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UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 2, 2018

Dan Mullen

Gainesville, Florida

DAN MULLEN: I hope everyone is doing all right and everybody has had a great summer. I know -- I think our coaching staff had a great summer, the opportunity to spend some family time and enjoy some time with their family, but I know everyone is excited to get back out there on the field and start playing.

You know, I know Coach Savage and his staff have worked really hard. Our players have worked hard to develop their bodies and prepare themselves physically and mentally for training camp coming up here to get us going.

We've got some pretty good news from the NCAA on Trey and Van. They're going to clear them to be eligible to play, so we're excited right now to know that we're going to have Trey with us. I know we're still working with the SEC office to find -- get a final resolve with the Van Jefferson situation, but everything through the NCAA has been very positive.

I think our administration, Jamie McCloskey, his whole crew did a fabulous job working with it, following all the steps and working through things the right way, and it's great for those two young student athletes since they've been here to get ready for this football season and not let that be a distraction, whether it be in the classroom or on the field within their preparation.

It's an exciting time to be a Gator. I'm excited to get out there. Can't wait for the first game, and you know, I've been feeling for -- feeling the excitement off of all of our fan base everywhere. I mean, you go back, I know they start putting out all the hype videos. I do watch the hype videos, and they get me hyped watching all the great moments in the past in the Swamp, and some that were here before me, some that I was a part of, some that came after me, and gets me excited for the future moments and the great moments that are going to be happening here in the Swamp this season and in years to come. We're ready to get it kicked off and get going.

Q. Have you talked to Coach Meyer, your thoughts on his situation at Ohio State?
DAN MULLEN: You know what, I haven't. I sent him a text last night just saying he and the family were in our prayers because I know we've been very close. I haven't gotten to see a lot or research much. I've just seen a couple of the headlines here and there because we're getting ready for training camp right now.

But I know -- he and the family are very close to my family, so our prayers are with them as they go through all of this.

Q. (No microphone).
DAN MULLEN: Yeah, you know what, I haven't seen enough of it to really -- to know. I mean, if it was -- I guess something -- one of these days I'm going to sit down and try to read everything, get all the information I can find. What's in there -- I mean, just anything that happens with those type of incidents are so difficult. Any time there are domestic problems with anybody in the world, I mean, it's a sad situation. And so I think that having to deal with that -- I'll look. One day I'd like to gather information and see -- if there's a way in which to handle it better, how it was handled or what went on and how to research it and how to prepare yourself if you're ever -- if that type of situation ever arises for me.

Q. I know when you were here early on with Urban, there was a pretty strict code with certain things, respecting women, et cetera, no guns, et cetera. Out of curiosity, what is the policy here in the Mullen era regarding domestic violence, respect for women, et cetera?
DAN MULLEN: Well, it's very similar to what it was. I mean, that we believe in all that way. One of the things -- I mean, domestic violence is not something -- is something that is a problem, something that has to be taken very seriously. Not just in today's world, should always be taken seriously, but I think it's come more to the forefront in today's world, become more of a public issue.

One of the things, anytime I deal with discipline, anytime I deal with any of those issues, and I guess it's hard because we live in such an immediate society. We need to know everything immediately. One of the things I always try to do before I make any decision is try to gather as much information that I can before making decisions so that I think when you do make decisions, the more information you have, the better decision you can make on situations that have an effect on people's lives.

Q. I know that you've obviously been involved with the wives, et cetera, all the coaching staffs, Shelley very involved with Urban, Megan in her role I'm sure is involved. How is she involved in that regard and do you consult with her about it?
DAN MULLEN: I do. Megan is very, very involved in a lot of our program, involved in the players' lives and involved in helping the players deal with situations. I mean, there are so many different situations you deal with as a coach, and Megan is very, very involved in it. You know, whether it's dealing with hard situations that Urban is dealing with, with people on your staff, or whether it's dealing with having to tell a young man his mom just passed away from cancer, right, or whether it's dealing with any number of situations. She's very involved.

You know, our coaches' wives are very involved. We put a lot into football. We put a lot into our players, put a lot into the development of these young men, and a lot of times they become family members, like family members to you.

And so they're very close with the wives, with my kids, with all of those things, and so the wives are a very important part of the program and an important support system.

