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UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 25, 2019

Dan Mullen

Gainesville, Florida

DAN MULLEN: All right. Excited to get training camp going. I think this is the earliest we have ever opened training camp here at Florida, but with the early kickoff this year -- I think I've had one this year early before, I think a couple years ago the NCAA allowed, they were kind of tweaking the rules and gave you a little bit extra time where you could start training camp earlier, we were able to do that, which was kind of funny when they did that, I don't know it had anything to do with starting early, but it had to do with the number of days. That was the training camp that the players thought was the best training camp they ever had, it was the least number of injuries, it was the healthiest we ever were, because we were able to give more days off, but with NCAA rules right now they kind of crunch it all in there so you got to really kind of scrunch it all in there, and they have decided, for the players I guess, to cut down on recovery time for the players by scrunching training camp together with having the 25 practices in 29 days.

But we are getting ready to go. This is the 150th year of college football, so it's a great honor for us to be involved in the game that kind of kicks off the 150th year of college football. And then to get to do it in a game and which is going to be a great environment down in Orlando, Kemper World Stadium and do it against two in-state rivals that don't always get to play. So I don't think you could have a more exciting start to the season.

We got a long time before we even start thinking about getting to that. Our mindset right now, the big mindset for the team is changing from off season again back into the football mindset. We talked about it kind of the beginning of the week with our guys to start transitioning their mindset from that, hey, I'm showing up to get a little bigger faster and stronger and get a great workout in; to I'm showing up making sure that I'm learning the offense, defense, kicking schemes, technique, having great technique, having great fundamentals. And I'm excited to get out there on the field and see the work that our guys have put in. When I talk about that work, it's not the work that they have put in with Coach Savage and his staff, I know that work's great. But it's all the -- one of the big keys is all the extra work that our guys have put in, all the extra things they do on their own in summer, they have the opportunity to go out there and throw, catch, work technique, fundamentals, hit a sled, what more did they do on their own watching film, putting in the extra time to get ready for this season. So hopefully they have put in a lot of extra time and they're prepared, they're ready to go and we get ready to have a great training camp.

Q. Obviously the offensive line is I think a big concern and everybody's talking about what if, will they be able to do it. When you look at it, the amount of time you were able to get those guys in a play here, a play there, how beneficial is that going to be for you?
DAN MULLEN: Well I think huge. I think the concern, I don't know it's the concern of numbers, I think our depth is not great right now. You get concerned in experience and depth, those are the two big things on offensive line. I think our guys have put in time, they have worked, I think we have some pretty good offensive linemen, they just haven't played a whole lot and that's a position obviously where when you look we get young really quick and when you do that when you have those depth concerns you got to go stay healthy. So they have put in a lot of work. One of the things how we set up training camp, a lot of guys get a lot of reps, I think one thing John always does is move guys around, so that you get used to playing with different guys. I know everybody gets, okay, who is running with the one huddle or this guy's running the with the one offensive line. To me we kind of rotate all that stuff on a daily basis. Some days this guy will be with the ones, this guy with the twos, mix and match. Obviously we would love to say, hey, these five guys were healthy and they played the whole season we didn't have any issues and guys got really comfortable playing next to each other. But that doesn't always happen, so we got of the guys getting used to playing with different groups and different combinations on the line and that gets experience. So we'll spend a lot of time with that in training camp of getting those guys comfortable playing with different a little different combinations up front and getting that experience and development and getting them ready to play.

Q. (No microphone.)
DAN MULLEN: No, he's got a couple other things he's still working on, but I know he wants to get back with the team. He's on our training camp roster to report to camp when we report at five o'clock this afternoon. And I mean everything that I've been told we're on track that he's going to be set ready to practice tomorrow.

Q. Are you on IR?
DAN MULLEN: Am I on IR? I passed concussion protocol so I'm good to go. I bumped my head and but they did the test on me and I guess I passed so they're going to let me practice tomorrow.

Q. On the golf course?
DAN MULLEN: No, no I wasn't, I just bumped my head on something. It wasn't a golf course injury. I was able to stay healthy on the course this summer. Had a decent summer, too.

Q. (No microphone.)
DAN MULLEN: I'm trying to catch Coach Spurrier on my hole in ones.

Q. What's the toughest opponents you've ever opened up with and how does that kind of change your approach to camp?
DAN MULLEN: Boy, as a head coach or in my coaching career?

