said I give our guys credit. We had the numbers to not play the game. You see a lot of games have been canceled and not played. But our young guys, I was really excited. They wanted to go play in that game. They wanted to get the experience. They wanted to be on that stage. So I think you’re able to see us, by playing so many players tonight, guys have experienced their stuff now that they know they can go build off of and learn from. They know now, hey, when I step on the field in a big game against a great football team, there are certain things that you know, when I was recruited when I was playing other high school football, you know, the last time I was really on the field, it wasn’t like this, and it’s a very different game. So I think there’s a lot of those little things that our guys had the opportunity to learn, and they’ll be able to take that experience with them as we get going into spring football.
Q. This season had such high expectations, and you guys really accomplished some great things along the way. Obviously, this is a sour note. And there were some really glaring mistakes in some other games too. So how should this team be remembered?
COACH MULLEN: Well, you know what? I would have loved to have played the season we were supposed to play with the team we were supposed to have this year; but, unfortunately for COVID, we weren’t able to do that. I think it’s a pretty special team right now you know what I mean? when you look back at what we do. I mean, the I don’t know. I look at the games that we played with the team that we had we were supposed to have, which we there were a few this year. SEC championship game, we were close to having our team. The Georgia game, we kind of had our team. There were some games in the season where we had our team playing, and then there
were a bunch that we didn’t, just for all the extenuating circumstances that happened. But, to me, during the course of the year, you know, I kind of viewed maybe this is wrong. I viewed this game that wasn’t the 2020 football team that you saw. I mean, there were about 25 guys missing off the 2020 football team out there tonight. That was kind of like a kickstart for us
for the future and the opportunity for young guys to go play and, you know, even with me, all the coaches, I wanted to make sure. I think you saw all a lot of different guys on the field, us rotate a lot of different players in different situations, and a lot of that was for me to get to evaluate guys and for us to be able to teach those guys moving forward. That’s how I kind of view this game. Not really; I view the last game the last team the 2020
team played was 11 days ago.
Q. Do we need to start looking at bowl games differently with all of the optouts, and does that take some of the luster of a bowl game from the team itself?
COACH MULLEN: Well, I think that’s an interesting question. And I don’t have the answer for you to that right now, because I think this is such a unique year. You’re talking about a bowl game that we played on 11 days’ rest. We didn’t really get to have, you know, the full bowl experience, which I think is one of the things that make the bowl games so special is the bowl
games are a reward for the end of your season, the opportunity for young guys to come to somewhere, big places. I know there’s so many stories about it, but it’s simple. One year, we were playing in the Orange Bowl not last year, earlier in my career. And the guys you have a day they bring you to the beach, they treat you to the beach. And guys are like, “This is the first time I’ve ever seen the ocean.” There’s a learning experience in that for college students. I thank the Goodyear Cotton Bowl people. The very short time we were here, the hospitality was unbelievable. The people took care of us. Everything we needed, they bent over backwards to try to help and make this game happen. And I think it is so special that we’re able to make these games happen. But I think your question is a much bigger question, which is the future of college football and the direction college football is heading. Now, I think you see a lot of optouts, but you saw whole teams opt out, whole teams not play this year. It’s a very different year. In our past two bowl games that we’ve played before this year, in those two combined, we had one player opt out and not play. So I don’t know if this year is kind of a unique anomaly for what it is. I don’t know if that’s going to be the future. But I think college football really needs to do a lot of evaluating.
And I’m a traditionalist. I think everybody that knows me knows I’m a traditionalist. I love college football. I love college football history, I love the game, I love the passion, I love that everybody has the fans, the people. I love bowl games. I love all of the history and tradition involved in college football. But things are changing, and I think one thing that we have to do is sit there and say, okay, if we can’t hold on to the past, how do we forge into the future, reevaluate and rethink the games? And ask me in a couple of weeks, because I have a couple thoughts on that, but this isn’t the time or the place to go into that.