Q. I know you wanted to have a clean summer, and obviously there was a couple things that came out recently. How disappointing is that, and do you know of any other suspensions going forward?
DAN MULLEN: Yeah. Well, obviously one of the things we deal with as a head coach is trying to help young men make good decisions. That's a never-ending process. You know, and that's one -- from my first team meeting through a team meeting we had last night, we continually talk about decision making in every aspect of your life and the consequences that your decisions have. You know, we have -- on the football team, we'll have 110 young men coming to training camp, I think, between the ages of 17 and 23 years old. You know, and part of our job is not just to coach football but to help educate them and teach them how to make good decisions in life. So that never ends for us.

You know, as far as the suspension and discipline, we try to look at each case individually and separately if there are going to be -- there's some discipline that honestly a lot of times law enforcement takes care of it and the legal process takes care of it. A lot of times the university takes care of it, and there's some things that we take care of, and when we take care of it, some are public, some are private, but it's something we take very, very seriously, the discipline within the program.

As far as suspensions or any suspensions, that's something that I've done in the past. We'll let you know if there will be suspensions. Usually we'll do it on game day. I mean, not like two minutes before kickoff, but that morning we kind of let everybody know, hey, these are guys that are going to be suspended for any numerous number of things. But discipline is something I take very, very seriously in the program, but discipline also involved a lot of education for the players and teaching them how to make good decisions in life.

Q. On the discipline issue, the incident that happened with the fight over on campus, the confrontation, seemingly guns involved, which it turned out not to be apparently, the players, a couple, said that they feel threatened kind of when they're out in groups. Have they talked about this to you? Are you taking precautions about stuff like this?
DAN MULLEN: Well, again, it gets to the decision making in them. They get presented -- I think one thing they have to understand, being a football player here at the University of Florida, you're a high-profile person. People know who you are as you walk around. And there's a lot of benefits to that, and there's -- it's kind of a neat deal when you get to walk around and everyone -- you have a great game, great game, and people know who you are, a little bit of celebrity status. That's fun for kids.

There also comes responsibility on the other side that people might be jealous or have something against you, and one of the things that we constantly tell them to do is, again, how to make good decisions, how to deal with those situations. You know, when to walk away. Just -- we don't need to engage in this, we can just walk away because it's not something they even need to be involved in. It's one thing we discuss as a team: Help each other out. If you see a teammate that you think is not making a good decision or possibly doing something they shouldn't be doing, as a team we stick together and get them on the right path.

But I also think -- I have a little more experience maybe in my life than some of these guys do. I think a lot of you do. And they're still young kids that are growing and developing, so it's a constant education process for them on how to handle all the different situations you get yourself into.

Q. May I ask a football question?
DAN MULLEN: Yeah.

Q. Do you have a timetable or an ideal one when it comes to the starting quarterback?
DAN MULLEN: I get this question from my wife -- you ask if Megan is involved in the program. I get this question from her quite a bit, too. Can we get this resolved, can we have a starter that we feel good about? I said, listen, I would love to get that done. That's something to me that I want to feel comfortable with. I don't have the timetable because if I give myself a specific timetable, I don't know when we're going to be ready to make that decision. I hope it's a clear-cut decision that we know this person is going to give us the best opportunity to win games and lead our program into the future.

You know, part of me, also, I have to make sure that we have one that we feel good as a starter, but you're talking whoever our backup is is also one play away from being a starter, so I hope I feel really good about that position and that situation, as well.

I'd love to give you a timetable. I'd love to say on this date, we're going to know -- I've learned through the years not to do that because I've thought in the past I'm going to know the starter on this date. That date comes, and I'm like, I thought this guy was going to be it, the last three days he's been terrible, this other guy has been great. I hope it defines itself for us during training camp, and the team, everyone knows, this is the guy that's going to help us win.

Q. Not to belabor events in Columbus, but is this in some ways a reminder, a call to action that coaches know that coaching is about more than coaching at this level? You're caretakers of integrity, character.
DAN MULLEN: I do. I think all coaches know you're held as a coach in the public eye to a very, very high standard. So I don't know that it's a wake-up call in that way. I think if you asked most coaches at top programs around America, they understand they're there -- I don't know if you're going to find a coach that doesn't believe that their job as the head coach is to have a program that has and teaches young people character and integrity and how to become successful in life, not just being a processing plant for football players. I know certainly for me, that's why I coach.

I love winning football games. I hate the other thing. But when I go to bed at night, that worries me, winning and losing, because I'm so competitive, but finally when you sit down and you think about peace in your life, are you making a positive impact on young people's lives, which is a much, much important role as a coach. I want to win every game we play. Chances are that's not going to happen. You look at the last several national champions, that hasn't happened.