Q. Coaching career, head coach.
DAN MULLEN: I think when I was at Notre Dame one year we opened up with Nebraska, they were number one in the country in the pre-season polls and we lost that game in overtime if I'm not mistaken. So they were pretty good.

Q. Oklahoma State.
DAN MULLEN: Oklahoma State as a head coach, Mississippi State one year. I think one of it is, what it can lead to is a little more sense of urgency during training camp. And I think the other, that's a key component to it. And then the other component, as we talk of transitioning right now we're transitioning from off season mode mindset into football mindset. At the back end of training camp you got to transition from training camp mindset to game week mindset. The practices, everything you do is how you prepare, the practices, what you're doing is completely different when you get in season than training camp. You're going from an install, teach mode of learning the offense as a whole. You're going out to practice you try to compartmentalize and install, but even in scrimmages you might have 175, we got 195, 200 plays in in training camp. When you get into game one you're going to have 70 calls in that you're going to focus on against that specific opponent instead of all of our plays on offense against all of our plays on defense. All of our defensive calls against all the different formations we show. You hone it into kind of a game week game plan. So it's accelerating that when you're playing a big time Game One, you got to accelerate the transition period into game week.

Q. Where do you hope to see the most progress? Offensive line seems like a given, but is there a kind of general theme area that you want to he see the progress of the team?
DAN MULLEN: Offensively, obviously offensive line is a big one where you want to see progress. Quarterback. I mean to me that's always the biggest one is your progress at the quarterback position, especially coming back over the summer because those are the guys that I want to see have developed and put a lot of extra work in over the summer at that position. That gets to the timing of routes, say, hey, we should be able to go out there, I should be able to put a blindfold on you and tell you who the receiver is and you can go throw the 10 yard out cut, that type of deal. That's how in tune you are with your receivers. Those are the big ones.

Obviously defensively, defensive line big one is making sure we're taking all the right steps with that unit coming together to play at the level we expect them to be. I think line of scrimmage is huge for us where we take big stems forward.

Q. Last year team had a chip on their shoulder trying to erase the memory of the 4-8 season, trying to prove themselves to you. How do you think the increased expectations and familiarity with you will affect this team?
DAN MULLEN: Well one I hope the familiarity helps a lot. That we're able to get things done faster, quicker, smoother and progress at a much quicker rate because they know what to expect and know what's about to come, what our expectations at practice and what practice is like. It limits question marks. I certainly hope we still play with a chip on our shoulder. I hope we have that chip on our shoulder we look at last year and say, boy, there were a lot of great things that happened last year and there were a bunch things that weren't great and that you look at that and say, hey, there were some things we needed to be a lot better at last year and we have that chip on our shoulder to kind of get that back. In the three games that we didn't win last year that we have a chip on our shoulder about those three games -- and they were all three very different reasons to keep a chip on your shoulder -- of, you know, on our performance and how we did not perform to our level of expectations in those games. So hopefully we keep that a little bit of a chip on our shoulder and a little bit of an edge to us as a team.

Q. I know you can't really have that much communication with your players over the summer, but there seems to be, among people a prevailing spirit there was a good deal of leadership shown, especially by the six or seven guys. What stories have drifted back to you about the extra works, the extra day, the work ethic?
DAN MULLEN: Well I think that, I think that everything's got back to me has been real positive with our guys. The positive of, there's a couple aspects to it, which is that the team getting along, which is huge to me. By getting along, a positive one, are the things they do away from football together. I think one of the great things, you know if you're going to have a successful team when you get in and you see when the team's together they do group activities. Whether it's, hey, we're all having a cookout pool party at someone's house when we have an off day, or at this apartment complex. Which I know people, are like, oh, no, boy is that crazy or what, you know, sometimes you think in those terms. But there's positives with a team bonding and how they get along and how they get together and their desire to want to hang out with each other I think is huge. I think you've seen that grow of the team growing closer together that way. Then the other one, I mean to me is I think they know what our expectations and I think their comfort within the system make it's easier for them to do the extra work. That when the quarterbacks and receivers go out they know the offense now, they know the passing game and they have been through it all for a year. So they know how to, how hard they need to go work and then you look at the guys and you have guys like C.J. Henderson, who is just such a hard worker, might not be the loudest most vocal guy and a leader, but when you watch his work ethic, his taking the young DB's and showing them little extra things, he's always someone who jumps out -- every time we do a workout, when the workout's over he's always working, or practice is over, working on extra technique and pulling young guys along with him. So I think that's real positive for us moving forward. It is flat cold in here. People think, boy, this coach is shaking up there, like this, he's fired up ready to go.