Q. If you said this was kind of a kickstart for the future, what did you see for the future of your defense tonight?
COACH MULLEN: I think I’m really excited that some guys got some experience out there to go play. A bunch of those guys have been on the scout team all year, like I said. I’m looking out there at Kamar Wilkinson should be finishing up his senior year in high school, and he’s playing
corner in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl. And so I think there’s a lot of things that we can grow off of. and those guys now, guys that have played very played minimum snaps throughout a season, guys that were at best in backup roles, a majority of who were on the scout team for most of the year, so they didn’t even get to run our defense, got opportunities to go play in a bigtime atmosphere in a big game on the defensive side of the ball. And I think there’s a lot of those things that guys can learn from, and we can build off and take that into the future for this team. And I think we have a very young defense that I’m very excited about.
Q. We’ve been asking you about evaluating your coaching staff. Given your comments about this game and how young you were and the optouts, do you evaluate them off of this game and this performance or what you guys have done in the previous 11?
COACH MULLEN: I evaluate everything in our program. This season is now over officially, so I evaluate every aspects of our program as we move forward.
Q. With Emory Jones and even Anthony Richardson entering the game, you mentioned Kyle Trask is going to become a draft pick, so with that, what did you see from them and how you can build upon their performance moving forward?
COACH MULLEN: I think this: Emory obviously has gotten a lot of experience. I think Emory has learned an awful lot. Sitting there with Kyle Trask, he has learned to prepare, to develop, to be ready. And I’m really excited to see what he’s going to bring to the table here moving forward within the offense. And the same with Anthony. Anthony is just a young guy. You know, I’m really excited about us getting going in the spring and seeing a lot of these guys out here on the field, especially at the quarterback position. We have a couple of young quarterbacks coming in that will be enrolling in school in a couple weeks. I think today you saw the excitement. Both Emory and Anthony are very different style quarterbacks than Kyle, which I think, as everybody knows, we always play to the strengths of our players. So we’ll run. There will be a lot of similarities and a lot of differences in our offense next year, but we’re going to build around the strengths of those guys. And then you know what? You look at this right now, Anthony Richardson is throwing a touchdown pass in the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma. Emory Jones has played in a lot of big games and a lot of big moments, so he has the experience and he’s really learned how to prepare to get ready to take over that main role. And, you know, I’m excited. Hopefully I hope. I hope we get back a little bit back to normal and we’re able to have a spring practice and an offseason to go develop. I was talking to a bunch of the guys, and you look at this. You look at Kaiir Elam is really the leader of our secondary moving forward. He has never had a spring practice, not one spring practice day in his life, and he is our veteran leader in the secondary. He’s never had a spring practice, not one, not one.
So I think I am really excited about all of these guys and life hopefully getting a little bit back to normal as these guys continue to grow and develop to see what type of team we’re going to have next year.
Q. How many guys, because you said you might have been under, and also do you think this was fair to Kyle Trask, this situation, I mean, that he was put in?
COACH MULLEN: Yeah, I fair. Situations are what they are. I don’t know that there’s anything that’s fair or unfair. I don’t know that anybody in the world is going to say this past year has been fair to them, to be perfectly honest with you. That’s not just football; that’s everything in the world. And that’s life. There’s a lot of people that have gone through a lot tougher things.
I’m really proud of all our guys and how they’ve handled this year, but there’s a lot of people that have gone through a lot tougher things than that. Kyle is a competitor. He wanted to go out there and play. I think a little bit different, but he’s going to be playing with a whole bunch of new receivers next year. He’s always learning, he’s always trying to improve, he’s always trying to get better. That’s just the character and who he is. That’s what’s going to make him successful in the National Football League next year. So I don’t know if fair has anything to do with anything.
Q. Going back to Emory [Jones], he led I think he had 11 plays on that long 16play drive, and then we didn’t really see him. Did that have anything to do with him being sick?