But as a coach, you look at the lives you can impact. That's the most important thing.

And so I think I certainly understand that as a coach. I would think most coaches and most people I know understand that as a coach, that that's why you do it. That's why you coach, to help impact young people's lives.

Q. How difficult is it to get a program, a high-profile program like this one, out of what has been a significantly long rut for Florida, and how much will your experience at Mississippi State, getting that program going, help in that regard?
DAN MULLEN: Well, I think the one thing, one of the things when I got to Mississippi State to build the program was -- and I constantly talked about was building a consistency within the program, building a consistent winner that you'd need to have that consistency.

The one thing that I spent time looking at and still trying to figure out, I might not even know until the season gets on with our players and how they respond to every situation, is if you just even take the last -- never mind however -- where everyone considers the rut may be, if it started in 2010 or '11 or what year you might consider after the championship run for all those years, but I just look at even in the last four years where you have two four-win seasons and two SEC East championships.

Now, I'm sure if you go back and look at every single season, there's several defining moments that separate one from the other. But overall the lack of consistency to me is something that really is glaring that you shouldn't have those massive swings.

I can see, hey, we're SEC East champions competing in the title game one year, and then had a rebuilding year that you won seven, eight games maybe another year, but the massive swings that went on is something I'm still trying to figure out, not just within the program, within the players of how it goes, and how to prevent that from happening. I want to build consistency within the program. Once we have consistency, we want to continually raise that consistency and raise that bar where we're consistently competing for championships every single year.

That's the challenge to building the program. You know, that's -- I would say that's the biggest difference between this year's team and the Florida football program, where kind of -- I guess the only way you can probably define it is -- in the rut is there was a lot of concerns about each individual team, and maybe not always investing in the program as a whole. To me that's the one thing I learned is we've got to invest -- we want to win -- trust me, I want to win with this year's team. I expect to compete for a championship with this year's team, but also I want to build a program, which is even more important, over the long-term that's a consistent winner and consistently competing for championships.

Q. You talked a lot on your spring tour about summer being where those quarterbacks really make the next jump. I know you can't be around them a ton, but have you gotten a sense how much they've been able to get done over the summer?
DAN MULLEN: No, because I can't be around them. I'm excited to find out. We'll find out tomorrow a little bit, and then we'll find out a little bit more as time goes on. The more and more we put into the system, we'll find out who's put the real time in, you know, and I'd love it if all of them have and it is a heated battle that way. But I'm also grateful if one has put the time in and separated themselves. We'll find out when we hit the field.

Q. What's your view of the progress of the strength and conditioning program?
DAN MULLEN: I think they've done a great job. I think Nick Savage does a great job. And because it goes beyond just the physicality -- I mean, a lot of times if I hand you a sheet, follow this sheet, right, you get bigger, faster and stronger if you follow the sheet and do the workout every single day. I think he's done a good job, the team building, the mindset, the competitiveness, making sure the guys have an edge.

That's one of the things that I want to see carry over now into training camp is let's take that edge that we've learned in the weight room, the mental toughness aspect of our off-season program and incorporate that into the practice on the field, and then hopefully the confidence we have from the mental toughness we got in the off-season program, the mental toughness we got through training camp, translates into mental toughness out here on a Saturday in the fall.

Q. What's your take on how recruiting has gone for this particular cycle, the 2019 class? Has it been harder for you, difficult to make inroads with kids that you may not have necessarily recruited in the past?
DAN MULLEN: No, I think there's a lot of excitement around our program, not just in -- for this recruiting class but future recruiting classes. I think there is a lot of excitement around our program and the future that it's headed, and you know, I think it's something that's going to continue to build when they see how we play on Saturdays, the type of offense and defense we play. There's probably a lot of kids that haven't seen our offense before. But they know what the Gator standard is, and they know what it is, and they know the academics. They know the history. They know the tradition. They know all about the Swamp, and then they want to see what our team, offense, defense, special teams is going to look like.

You know, I feel pretty good with the excitement around our program.

Q. Obviously you weren't here last year, but the defense had one of its worst years in a long, long time. What gives you confidence that the defense can rebound?
DAN MULLEN: Well, I know -- I mean, I think we have one excellent defensive coaches that are going to really work to put those guys in a position to be successful, you know, the great thing I think with Todd and the coaches we have is the flexibility they have to adapt to the players that we're going to put out there on the field.