Q. It was colder at SEC media day, so.
DAN MULLEN: Yeah, but I had a full, yeah because you got -- I mean, I would have wore my big suit today again if I knew it was going to be like this.

Q. Can you talk about Jon Greenard and how you got him and how exactly the recruitment of him went.
DAN MULLEN: Yeah, I think one of the things is here's a guy that he was in his last year at Louisville and got injured and wasn't able to play. I think it was a guy that had a great year and was, I think some of it came to the attention of, hey, he's graduating, he was graduating because he was thinking I think about possibly leaving early to go to the NFL if he had had a great season. Being injured I think kind of got him to rethink that, set him back, but was one of the kind of a fresh start, I think one of the big advantages we had in recruiting is early I think his early in his career he played for Coach Grantham at Louisville for a year, so he knew the system, it wasn't coming into a foreign system, he knew a system that he was actually recruited into to go play at and knew the system, so I think we're a great fit. And to be honest with you, I think in and part of that mindset and for me that's something that's changing now over the last couple years, which is the not just the grad transfer, which he was, but just the transfer as a whole mindset, with the portal and all the guys that are moving around and kind of the number of guys that are transferring, it gives you a different thought, you rethink how you view the transfers in college football. And I think if you just even looking at our roster you look at rosters around the country, I want to say 10 years ago you're looking at a transfer and you're kind of like questioning him. Why is he leaving? Like, what, did he get thrown out, has he got in trouble, what's the purpose of it, what's the baggage that's coming along with the transfer. I think in today's light it's really changed. Guys are transferring because the transfer portal is a much more common thing. So it's not kind of I think through a coach's eyes it's really changed how you view transfers. Because if you look the our roster right now you look at guys like Jonathan, you look at Van and Trey Grimes and some of these other guys, I know there's even a couple others on the roster or, you know, I mean you got Shuler -- I'm going to keep missing some, but there are even some even before I got here, right, that transferred in, that are actually impact players, but not just on our roster, I think if you look around the country and it's becoming more of a common thing, so it's changing your perspective on how you look at guys, how you view them, how you recruit them, so you know here is a guy that knew our system, with Jonathan, get back to him, that kind of was familiar within the system, that Todd had recruited into the system, had been productive -- you don't know how he's going to come back off the injury, but had been productive and especially in a huge need-based position where we had a guy that plays his position declare early to go to the NFL draft, so that voided a roster spot within player development of somebody that you needed to come in and play right away. So that's kind of how it all got together.

Q. To follow-up on Noah Banks, since he's kind of a big deal for a team that has a bunch of first and second year guys as well as depth goes. What can you sort of expect from him because he's missed so much time since last year?
DAN MULLEN: One of the things he and I sat down and I think he knew we were a hundred percent behind him and so went through all the spring, was real uncertain and then he came and he came back a hundred percent all in. It was him saying, I want to come back and play. Which was the mindset we needed to have. And I think it got down to, coach, okay, I missed a bunch of time, I got to get my body back right ready to go play. And I said, well, one of the things that we did great job within the transition and making sure he was comfortable and say, hey, I'm back with the team, is he did individual workouts with Coach Savage, to get himself back in shape before he went back with the team. And to make sure as he was working out he was comfortable ready to go back. And I think when he got back in shape with those individual workouts, started feeling really comfortable, he got back into the full team workouts and got ready to go. So it is great for us to have him back, I know that one of the main reasons we recruited him is looking at our roster and knowing that you're going to be in this situation he was going to be a critical part of the team and getting him healthy, being able to make sure that he's healthy to contribute is huge for us.