COACH MULLEN: No. He has to get in shape or something like that. You know what I mean? You’ve got to play those long drives right now. He’s used to going in for a couple plays here and there and getting a breather and some water. Like I said, we were going to play a lot of people. He was in. He had a couple plays. We just let him in to go finish the drive. To be honest with you, I talked to Kyle [Trask] at halftime. I said, I’m going to let you play the first series and make a decision in the second half. To share you with Kyle, he wanted to play. It says a lot to him. After the first series, I just said,
hey, I want to give these other guys an opportunity. We’re building right here within this course of this game. That’s what we were looking to do coming into it. And so the but, I mean, I don’t want to underplay what an amazing year. You know what? And to be honest with you, what an amazing career he has had. You know? And I think a lot of people look at a career, you’ve had an unbelievable career. This guy, I was here with with Tim Tebow, unbelievable career. But Tim Tebow played, won a national championship as a freshman, Heisman as a sophomore, played a lot right from day one. Kyle Trask had an unbelievable career because of the adversities he overcame, the character he had to get to where he is. Boy, that is special. You know what? That is something that is special.
And I think everybody’s pretty confident in Kyle Trask. Whether it’s in the National Football League or it’s in any aspect of life, he’s going to be extremely successful.
Q. You mentioned all the players that were missing that you could have not played the game if you wanted to. I wonder if you could just kind of fill us in on what the makeup of that was? You know, we knew about the receivers opting out, but just
COACH MULLEN: The Dline, we didn’t have enough Dline to play. Dante Lang ended up playing. We had to scramble to get him medically cleared. We would have been under the Dline number, interior Dlinemen that they have. They never put a number on secondary players, but if they ever did, we would have been under that of, I guess. You know what I mean?
So there’s a lot of breakdown of different things. You know what I mean? You look. As you guys saw, there’s a lot of guys that hadn’t played before playing tonight. But, I mean, part of the deal was us talking to the team, and those guys wanting the opportunity to go out there and play.
And wanted those opportunities to go out there and grow. And wanted the opportunity to go out there and compete. And now you know what? There’s an awful lot we can learn from those guys in this game.
Q. A lot of fans were disappointed with the way the season ended. What would you tell them? Obviously, losing three games wasn’t the way you wanted to end the season. What would you just tell the fan base in terms of this season and the future of the program?
COACH MULLEN: We just went to our third straight New Year’s Six bowl game. We played for the SEC championship this year. I think we’re headed in the right direction. Can’t wait to see the Gator Nation pack the Swamp. Hopefully, we’re healthy enough to pack the Swamp. I know all the Gator fans are going to be fired up for the future of this program.
QUOTES FOR LB AMARI BURNEY, DB TREY DEAN,
LB MOHAMOUD DIABATE, DL KHRIS BOGLE
Q. I’m going to ask Trey. Trey, what was practice like this week leading up to the game? I mean, this certainly wasn’t what you guys were hoping to do today.
DB TREY DEAN: Well, every day at practice, our players have to go out there, make the plays that we need to make, make the right checks. With COVID and everything, we have good practices, but you’ve all got to put it all together when you get on the field and players got to make plays no matter what age you are or what classification you are. At the end of the day, the Gators standard, we’ve got to play the University of Florida football, and we didn’t do that today.
Q. And then Mohamoud. What can you take away from this game leading into next season?
LB MOHAMOUD DIABATE: I think this is a great learning experience, especially since a lot of the younger players who didn’t get to play this season were able to play in this game. So it really allowed them to have the opportunity to understand where they were and what they needed to
improve in the off-season. It really made them realize what college football is like because a lot of these guys came in during the COVID year, things were difficult, and they didn’t get many snaps. And now they had a chance to get some better snaps today. So it really allowed their eyes to be opened.
Q. What were they doing, especially on the ground? And how much did maybe not having Kyree [Campbell] up front make a difference in not being able to stop the run game? And, Mohamoud, start with you since you’re closer to the ball up there.
LB MOHAMOUD DIABATE: Obviously, Kyree’s a great player and that would be a great help for our defense. But I’m not going to sit here and say we gave up a lot of rushing yards because Kyree wasn’t there. Because at the end of the day, Kyree was not there the first couple of games, and we played. Kyree’s a great player. We need him. He’s a big part of the 2020 team. But at the end of the day, just like Trey Dean said, players have to get out on the field and make plays. We’re the University of Florida. We can’t say we didn’t have one guy. This is Florida. So you can’t say we didn’t have one guy who could make a play.