We have a young defense coming into this year, but the great thing is we also have guys that have played, so they have some experience. We have some guys that have been out there on the field and played in games, played in some bigger games in some tough environments.

So I think that the confidence that they're going to get from being put in the position to be successful by the staff as well as the experience that they've been out there and played before, and a lot of guys have made plays before, I think that's going to give us the opportunity to get the defense back to where we expect it to be, which if you know me through the years, you know -- and our plan to win, play great defense is number one. That's what the program is going to be based on. I know we want to score points, and I love scoring points, I love the offense, but to be a championship-level team, you have to play great defense, and that's something that we're going to do.

Q. Your first press conference you listed about four or five attributes the quarterbacks who play for you need to have. Does Feleipe have all those, and if not, how close is he to having what you require out of your guy?
DAN MULLEN: I think they're working at it. I think he's learning that. I don't know that he was exposed to it before when you get the mental and physical toughness being number one at the quarterback position. Not just Feleipe, I think all of them, I've seen that out of them. Mental and physical toughness, number one; leadership, two. I've seen that. Anytime that we've gone all through the off-season to the workouts, boy, you see the quarterbacks out in front of the workout.

Leadership goes different ways, and I've talked to them, explained this to them, you've got to grow into that leadership. Not everyone is going to be the most vocal leader out there. Not everyone is just pure charisma where everybody wants to be around them all the time, but there's lots of different ways you can lead, and by example and how you set that standard of your performance every single day and the work you put in, you can also lead that way.

And so I've seen from Feleipe, him try to do it, I've seen Kyle, Emory is learning it as a new guy just trying to be in college for the first time, even getting to know all the guys on the team. But the one thing I have liked is that. When you go to workouts, they're always in front. They're the ones sprinting to the front of the line. They're the ones always trying to be first. And that's the mindset that you have to have.

I want to see them also, though, grow into the vocal leaders of being able to stand up to the team and talk to the team when they need to. And I think that comes with time when they get more comfortable. I think they're comfortable on the one end. They're learning to be more comfortable on the other end of leadership.

Q. When you look at some of the plays Feleipe (indiscernible) does he have --
DAN MULLEN: Well, he has a tremendous skill set. You know, he has the ability to make big plays. He has great athletic ability, has a really strong arm. But one of the great things -- and this comes from time, too, because you're a young player. I remember -- I'll tell you, the advice -- I talked to Dak Prescott between his junior and senior year. We had a big talk about making non-spectacular plays. We know you have the ability to make spectacular plays. Can you make the non-spectacular play? When you're watching like, hey, drop -- whoever the quarterback is, he drops back to pass, he looks, looks, hey, checks it down in the flat, gain of six yards, 2nd down and 4. That's a spectacular play in my mind, right, because he probably got to possibly the third and even fourth progression in his lead, managed the game, shot wasn't there, next look wasn't there, check it down, 2nd down and 4, great situation, okay.

Where a young quarterback thinks a spectacular play, as you said, is I can throw the ball 75 yards in the air for a touchdown. That's a spectacular play, too. An 80-yard run is a spectacular play, too. But learning how to make the non-spectacular plays and making them every single snap with consistency is really a huge trait for a quarterback.

Does Feleipe have the skill set to do it? Absolutely, because he can make spectacular plays. Can he make non-spectacular plays on a consistent basis is going to be a big growing curve for him moving forward.

Q. Do you have a policy for your players owning guns?
DAN MULLEN: Yeah, you know, one of the things we talk about -- like I have a no-weapons policy, but I think -- it's not like you're not allowed to have a gun. I mean, we live in a country where that's one of your rights. A lot of people I know have guns in their house to protect their homes and their family. What we do is spend a lot of time with the no-weapons is really to educate them on weapons, on having guns, and why would you have it, what's the purpose of having it. To me one of the biggest concerns with a lot of young people today is if you're going to have a gun, make sure you're properly trained in knowing how to use it. You know, and that's one discussion that we've had of potentially -- I haven't set this up, and as we're getting things going, if you think you need to have a gun for home security, are you trained in using it. Is it a legal gun? Do you have a license? Are you qualified? And are you trained in using it so that what we're not looking for, to me, is gun accidents or issues where a gun could maybe cause a bigger problem than if there wasn't a weapon involved.