Q. You coached a lot of great offenses over the years. This wide receiver group getting a lot of hype going into the season. Where do they rank for you and what makes them special?
DAN MULLEN: Well what's really funny is it just shows how hard these guys have worked because this time last year with this same exact wide receiver crew everybody was like, boy, this is like the big weakness of the team and they're the worse ranked wide receiver group in the Southeastern Conference. And now a year later all the exact same guys are getting hype of being this big group. So it shows how hard Billy Gonzalez has done a great very good job with them coaching and how hard they worked to get that hype. We had some pretty good receiving corps through the years with some talented players, so we got to see how these guys go. The one thing I'm excited about is that I think that is pretty special is the depth that we bring in that group. I think the other thing that makes it great is the confidence -- when you have the depth and you have confidence in that group, you don't get into the point where you say, hey, you got two to three really special wide receivers that you're just trying to get those two or three guys the ball, when you have a depth and a group of talented guys that you have confidence in, you can let the defense dictate who gets the ball. You're not, we don't have to force feed the ball to certain people, we can let the quarterback go through his reads and take what the defense gives, because we're pretty confident in every one of them being able to go make plays out there. So it allows you to kind of run the offense more and the quarterbacks to run the offense and say, hey, they're going to give us this throw or give us this matchup we feel great with that matchup. And if they're going to try to double this one guy, great we feel good with this guy over here. And you're bracketing these two, we'll go to the third option. I think that makes life easier within running the offense.

Q. We asked you in Hoover about how much harder it is to go from 10 wins to 11 or 12 compared to four to 10. As we sit here now what gives you confidence that you guys can make that jump from here up to here (Indicating)?
DAN MULLEN: Well, I think the biggest one is the, you look at this roster and the fact that they're in year two in the program, so they know kind of what to expect to come in. I think we have some talented guys but I also have, I think we have some guys that can look at last season and have the maturity to look and say, hey, we had 10 wins but we missed some opportunities last year where we could have been even better. Also though the maturity of saying hey we had 10 wins and we, there was some games that we let get awful close that it could have been, it could very easily have been an eight-win season last year, seven-win season. And so I think it's the getting that understanding of how small that margin for error is and when you really understand that and understand how small the margin for error is, that's how you get those wins. That's why it is so difficult. I mean the, you take a big leap from four wins, I think the guys obviously are disappointed with being on a four-win team, and you can take a big step and get up to four to eight is probably easier but they can look and say, hey, that step from four to eight was probably not as difficult. But that eight got to ten because of how we performed in these two games and the margin. It could have been really close to eight but we found a way to get to 10. But that 10 also could have been 12 by about that much too. Little things in our approach and our mindset and our attitude and how we handled different games. So I think that maturity within the team gives you the opportunity to go do that.

Q. You got a couple guys wearing the No. 1 this year. I think you've talked about that ball letters type thing. What did those guys do to separate themselves and earn that?
DAN MULLEN: Well, I think the one thing to me is you want the -- one of the most time consuming annoying jobs of the head coach is jersey numbers, right? We have two wearing No. 1. If I opened it up we might have up to seven to eight do it. One of the things I want to petition the NCAA to is go back to the old days where you can be No. 1 but you can be 01. Right? So we have single digits like there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and then there's 01, 02, 03. So we can have twice as many guys have the 1 through 9 jersey distinction, I guess. But no, those, both those guys to me they came asked for it, I love to reward guys doing things kind of the right way. You look at it, C.J. came and asked me and obviously C.J.'s a guy that's done everything we have asked him to do. Does a great job with leadership, I know he's not vocal but in his actions, does a good job in leadership, does a good job going to class, taking care of his business, doing things the right way and he's performed at an extremely high level on the field. And same thing with KT, everything we have asked him to do, he does and has performed at a high level on the field, right? I mean, I don't know someone -- what did he average nine yards every time he touched the ball last year? Is that what it was? 11? 10.9. I thought it was nine. So if once every three plays we gave him the ball, if it was nine, we only had to get one yard on the other two plays to get a first down. So if I was a smarter coach, but any time we need a first down we give him the ball, in theory we should get a first down then.