Q. I’ll follow up with that. When you have such a short turn-around from the SEC championship game, only 11 days, it being over Christmas, how much of a difference did that make just in terms of game planning and having enough practice to be ready?
DB TREY DEAN: I feel like it really didn’t take a toll on us because, at the end of the day, we’re in a football season. We’ve got to be ready to play each and every game. No matter if we’re playing Bethune-Cookman or the University of Alabama, we’ve got to play to the Gator standard, no matter what it is. So there really was no bad turn-around. On to the next one. You’ve got to look
at the new game plan. At the end of the day, we’re in the Cotton Bowl. So we’ve got to play like the Florida Gators in the Cotton Bowl.
Q. And then, Trey, you’ve been here through three New Year Sixes now. This is your third. So you’ve been through two wins and then through this. What can you take from this into the off-season to prepare for next year?
DB TREY DEAN: In the off-season, just prepare. We’ve got to go out there and work on the little things because I believe that this game is 90% mental and the rest of it is physical. So we’ve got to go out there and work on the little things. Just different things. We’re going to go out there and
listen to our coaches. And we’ve got to continue to be the Gator standard. And, at the end of the day or next year, we’re holding up that trophy, the Lord’s will.
Q. Khris, touching on something that Mohamoud said, how important do you think it was for a lot of those guys that really hardly have played at all this year to get out there on the field and do their thing, again leading up to next season?
DL KHRIS BOGLE: We’ve got a young team, obviously, but we’ve got to come together, play as a team, execute, from the younger guys to the older guys, come together as one unit, and just execute. Listen to the coaches, do what we do best, and play Gator football.
Q. A lot of fans are mad. Does three losses at the end of the year taint the way you look at this season as a whole, though? Or is that more of a fan thing?
LB AMARI BURNEY: We don’t want to lose. That’s one thing about us. Every loss, we take it personal. So losing three games, that’s really unacceptable, no matter if we had COVID or a regular season.
LB MOHAMOUD DIABATE: I’ll add something to that. Just like [Amari] Burney said, I feel like three losses isn’t acceptable, but something I will say, I’m proud of the team because every other team did too, but we have to deal with a lot this year. It’s a COVID year, no off-season, no spring together, having young players who didn’t get to go through a spring. So it’s like we’re
proud that we made it to this point. Even though we wanted to win and it wasn’t our desired result at the end, we’re still proud of ourselves because there’s a lot of people going through a lot of things in this world, a lot of
distractions going on in this world today and during this time, but we were able to come and finish the season. And whether we finished it with a win or a loss, we finished it like men and we finished it — when that scoreboard said 0:00 with no time left, we finished it. So I’m proud of my guys, every single one of them, from K.T. (Kadarius Toney) to a walk-on. Every one of them. That’s how I feel about it.
Q. How big of an accomplishment is it just to even finish 12 games in a COVID season like this?
LB MOHAMOUD DIABATE: It’s a great accomplishment because I don’t even think we could meet as a team until — like, we saw each other as a whole team in person until July. That was odd. We went all the way from March to July without seeing each other. So things like that, that’s really difficult for a team. Football, this is a game of being together, being close, forming a brotherhood, forming bonds. And it was a difficult time not being able to do that, and I think it did have an effect on the season. But we look forward to things getting better in the condition in America so things can get better with us.
Q. Could you follow up on this? What’s a fair assessment of this game by outsiders? We don’t know what’s been going on within the team. You guys were undermanned, some of your best guys didn’t play. What’s a fair assessment of what we saw?
LB AMARI BURNEY: Everybody played this game, from the freshman never getting a snap. We were putting everybody out there to see what they can do.
DB TREY DEAN: I say a fair assessment, at the end of the day. If we won by 80, we still got to go back to the drawing board, see the things that you did wrong. So I say a fair assessment, we know who we are as a team; we stand as a team. So like I said, we go to the drawing board, do the corrections, and put playmakers in to make plays. And then, when the player didn’t make the play, we’re going to ask why they didn’t make the play — or not necessarily why they didn’t make the play, but how can you make the play next time?
I feel like we all got a talent. I’ve got faith in everybody on my team. Like Mahomoud said, I got faith in everybody on our team. Everybody can make the same plays. Anybody can make those plays. At the end of the day, we’re the Florida Gators, and we’re going to play to the Gators standard.