So it's really to me -- our no-weapons policy is about the education. It's when and where would be the appropriate times to have it. It's something I learned because a long time ago, hey, we have a no-weapons policy. Okay, well, I came from a place in Mississippi State for the last nine years where a lot of our kids, they have all kinds -- they have bows, they spend a lot of time hunting in trees and deer hunting and different things. How you define a weapons policy, which is to make sure we're properly educating our young men about having a gun or any sort of a weapon.

Q. So it's not really a no-weapons policy?
DAN MULLEN: No, I mean, I'm not -- you know, that would be a hard one in the world.

Q. You said you have a no-weapons policy.
DAN MULLEN: We have a no-weapons policy, and it's a no-weapons policy in certain situations of how to be educated to not have it. If I wrote up the whole -- when I like our kids thinking, I like them thinking in quick things, if that makes sense. No weapons, that's easy to remember. If I write out all the different -- no weapons in these situations or have a weapon for a hunting situation, if I'm doing this, I store it at this location, I keep it here, I have gun safety rules and knowledge, that's not a quick catch to them to register in their mind. Does that make sense?

Q. You talk a lot about the Gator standard, living up to the Gator standard. You mentioned it in your introductory press conference; you talk about it a lot. When players don't live up to the Gator standard, how important is it for you in your first year to set a tone that this won't be tolerated?
DAN MULLEN: It's huge. But it's more important to educate not just the individual but the team on situations that occur on what happens and how to educate themselves and how to live up to that standard.

You know, I mean, when you sit with these young men, there's a lot of things in life that I learned a long time ago that, boy, this might be really normal, common knowledge to me, and it's not to them. Everyone learns, everyone has a different background, everybody has come from different backgrounds. A lot of guys -- everyone processes things differently in how they view things. Everyone has different personality tests. We've done studies, and I've done it with the team and our coaching staff of personality tests, your personality traits. How do you plan a party? We did that test with the team. And I'm looking at some of the guys, how did that even come across your mind.

So one of the things we do is try to learn as much as we can about our players, and when they're not living up to that standard, make sure we educate not just the individual but the entire team on this is not what's -- this does not live up to the standards and expectations of our program in representing what the University of Florida football program is going to be all about, and this is how we want to try to correct or change that behavior to help you and help the team and improve in the future.

Q. You discussed your defensive coaches earlier. What specifically makes Todd Grantham unique?
DAN MULLEN: Well, I think there's several things. One, he's extremely passionate, you know, has great intensity out there on the field, and I love -- I want a defense that's got a little edge to them and plays with a certain bit of intensity, and he brings that to the table every day.

You know, he's got great experience as a coach, having coached both in -- at the highest level of college and in the highest level of the NFL on the defensive side of the ball, of how to relate to the players and push them to get the best out of the players and motivate them to get the most out of it.

And as a defensive coach, he has a tremendous knowledge front to back. He's not a guy that is -- hey, he's a coordinator that's really knowledgeable at the front seven and the secondary guy kind of takes care of the back end. He's really knowledgeable on the back end and we have a D-line guy that kind of runs the front. He's a guy that can talk football at an extremely high level and know every detail of the game from front all the way to back. I think that's what really makes him a special football coach is his knowledge front to back of the whole defense and the system.

Q. We talked a lot about discipline and guns and all this stuff, and the challenges on the field. Is there any one of those areas that's more concerning for you right now, these days?
DAN MULLEN: You know what, every day, all of them are. Every day, a lot of the things we talk to our guys constantly is the decision making process because that can help -- most discipline issues occur because someone made a poor decision, and it doesn't matter -- doesn't matter what form it is, whether you're talking about if someone stole something, if you're talking about a decision with a female, if you're talking about a decision involving drugs or alcohol, you're talking about a decision with a weapon, someone made a poor decision along the way. It's a constant education process on making good decisions. You know, I mean, it's something we talk about to the guys.

It's not something that happens overnight. Ask yourself that question. I'm 46, and I'm like, okay, did I make good decisions today. Okay, how can I find a way -- if I'm faced with this situation again, how do I make a better decision. I try to reflect all the time. I've been a head coach now going into my 10th year, okay. If I've been handed a situation, how did I deal with it. Did I make a decision the right way? Did I handle it the best way? And how could I have made a better decision for what happened, and if the situation presents itself again, I'm prepared to make a better decision even the next time.

