Florida’s Dan Mullen’s 13th regular-season opener as a head coach presents a familiar balancing act.
Don’t reveal too much on offense, but give fans the fireworks they came for and players the snaps and game plan needed to get up to speed.
A visit from FAU 7:30 p.m. Saturday night is unlikely to require the 13th-ranked Gators, a 24 ½-point favorite, to strain themselves to pick up the program’s nation-leading 32nd straight victory during a home opener.
Mullen’s fourth Florida team also on a tight schedule, with first-year starting quarterback Emory Jones leading a retooled offense and a Sept. 18 visit from top-ranked Alabama looming.
Mullen expects his team to accelerate the inevitable learning curve. The 49-year-old coach does not abide Week 1 jitters or growing pains.
UF is paying FAU $1.555 million to visit the Swamp and aims to make every dollar count.
“I don’t like being messy,” Mullen said Monday. “I don’t care when we’re playing. I want us to come out and play at an extremely high level. That’s kind of our expectations.
“We’ve had a lot of time to practice, so we should be prepared to go execute.”
Jones has been in the program for four years, the past two serving as backup and change of pace to record-setting QB Kyle Trask due to his dual-threat abilities.
The 6-foot-2, 211-pound Jones also has played in his share of big games, beginning against Georgia in 2018 when he still would go on to redshirt.
Jones stepped in and quarterbacked the Gators’ to a critical field goal after Trask suffered a hit to the knee during a 2019 win against Auburn. The following week, Jones played a dozen snaps and led UF to touchdown during a hard-fought loss at pressure-packed LSU.
“I think if you go back a couple years, I think he’s ready for that moment, to be out there on the field and go make plays,” Mullen said. “We’ve put him out there to run specific plays, but there’s times we’ve just left him out there to keep running the plays. That’s why I think he’s going to be comfortable with what we have going on.”
Jones also will push to create a comfort level a group of playmakers with much to prove.
UF replaces a trio a pass-catchers in Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes totaled 33 touchdowns for an offense averaging more than 41 points during 11 SEC contests.
Mullen’s attack will feature more a balanced approach than the pass-happy 2020 Gators. Who begins to emerge as Jones’ top targets is among the many things to watch against FAU, now in its second season under former Florida State coach Willie Taggart.
Known for coaching explosive offenses prior to two failed seasons with the Seminoles, the 45-year-old native of Bradenton aims to revive his career, along with that of former Miami Hurricanes quarterback N’Kosi Perry, a one-time starter and promising talent in Coral Gables.
“He’s got some athletic ability and obviously he has some great size,” Mullen said of Perry, a a 6-foot-4 Ocala native. “But a really good passer on top of it. They’re going to put him in position to do different things, so you have to respect his arm talent and his size as a pocket guy to be able to see and have that height and that length, but you also have to be aware of his athletic ability and his ability to create outside the play.”
The Gators defense could use an early litmus test after allowing more than 50 points during its final two games of a historically bad 2020 season.
Todd Grantham’s ‘D’ is expected to be much better up front, while it looks to re-establish the secondary as one of the nation’s best after ranking 100th of 127 teams defending the pass.
The Gators added a third graduate transfer defensive tackle Monday, when Tyrone Truesdell transferred from Auburn. The 6-foot-2, 326-pound Truesdell will join transfers Antonio Valentino (Penn State) and Daquan Newkirk (Auburn) to boost the experience and production level inside.
“You got a guy that started a lot of games in this league,” Mullen said. “I know it’s kind of a late start, but being a veteran guy that’s started in the league I think he’s going to adapt really quickly.”
The Gators hope redshirt freshman Avery Helm does the same as he lines up opposite All-SEC cornerback Kaiir Elam due to a season-ending knee injury to veteran starter Jaydon Hill. Blessed with 4.3-second speed in the 40-yard-dash and a 40-inch vertical leap, the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Helm is as explosive as any player on the roster.
“You know, God gifts and hard work,” Helm said of his skillset. “It’s gonna come together.”
Mullen, the SEC’s second-longest reigning coach to Alabama’s Nick Saban, does not expect all the pieces to fall in place against FAU. Yet, Mullen has been around long enough to know how to leave training camp behind and navigate Week 1 without suffering too many hiccups and establishing something to build on.
“That’s obviously a huge transition for us, to make sure we prepare the right way for it,” Mullen said. “We have a long checklist of things to make sure that you’ve crossed every ‘t’ and dotted every ‘I,’ that we’re completely prepared in every single way, especially in Game 1. As the season goes you get very much into a routine and even for the coaches right now it’s a different routine.
“So making sure we’re getting back to the routine and we’re getting handled everything that we need to get handled.”