Q. Tell me your feelings on Coach [Todd] Grantham and how you have his back. A lot of fans really are not happy with the direction of the defense under him.
DL KHRIS BOGLE: Coach Grantham comes out here every day, just like we come out here every day. During COVID, we still have film on Zoom, stuff like that. He can only do his part. We’re the ones that’s on the field, and we’ve just got to take care of what we can take care of.
LB MOHAMOUD DIABATE: At the end of the day, players got to make plays on the field. It’s their responsibility to teach us it, but we have to make the plays. If I don’t make a play out there, I can’t blame Coach Grantham because I was on the field. I know Coach Grantham cares because I left something at the facility on game week. I came back at 2:00 a.m., and Coach Grantham’s car is still there. Nobody’s car is there. I’m not going to listen to somebody say he doesn’t care. No. Coach Grantham has had a long, successful career. He’s respected in this league. He’s respected in the NFL. We respect him. In these two years with him, he’s taught me a lot about the game, and I know Bogle can say the same thing. We were both in his room. That’s how I feel about it. Players got to make plays, period.
DB TREY DEAN: Coach Grantham called the same defense the whole game. We should be able to execute. Even the offense knows, we should be able to execute. At the end of the day, like he said, players got to make plays. Coach Grantham is a great defensive coordinator. But like Mohamoud said, I’ve seen him late nights, sleeping in his office. I know the time that Coach
Grantham put in. He’s going to give us his all; we’ve got to give him our all. He called the same defense the whole time. We’ve got to go execute.
LB AMARI BURNEY: Like Bogle said, Coach Grantham’s not the one on the field with us. Coach called the play; we all got to know the play. One person out of position, that mess up the whole defense. Everybody’s got to hold each other accountable. When we mess up, everyone wants to blame Coach Grantham. It’s not his fault. When we watch film, when we look at the plays
that Coach Grantham called and everybody executes, then we’re going to stop them.
QUOTES FOR QB KYLE TRASK, RB NAY’QUAN WRIGHT,
WR JORDAN POUNCEY, QB EMORY JONES
Q. Just how difficult of an ending was this to what’s been just a special season and last two seasons for you here at Florida?
QB KYLE TRASK: Yeah, obviously, it’s difficult because this isn’t the way you want to go out. But at the same time, you’ve got to look at the big picture. And we had a ton of young guys playing. At the end of the day, it was getting them reps and getting them ready for next year and getting them opportunities. But, yeah, obviously we didn’t get off to a great start. But it is what it is, and we just want to get it coached up and move forward.
Q. Dan [Mullen] mentioned a couple times that you’re going to be an NFL draft pick and you’re going to be playing in the NFL. Does that mean you’re not going to be pursuing your Ph.D. and coming back to Florida next year?
QB KYLE TRASK: You know, I still haven’t made that decision yet. But I’ll talk to my family members and talk to Coach [Brian] Johnson and Coach Mullen in the next coming days and get that figured out.
Q. Your story has resonated so much with college football fans, just regular average people all over the country, the backup to the Heisman finalist. Everyone can relate to that. What does that mean to you to see how much your story has meant to so many people?
QB KYLE TRASK: It means a lot. It’s been a crazy journey here. I got really nothing else to say. It’s just been a wild ride, and I’ve enjoyed every second of it. Like I said before, this isn’t the way you want to go out, but when I look back on all the memories and friendships I made here, it’s all worth it.
Q. I actually kind of want to just go down the line — Emory [Johnson], [Jordan] Pouncey, and Nay’Quan [Wright]. Dan [Mullen] talked a lot about how important it was to get young guys in tonight. What sort of experience is this for you? How different was this from maybe a regular-season game? What can you take from this into this off-season?
QB EMORY JONES: Well, first off, it was an opportunity for the young guys to get in and get some reps. And just being on this stage, I feel like the young guys that played, they’re going to be ready to step on any stage. They got in and played here. Some of them made some plays. You just have to get better from that.