We talk to our guys about that, that I don't expect it -- it's not something that just happens like that, that you're a perfect decision maker. Just talk about them and educate them on how to do that.

Q. You have some key players returning from some pretty severe injuries. What is going to be the availability of CeCe Jefferson, Malik Davis, Brett Heggie during camp or any limitations?
DAN MULLEN: We expect, talking to trainers, everyone is going to participate in practice. We'll have some guys that might not still be at 100 percent, have maybe some non-contact jerseys on if you come out to practice tomorrow to see that. But everyone is participating. We don't have anybody that's not medically cleared to participate at practice.

Q. The other question is how would you just describe a Dan Mullen camp? What's it like?
DAN MULLEN: It has several different phases of what we're trying to build for the team. One, we want to be -- we want to build a little bit of an edge. First, we're going to have great technical football, understanding the offense, defense and kicking game schemes. But I also want to make sure that we are the hardest playing team in the country, that we put in the work every single day, that we build mental toughness out there on the field so that when you come out of training camp, when you line up on a Saturday, you look across that field, and you're going to be able to say that, hey, I can't tell whether -- they might be bigger, faster, stronger, they might be able to throw the ball further than we can or those things. But I'm going to tell you, they didn't outwork us leading into this football season, and have that confidence on the sidelines, and that's something that we build during training camp, that mindset and that toughness that gets developed over the next 25 practices before we play a game.

Q. Obviously this is not your first head coaching gig, but when you approach camp and you start it, how quickly do you put things in your schemes, et cetera?
DAN MULLEN: Very quickly because I know what my expectations are. I think one of the things I have to be careful of, and I keep going through it -- to be honest with you, like I talk to John Clark about 10 times a day, our director of operations, like okay, what are we missing, what haven't I told somebody, because there are new faces. There's new faces in -- on the field with the players. There's new faces in the coaching staff. There's new faces on the administrative side, the athletic training staff, of what are things that I expect -- I just assume everybody already knows that I haven't covered where I'm going to get out there and I'm going to be like, why is this not done this way. That's my responsibility to make sure we've covered every single one of those. But we're going to put everything in. We're not going to slow down. We're going to have our foot on the gas and run the training camp I expect us to run. I know where my level of training camp and my expectations are. I'm not going to lower that. I'm just going to make sure everybody gets up to my level. And the faster they do, the more successful we'll be.

Q. What's your reaction to Kadarius Toney's response to say, I need an AR-15 for protection from locals?
DAN MULLEN: That's education. I mean, that's education. I spent a lot of time with him. I think it goes more into one statement. Any time I look at a situation, I dive deep into it, dive deep into the background, dive deep into where you're from, where you're grown up, what your neighborhood was like, what you've been exposed to in life, all those different situations. So one of the things to me is, okay, why do you say that, why do you think that, is there a reality in that, and how do we educate you to make good decisions in those things. I mean, any time you deal with that, how to educate guys on making those decisions.

But I don't -- very rarely do I take one quote or one line and make a decision or a judgment over that whole situation without researching all the background that goes into what happened or that individual's background of why they think that way and how to help them possibly change the way they view things.

Q. You touched on the confrontation between the locals and your players, but are you concerned that your players are associating with someone that at least one is named as a gambler, going so far to say that they were friends until the Gators started losing? Is that something that concerns you?
DAN MULLEN: No, that's something we'd look into right there. I'll be honest with you; they just made sports gambling legal across America, so there's obviously a lot of gamblers in the United States of America. I don't. There might be a bunch in this room right here, and I'm associating with you today.

You know, in terms of that, again, that would be something we'd investigate or look into and the severity of it, but you know, we're always concerned for our players of who they associate with in every aspect of their life. I think that's -- you know, I've heard a lot of successful people tell you, you want to judge a successful person, show me their friends. I'll tell you how successful he is by their friends, who they associate, who they hang out with.

Another educational part for our program and for our young men of making sure who you are associating yourself, who you're hanging around with, and are those people that are bettering your life or making you a better person.

Q. With all due respect, people in here might be gambling, but these are players dealing directly with someone they say was gambling. Have you looked into it?
DAN MULLEN: Oh, yeah, we've looked into it.

Q. And what did you find?
DAN MULLEN: If we find something, we'll let you know.

Q. I know you said everyone on the roster will be available for camp when it opens. Can you give an update on Keivonnis Davis and his condition going forward?
DAN MULLEN: Yeah, both Keivonnis Davis and Justin Watkins are no longer with our program. They've moved on from our program, so they won't be with us anymore.