Q. (No microphone.)
DAN MULLEN: Well exciting things happen. But those two guys did it. And one of the things I love to do with the players is put them -- if you do well, I want to reward you. I always tell guys that. Hey, if you're getting bad grades in school, you get in trouble, you're missing workouts, you're not doing things the right way, I'm going to give you jersey number 43 and put some high tops on you and, you know, I mean, like a dual bar face mask, right? I mean, I don't know. I mean that's disrespecting number 43 which I don't want to intend to do. But I think the guys that do the right thing you love to reward them and they view that as a great reward and something that they want to do, so I don't mind it. I hate -- the hardest one for me is the game management with multiple guys in the same jersey. And when it's offense, defense, you don't think about it as a big deal, but when it gets to special teams, that's when it becomes real kind of a pain for us.

Q. And then keeping on the Toney thing, do you have, you just talked about not having to worry about touches but do you have a number in mind that you feel like you need to get him the ball?
DAN MULLEN: No, you know what, I think one of the things we spend time on is making sure that you have to get it to plays. And I think in year one you're kind of learning everybody. But I think in year two you have a better understanding of players and guys that have earned the right to have get it to plays. Hey, I mean if you're a guy on our team we want to make sure we have enough in our offense to get you the ball. Not just him but other guys. I don't think we put a set number on touches but we certainly want to carry enough get it to plays where, hey, like I said, there's, within our players and especially at the receiver position, without worrying who is getting the ball, like letting the defense, we're going to take what they give us. But there's also guys we want to make sure we get them into the game and touch the ball so that we have get it to plays to make sure these guys are getting their touches if the defense is trying to take someone away from you.

Q. Do you have like a certain names on your play calling sheet?
DAN MULLEN: We have a get it to section on the play call so we have it like, hey, here's the get it to plays. And a lot of times what we might do is get it to position. Hey we're calling this play it's going to get the ball to the X or the Z or the H, and then the nice thing having veteran receivers they all know that position, so if somebody's like, I've kind of not been part of the game, I'm like, hey, get in, you go play Z this play and we're going to get you the ball. And it can keep everybody into the flow of the game.

Q. A lot of talk about the offensive line and the receiver group but the tight ends are such an important position in your offense you loose a couple guys last year?
DAN MULLEN: A bunch.

Q. Where are the tight ends? It's a deep group but not totally experienced.
DAN MULLEN: It's very similar to the offensive line. I think the one hard thing Lucas missing a bunch of spring you know again with the -- I love some of the rules, we look at some of the rules that they put out, well this rule's in place for player safety and he gets hurt because of the rule because you can't have any, they can't even put a spider pad on him, like they can't have zero pads, and a kid falls and gets hurt because they're running around going full speed, so we end up suffering more injuries for the NCAA rules that they try to put in to prevent injuries and it puts kids in more danger. But for a guy like him getting back, he's put in a bunch of extra work in all the meetings and knowledge in the position to know. I think Larry does a really good job with those guys. We have a bunch of tight ends, when you look at that depth and we have guys that played, the great thing was to get Lucas to play last year. When he came out of junior college as a three for three instead of a three for two where three for two, you might think, I really want to red shirt this guy last year, so he has two great years. Having that year where he was able to get in games and get some experience, he's played, Kyle Pitts has played a bunch, Kemore's gotten in games and played. Now they haven't been the guy, but they have been in games. So it is a big position for us for those guys to have to really take that next step forward to become the guy in games. And then you look at with Zip and Dante, some of the younger guys, Saldivar, he's a walk-on that had a great spring for us. There is some depth at that position, guys have some game experience, but not that experience as being the every down guy, and that's really what you want to see, that confidence that they can do that.

Q. Do you have an expectation for that group or are you kind of wait and see?
DAN MULLEN: I want to see how they continue to grow. See how they continue to develop. We have high expectations because it's such a critical part of our team and within our scheme of creating mismatches on the field and when you look at the talent potential all those guys have, you feel excited about it, but we need to see them go take that talent potential and translate it into performance.

Q. You mentioned depth a few times for some positions but how do you feel like overall depth behind the one's?
DAN MULLEN: We're getting there. We're getting there. I think that's, when you come in I think the biggest one in us in taking the program over is that is creating that depth. You always have, you have always a little bit of attrition when you take over a new program of guys that came and this, I came to play in a different maybe style offense, the program was different a little bit when I came, so there was, there is an always sometimes a little bit of attrition that you get into. I think the new norm in college football which is going to be really interesting with the transfer portal is depth will be an issue for a lot of people. Moving forward I think until everybody gets in the adjustment of it. But overall I think our depth is good. I don't think it's great yet but I think we're going to get there within the next hopefully within the next two three years. We get where we feel really comfortable with our depth. Top to bottom.