WR JORDAN POUNCEY: Transferring from Texas, I was — we waited a couple of weeks to get the waiver through. Once I got the waiver through, kind of just got more — more to work. And I waited in the wings a little bit, waited until my time came. We had the receivers that didn’t make
the trip with us. I’ve been preparing the whole season, no matter the opponent, to step up and fill whatever role I needed to. Actually, I was supposed to play X, but Trent [Whittemore], he didn’t come back out,
and I actually ended up playing H. So I played all positions this year, and I was just waiting for Coach G (Todd Grantham) and Coach [Brian] Johnson and Coach [Dan] Mullen to give me my shot, and I was able to get out there and score my first touchdown.
RB NAY’QUAN WRIGHT: I’m just thankful for the opportunity to be out there. We all started in practice. We just go out there and practice, I mean. I feel like I prepared myself and the coaches helped me prepare myself in practice. And then once I got the opportunity to come on in and perform, it was just a blessing.
Q. My question is for Jordan [Pouncey]. You’ve had a long career, you’ve gone through some changes to get here, and now you have scored that first touchdown. So with your veteran experience, how have you been able to kind of lend a hand for some young guys, especially to come out and do this tonight in a big bowl game, kind of encourage guys that their time will
come as well?
WR JORDAN POUNCEY: Yeah, I think the first thing is playing in the Cotton Bowl. It’s one of the greatest bowl games in all of college football. So much history behind this game. Reminding the young guys like Xzavier [Henderson], J.Fraz (Ja’Quavion Fraziars), and [Ja’Markis] Weston,
and all them, like, as a younger guy who probably doesn’t get as much reps but still has the experience, I try to give maybe a situation that I was in before I got here and just lend a helping hand.
It would be stupid to be selfish and keep those thoughts to myself. So I just try to really help and be as supportive as I can to everybody in the room, from the older guys to the young guys. And especially next year, I have two more years of eligibility left, so I’ve got these — these young guys, I’ve got to pull them along with me. So that’s just kind of what it was.
Q. Emory [Jones], the quarterback position in a Dan Mullen program, there’s so much development. We’ve seen that with Feleipe Franks. We’ve seen that with Kyle [Trask]. He’s now a Heisman finalist. And you’re next here. You got to play a lot tonight. So how do you feel about how you’ve developed and how much you’re ready to take over this role next year?
QB EMORY JONES: I feel good about it. I mean, I’ve been working my butt off for three years. I’ve been waiting my turn. I’ve been grinding. I have some great guys to look up to and just been studying them. They’ve been helping me out and bringing me along. So, I mean, just — I’ve just
been growing just watching them just do everything the way, like Kyle [Trask] conducts himself, like even just walking around the facility, I mean, the way he just like carries his self. I mean, he’s just been helping me out a lot. So I feel like I’m ready.
Q. My question is for Emory [Jones]. And like everyone’s been saying, a lot of young guys got some reps out here today. And looking in the future, this is a group that you’ve been playing with that you’ll probably be playing with coming up next season and beyond. My question is, doing it on this big of a stage, how was it building that rapport and getting a feel for that?
QB EMORY JONES: Like I said earlier, I mean, it was a great feeling to get out there, and the young guys getting out there on this big stage, I mean, it just put them in a position to be ready to step on any stage. I mean, they’ve been preparing a lot. They’ve been getting a lot of reps in practice. So I feel like they played pretty good today.
Q. Kyle [Trask], one more, please. Just how difficult was it not having your main targets, just for chemistry, timing? I know you worked with all those guys, but did it make it more challenging?
QB KYLE TRASK: I mean, it definitely — I mean, it obviously was a little more challenging. I mean, when you just, you think about it, you’ve got a whole off-season to get timing down with that group of guys. And we essentially had about two or three days to get the timing down. Since
we had so many opt-outs, we only had about two or three days of practice to get the timing down with the next guys up.
That’s not making excuses or anything, but that’s just the amount of work that goes into this, you don’t just flip a switch and everything, you end up in end zone. It takes a lot of work to get there. You know, we’ve got a lot of talented guys, a lot of big-time dudes here. So they’re going to have a great off-season and we’ll get back to work and get back to where we need to be.
