Samford’s 52 factors against the Florida Gators on Saturday had been the most an FCS program has scored in opposition to an SEC team, ever. Florida even trailed by a rating of 42-35 at halftime to the school it paid six figures to play.
By the tip, Florida’s offense was on a roll en path to 70 factors and 717 whole yards, whereas the Gators’ protection held the Bulldogs to 10 factors within the second half, leading to a victory that ended a three-game losing streak for UF.
Social media and onlookers, in general, had decided that Gators’ head coach Dan Mullen’s job was pretty much as good as gone on the midway mark. But then his team rallied to place collectively a much-needed triumph, and Mullen defended Florida’s efforts following the win.
“They’re an offensive soccer team, the rating factors and have some good gamers,” Mullen said of the opponent, requested if he believed the Gators performed poorly in some ways. “So, I don’t assume… calling a win disappointing is disrespectful to the sport and our gamers. I actually do.”
Mullen supplied Samford’s offense loads of credit for placing Florida in a first-half gap, propping up quarterback Liam Welch for his 400-yard, three-touchdown displaying and his supporting solid of weapons for making large plays.
It is a tough sell for Florida devoted to buying considering the talent level of the opponent, particularly contemplating the Gators’ current struggles which led to the firing of two assistant coaches this past Sunday. But Mullen was adamant in his belief that the Bulldogs had been a threatening team, despite the subdivision that Samford hails from.
“You got to give them some credit. They’re a team that’s going to attain factors,” Mullen said. “They score a ton of factors. They throw the ball all over, you understand, inside their type.”
From Mullen’s perspective, Florida’s largest concern was lacking out on performs that the team is able to make. He also pointed to Florida’s 12 penalties compared to Samford’s three, acknowledging that some judgment calls didn’t go within the Gators’ favor.
“If there’s a disappointment, it’s some guys had [an] opportunity to make performs we didn’t make,” Mullen defined. “A few missed tackles, a few opportunities for sacks that we didn’t make. We ended up with penalties, cross-interference, you understand penalties we bought to get that cleaned up, proper? You look, they’d three, we had 12. Plenty of them was like the judgment penalties, however, they didn’t go our method.
“The guys [have] bought to be in place to go make performs so that half is disappointing. However I feel there are guys going to look at it and hopefully, they begin to build some confidence and say, ‘Hey I’m proper there, all I got to do is to make a play. I’ve to finish it and have the boldness to go make that play.’”
Mullen was encouraged, however, by the Gators’ offensive performance, and rightfully so.
Quarterback Emory Jones cemented himself in UF’s document books with probably the most yardage in a single sport in class history with 550, surpassing the document previously held by Tim Tebow. Jones threw for six touchdowns and rushed for a seventh, whereas Dameon Pierce added two speeding scores and Malik Davis posted one as nicely.
“I’m an offensive man so I like scoring factors. Obviously, I do not love giving up factors, however love scoring points,” Mullen claimed. “Offensively, we would have liked guys to step up and guys to execute, and I feel we did that at the moment … it ended up being somewhat shootout backward and forwards, and you understand, our offense stored responding and making performs.”
A win was vital for Mullen and his job safety in opposition to Samford – the dropping streak wanted to return to a finish, and the very last thing Mullen may afford was a loss to an inferior faculty from an inferior division of faculty soccer. Such an end result would have put writing on the wall in daring that his time at UF was nearing its conclusion.
The result was method shut than it ought to have been or was predicted to be, however, Mullen bought precisely what he wanted: A win. And he hopes that pulling off the victory can set up some confidence and momentum for his workforce as they strategy the ultimate two video games of the 2021 season.
“I’m actually happy with our guys,” Mullen mentioned. “[It’s] been tough. Good to go in there and see them have the ability to celebrate to go get a win.”
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