Q. What are some of the more intriguing position battles you think or is that something that maybe fans and media focus one more than coaches?
DAN MULLEN: I think it is what you said, I think a lot more people focus on it because mine is not really a position battle as far as it's always a rep battle, you know, of how many reps have you earned to play? I don't like guys playing 70 plays in a game. It wears you down. You're going to be obviously, if the more players we can rotate through, the fresher and healthy year we stay through out the long part of the season, throughout the season as a whole. So my battles are all how many guys do we have that have earned rights to go play. It's a heck of a deal if you're three deep at a position that means everybody has to play what, maybe 25 to maybe somebody gets 25 to 30 plays in a game is a lot. Especially guys that are special team guys because now hey you get you're three deep at a position guys are getting 35 plays in a game including our or 40 plays in a game including offense or defense and special teams. Those are guys who are going to be healthy and fresh throughout the course of a season and throughout the long haul of a season. So I think it's a lot more that way for me than -- like I don't view it as, okay, this guy's the starter, this guy's the backup. I view it as, boy, how many starters can we have? Ideally you would love to have at least 25 starters on offense and 25 starters on defense and then you can roll those 25 guys through and be comfortable. I don't know if we'll get there, but that's where I want to have it, guys that you feel comfortable being starters.

Q. How hard is it to get players to buy into that philosophy?
DAN MULLEN: You know what, the great thing is I think when guys start to do it and see success that they're having I think they understand it. I think if you even look at last year where you look at, hey, a Jachai Polite, who was, I mean, I can't tell you how many games, whether he started how many games or not, but he was in that role of a rotating player who ends up being a draft pick and a Jordan Scarlett who buys into that philosophy goes on and is a NFL draft pick. And Perine who buys into that philosophy and has a lot of success. So I think when you see the guys that really buy into, that when -- the easiest thing is I think guys saw immediate success with it and the older guys believing it and so the younger guys follow older guys, hey, I want to be like him. Younger guys come into the program, I want to be like this guy. And that guy's telling him, hey, this is how you can be the most successful and it gets it to be an easier buy in.

Q. Anything new with the three freshmen or who are still trying to get into last. Wilson, Henderson, Marks?
DAN MULLEN: Yeah, Marks has reported to training camp. Wilson is, I mean that's not a surprise for us of that situation, I think we had a lot of the information on it and we knew that that was going to be a process that we would not know a calendar or a timing on the process and to be honest our expectations were it would happen at some time but it wasn't, we weren't thinking it would happen immediately. Henderson's finishing up, he'll be here this weekend and he has things to finish up just because of where his school calendar was.

Q. Anybody limited with injuries to open camp?
DAN MULLEN: Obviously David Reese, unfortunately had the injury where he'll miss the season. And one of the great deals about the new NCAA rule is, I mean he'll be on the edge, could possibly be on the edge for a bowl game. I don't know, I mean it would be really, that could be pushing it, but what a great motivating factor that he wouldn't lose, he could save a year because of injury and still have the opportunity and motivating to get himself healthy back to even play in a bowl game which would be fantastic. A couple other guys have some little small tweaks that might limit them, but not that we expect to have anything that would extend through the end of training camp. There will be guys with some limitations that were still coming back off of an injury. A guy sprained his ankle last week that might be slowed down, but nothing that would limit the extent of training camp. But everybody else we feel ready to go.

Q. You're reasonably vocal last year that you weren't sure that you had players that kind of knew how to lead. You talked about C.J. a little bit. How different do you feel this year in terms of the guys?
DAN MULLEN: I think we'll be better because I think one of the things that helps with leadership now is when you know what's going on. So when you know what practice is going to be like, you know what training camp's going to be like, you know what a game week routine is. When you know all of those things as a player it's easier for you to step up as a leader because you're not trying to figure out what's going to happen. So I think there's going to be a lot more comfort with guys that are in the program and there's, when you look at guys like a C.J. that everyone looks to, knows is a great great player, and then he knows that, hey, when he speaks the team's going to respond to what he has to say. Feleipe now that has gone and played a bunch, when he speaks the team's -- like all our quarterbacks, I think our guys, even all of them, when you look at all three of the guys, they have played in games, that everyone has seen the work that they have put out, that when those guys speak and they know the routine they know the offense now, it's a little bit easier to lead. The wideouts especially you got a veteran group of wide outs that they know that they have put in plays, made plays, they know the offense, know what's to expect, it's easier to step out front and be a leader.