Q. With that report, there was a line in one of the police reports saying that this gambler had also provided discounts to players for cars. What was your reaction to that? Has that been -- is compliance looking into that?
DAN MULLEN: Absolutely. Any time we hear -- no matter who a source is or credibility of sources even, any time we hear any of those things, we look into all of that. You know, Jamie McCloskey does a great job, our compliance department, our administration does a great job. Those things happen probably more often maybe than people even think they happen. As soon as we hear about something, we go through the channels, we report it, and our compliance office immediately begins to look into situations to see what happened.

Q. Back to Coach Meyer, just how sad are you that it's come to this for him? I know you knew Zach Smith, you might have even coached him at some point, that this situation has -- how sad is that for you knowing those two guys?
DAN MULLEN: Well, obviously as coaches, anybody that you're close with that goes through a difficult situation, it's always tough. I mean, people that your friends and you're close with in friends, any time they're dealing with a situation and the situation Urban is dealing with, it's always hard, and you always keep them in your prayers. You hope things worked out the best for them because they're people that have had influences on you throughout your life.

Q. This football program has averaged 30 points a game one time in the last seven years. A lot of years -- one year it was under 20, under year, 22, 23. Do you have any kind of floor for what you would expect for your offense in terms of scoring because certainly this is something that is very much on the minds of your fan base.
DAN MULLEN: I don't know that I have a floor, but I also don't have a ceiling. How's that? One of the things that we're going to look at is as the team goes -- and I've been involved in it, and I've learned this through the years. You know, despite being an offensive-oriented coach throughout the majority of my career as a head coach, what's most important to me is winning the game. Trust me, I love scoring points. I love putting up big numbers. I want to be like off-the-chart number-wise offensively. But I also -- the reason I don't put a floor or a ceiling is the most important score number, right, is the No. 1, that we score at least one more point than whoever we're playing on that day. I learned that a long time ago, and even as a young coach, I learned it one day actually in this stadium on the visiting sidelines, where a lot of people said, boy, you came in, you had a quick lead. Then I think we ran the ball 42 consecutive plays, because by throwing the ball was the best opportunity for the other team to score, was to intercept it and run it back for a touchdown, in our minds. We had a very good defense, they had a very good secondary, and -- so we ran it 42 consecutive plays. Probably not the most exciting for the fans in the stadium or any of that, and I think walked away with a 10-7 victory. But I'll tell you what, that celebration in the locker room was pretty sweet.

Q. (Indiscernible).
DAN MULLEN: Lots of points, yeah.

It's hard to say shocking because I wasn't here. And you know what the funny thing is, since -- I never got to see Florida much. When I was at Mississippi State, hadn't played them since 2010 was the last time we played, and you know, and so we never saw them in lots of crossovers or however the schedule would fall. You'd see them maybe once or twice a year on a crossover. So I never really got to see them play much.

I'm sure the fan base -- I mean, as a Gator fan and knowing how our fan base is, that's very shocking. As a coach not being here and not knowing, again, what individual strategy or how each team plays out, it's hard to be critical because I don't know what the goals or the accomplishments were or what they were trying to do in a given game.

Like I said, offensively in coaching, I think I've been on teams that had successful seasons that were first in time of possession and last in time of possession. Teams that were near the top in passing and near the bottom in passing still had successful seasons, teams that were near the top in rushing and near the bottom in rushing, teams that scored a lot of points and won games and then teams that we've had to play ball control, battle it out and win close games and not be a high-scoring offense. You really have to build it around the team that you have, and that's what we'll do as a staff.

It's not -- I don't view the team as offense and defense as separate entities, I view us as one team that if the defense gives up 40, we need to score 41. If the defense gives up six, we need to score seven. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against -- the defense gives up three and we score 60, I have no problem with that, either, on offense, too.

So when I go back and forth and I'm sitting there with -- we're in the offensive room and we're meeting, we want to put a bunch of points on the board. We also want to go talk to the defense, and they might say, hey, we're going to need some ball control here, we're going to need to use the clock. Todd Grantham gives me all these great lines, like hey -- he'll click over, hey, do you think you could get one of those 14-play drives you sometimes put together here? I'm like, well, if I could just dial them up at any time, we'd have no problems ever.

But you know, we're always in communication working together as a full team more than worried about just statistics on one side of the ball or the other.

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