Q. A little bit more specific on depth. With many soft departures this summer where is your comfort level at with the corner depth?
DAN MULLEN: It's okay. Obviously with anything, that's part of when we get to is staying healthy. If we stay healthy I feel really comfortable with it. What hurts is when you start having injuries that starts to become an issue and now you got to move guys around in the secondary. One of the big things to me in the secondary I always like is guys that have position flexibility back there. You look at a Trey Dean, when you go recruit a guy that can play corner, can play nickel, possibly could play safety if we needed him to. When you have guys in the secondary that can play, we have really our five secondary spots, six if we get into dime but really the five that you use, when you have guys that have position flexibility, it allows you to deal with depth issues, if you need to. But obviously if we do that then we're going to have to start moving people and then we can't rotate as much. If we stay healthy I feel okay with it.

Q. And then Lamical said that he would know what this team is going to be this season by the end of fall camp. When is it clear for you and what is it that stands out that kind of let's you know?
DAN MULLEN: I would think -- well there's going to be a lot of different things that happen during the season but I think we'll have a much better idea of the type of team we're going to be sooner this year than we were last year because it was all a feeling out process. So I think we'll have a good idea what type of team we're going to be at the end of fall camp but then also during the course of the year we're going to have to deal with different adversities during the season and that we're not going to be, have to deal with in training camp. You have the adversity of success. How we're handling that. The adversity of failure, how we handle that. At times last year we didn't handle either of those two things very well. At times we did. So it's going to be how this team responds to that. When good things happen to us, can we keep the chip on our shoulder and the grind mentality to continue to work harder to get better. When bad things happen to us can we focus on getting back to work and making the things that we need to do to be better and do we have the that belief in ourselves that we can be a great team. We get put in a situation in a big game, where we got to go make a play to window we have the confidence and we expect to do that. As our guys said, the margins like that, the margin gets really tiny and do we have that mental toughness to handle the success, the mental toughness to handle the failure of things going bad and the mental toughness to finish and the confidence in ourselves to make plays and to think that we can be a championship team.

Q. You obviously have a knack for calling ball plays. I was curious, can you take us through a little bit of when you're on the field some of the things that are going through your mind as you begin a series?
DAN MULLEN: Yeah, well one of the things we do is we're pretty fortunate to have guys that have been around each other for a long time, and so we get into a series we kind of look at things we want to do and you're always trying to look three to four moves ahead. So here's we you kind of have some of those pocket plays, okay, that here's things that we feel good about going into this series, and then as a play caller you have the pocket one. So okay if these things are going well we've set them up for this, if these things are going well, we have set them up for if this, if these things are going well we have set them up for this. And that's where I think we have had success is here's the things we want to do to set them up and let's see what happens well and then we're going to at the right time call the play that we set them up for. The benefit also that we have is I think a coaching staff, a really good coaching staff offensively that have been around, where guys aren't afraid to make inputs. We have them set up for this play, I'm not always the one that calls them. I mean, we go back, I remember I think the bowl game like, hey, on fourth and one and we one the jet sweep to Toney, that was Brian Johnson called that play. And John Hevesy and Billy Gonzalez will call plays and saying, hey, we have them set up for this right now. Great, call it. And they will let me know that. And I think it's the confidence those guys have and how we have worked together and their ability -- I think we have -- I mean I think we have five guys on our offensive staff that would be pretty comfortable calling the game. When you have that and when you have those guys that have worked together and know the offense that well, and that are comfortable around each other, it's really easy to make those inputs, not just between series with what we're going to call but in the middle of a series if they think we have something they're not, they're going to step up and say, we should run this right now. I think that that helps us within our play calling.

Q. How do you manage that with the play clock going on in the game with five different guys or is it just --
DAN MULLEN: You know what, it is, I think it's the confidence. Like I said, like if I'm in the game and Brian's like run this now I'm like, call it. So it's not like I'm trying to find the call or -- like he knows, hey, let's run this right now and I'm like, call it. So he knows, it was in his mind what we should run at that moment and I just shut my mouth and he calls the play to signal it is. And that's just kind of how we do it. Which is I think in managing the play clock it's the confidence in me and the coaching staff and each other, when someone does that, I mean, I just -- call it. You'll hear me, just call it. And then he'll call the play and they signal it in instead of me trying -- him saying, let's do this, okay, let me find it, let me try to call it. I'm like, call it, call the play you want to run right now. And they call it and it gets signalled in. I might trump it sometimes and say, no, I want to run this and I just call it. But I think that how fast all that happens helps us out a lot.

Q. The transfer portal has been a big talk all off season, but especially quarterbacks, what does it say about a guy like Kyle Trask who is stayed here and even though he hasn't had a chance to start has honored his commitment and continues to work?
DAN MULLEN: I think it says a lot about him, not just him but all our quarterbacks. You know if you look at, I saw something about we're like, right, I mean 75 percent, like Feleipe in the class that he was in, right, I think Kyle, is, Kyle they're the, they're the same class? They're the same class, right? But like of the top quarterbacks in the class like 75 percent have already transferred and both those guys are sticking it out doing it. But they're also looking at the success they have had and how they're being developed and what they're able to do and by buying in and buying in long-term. Even Emory Jones, his class, there's been a bunch of transfers already. And of sticking it out and understanding, okay, there's a process to my development. That's one of the things I share with quarterbacks, I think if you look and everyone's like, and they talk, coach, you've done a great job of developing quarterbacks, I hear that a whole bunch. But I've also done a great job of developing quarterbacks, but you don't always see all of them have huge success in year one within the program. There's a development pattern to those guys and those guys I think have really bought in and understood like, hey, if I buy in under this program, coach does a great job of developing quarterbacks. But it's not, like I was joking like the magic dust, I'm going sprinkle it on you, you just come play for me. I don't sprinkle dust on you and you become a great quarterback, there's a process in developing you and that takes time. And these guys understand and say hey, if I buy into this program I'm going to be developed to become a great quarterback. So it shows a, one, their maturity, but also their character and wanting to become better understanding we're distinguishing to get them better and their character of wanting to be part of a program and be being all in to what we're trying to do it show as lot from them.

Q. As we sit here today there's a lot we don't know about your team and you don't know about your team, going to be interesting to find out what it is. But there are some boxes you could check if you really needed to like if I said physical conditioning? Right?
DAN MULLEN: I'm probably not worried about that. I trust Coach Savage has got them ready to go.

Q. So quarterback position, more experience, playing better, etcetera? Are there other boxes you can check right now on things like that that you feel pretty confident will be a part of how this team goes?
DAN MULLEN: Well the biggest one to me is, I think that you can check, is that we know the players better this year than we did last year. I think if there's one big one it's you know the personalities of the guy and what you're dealing with. You know what buttons that you can push and you know when at practice what I see from somebody and how they have translated that to games and where they need to improve. And I think if there's a biggest box to check for me it is us knowing each other a little bit better. So, hey, I've seen, like hey I've seen this before of how you practice, but that didn't translate into a game so that's not good enough any more. This is what I need to see from you. I think that's probably the biggest box is us knowing a lot more about the players that I feel comfortable with and knowing that the players know what to expect from the practice field. And if I'm not getting that, then we have a problem. Because there's not, there shouldn't be a question, there should be right from day one from the first period of the first practice they know, they know what our practices shooed look like. So those boxes should be checked and those are the two biggest ones.

Q. How about the one on leadership. Is that a big box to check?
DAN MULLEN: We'll see. We'll see when we get out there. Because to me I'm not concerned -- like I think our leadership and everything I hear is positive, but so much of the leadership is what have they don't away from us. I think the leadership box has been checked in the summer when they're working out with Coach Savage, we ask them to take care of their business, I want to see was the leadership there for them putting in the work they needed to put in on their own when nobody's around, it's just the players. And we'll see. That will be a couple, that will be two weeks until I see whether that actually happened or not. I know after practice one they're like hey did you see it? I won't see it in practice one I'll know it in a couple of weeks.

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