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CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: FLORIDA VS VIRGINIADecember 29, 2019Bronco MendenhallDan MullenMiami Gardens, Florida DAN MULLEN: I hope everybody is having a great time. I know we're having a great time. I thank everybody on the Orange Bowl committee and I know our players have enjoyed the trip and enjoyed their time here, had a lot of fun here in South Florida. We're looking forward to a really exciting game. I think you get to watch some of the games on last night and you look, when you get two great teams playing against each other like we're going to have tomorrow night, it makes for exciting football, and this is always such a fun, exciting time of year. BRONCO MENDENHALL: It's been an absolute pleasure for our team and for the University of Virginia to be here. Just a tremendous experience, the hospitality that we've experienced sets this game apart from any that I've experienced in the 14 other bowl games that we've been to, and again, the educational component, to have young people from all over the country be able to come to this destination, experience the things they have, it adds to, I think, the balance and the educational component of their development. So as Dan mentioned earlier, two schools that are powerful academically but are interested in things besides football but also excel at football. So that platform, and I think that makes this particular game unique. I think it sets it apart, and I think that emphasis in addition to quality football makes it good for the game. So we have just been thrilled to be here. Look forward to a great game and have a lot of respect for the University of Florida and the caliber of opponent that we're going to be playing. Q. Dan, can you describe for us what a victory would mean to the Gators and the Gator program? DAN MULLEN: Well, I mean, obviously you always want to finish the season on a win and on a high note. I know for these seniors that have bought into what we've tried to build here over the last couple years, you want to send them off on top, and when you head into an off-season, you have the opportunity to get a win over a top-25 team, a team that played for a conference championship, a great program like the University of Virginia, I think that helps catapult you into the next season on a positive note. We don't get to play again until September. That's a long time to sit around. So you want to -- as you go in, if you have the opportunity to finish the season with a win, I think it really kind of bolts you into the next season and the off-season conditioning program and just leaves everybody on a high note ready to get going? Q. What about relative to your program is right now and where it's come in the last two years? DAN MULLEN: I mean, I don't know that one game ever makes a whole difference within the direction of the program. You know, I think the program, our guys have bought in. I think our assistant coaches and everybody, I think we're happy with the direction the program is headed right now. Obviously it would be our second straight New Year's Six bowl game, and we're continuing to strive to go compete for championships. Q. Bronco, you lost one of your top players in Bryce Hall midway through the year, and I'm curious, we had a chance to talk to him at beach day. What has been your role with the team since that injury? BRONCO MENDENHALL: His role has developed and is still being defined. Bryce has a lot of unique skills. His passion for the game -- Bryce is a person that throws himself into his preparation, basically claimed his own offense within our building prior to being injured in terms of the amount of time he was spending, and so his personal preparation toward the sport of football really has shifted toward his help and development of his teammates at the same position. But then he's grown into a very unique role. He's found and developed his own faith and has formed a partnership with the team chaplain, and so he's kind of part coach, part spiritual advisor, part young entrepreneur and part NFL prospect. He just adds a positive influence in a really unique way that bridges the gap between player and coach, and so our current players are going to him with not only football advice but it seems now like, well, they think he's wise beyond his years. He was in a seat behind me traveling back from practice yesterday, and one of our players came and I was overhearing the conversation, and it was about this player that was visiting with Bryce was asking him what he thought about his career choice, why it would be a good fit for him, what did Bryce think of the girl he was dating. It was kind of a parental role. I was just chuckling and listening, and it was the highlight of my day. So he's playing that role. Whatever we call that role -- advisor, let's call it that. Q. All off-season you talked about it would be easier to go from four wins to 10 than it would from 10 to 11. A win here would give you a chance to reach that 11. What would it mean to the team being able to make that jump even though it's just the one game? DAN MULLEN: I mean, a lot. When we started with this team last January, we talked about how hard you have to work, and whatever we did the year before, that wasn't enough. If you did the same, you could expect maybe to win 10 games, but that's about it. You have no opportunity to win more if we didn't desperately work every day. To be a much better football team in every aspect of the program, in everything that we do, how we prepare in the off-season, how we train in the off-season, how we prepare during the season, how we perform as a team, how we come together as a team. You know, I think just -- I think by even just having this opportunity, I think you saw the work the guys have put in through the off-season, through the entire season. To put themselves in this position, to be in a position to be better than we were last year, that's not easy to do. So it's been -- we've had a good year. Obviously you want to finish it the right way and send everybody out, all our seniors out the right way for the work that they've put in. I mean, we'll start that whole process again in January a couple weeks from now. Q. Dan, what do you think it says about the state of your program right now that after this game, a lot of the attention is going to turn to whether or not you can possibly leave for the NFL? DAN MULLEN: I don't -- much of the state of the program, I think the program is in a great position right now, and I think everybody knows how much I love being a Florida Gator, and with the direction the whole program is headed in. I think those are nice compliments. I think usually in the coaching profession, a lot of times they're making comments on you one way or the other, right, they either need to get rid of you or you're going somewhere else. So it's always better to be on the latter of those two. I've been a head coach for a while, I've gotten to experience both sides, and sometimes they're ready to get rid of you and sometimes they think you're going somewhere else. We'll take that for being a successful season. Q. Bronco, the Orange Bowl is the midpoint of what is probably the toughest three-game stretch in program history. You open next season against Georgia in Atlanta. For the players who will be back next season, how much do you think the experiences they will have gained in the ACC Championship Game and then here will help next season for that? BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, our past number of games, the victory over Virginia Tech and then playing in the ACC Championship, now playing in the Orange Bowl versus Florida, then opening versus Georgia, that is why I came to the University of Virginia. That was intentional. The steps have been made methodically to get to this stage. We're learning, we're growing, we're developing, but we're also comparing and contrasting and learning with each of those games what parts of our program still need attention, not only to be able to arrive and play in those games but to win in them consistently. So when you consider the University of Florida with two 10-win seasons, the chance for an 11-win season, that's hard to do. It's hard to do one time, it's certainly hard to do three times in a row, and we're emerging as an intentionally pursuing and hunting down that tier. As many of the games that we can play, and we've earned the right to play in on the stage that we're currently in, the faster the program accelerates. And they're essential, and at some point it becomes normal and it becomes expected, and then the program takes another step forward. Q. Coach Mullen, to follow up on the NFL question, is the NFL game something that intrigues you? And also for both coaches, why do you think it is that the NFL is finally starting to sort of buy into the run-pass option and more of the spread concept? DAN MULLEN: Well, I think the NFL when you look at it -- and I think football as a whole, I think people take ideas and they share ideas throughout the year. I remember -- must be 15 years from now coming to the SEC as an offensive coordinator, the first thing is, hey, this style of offense will never work in a league like the SEC. It's more -- and hey, there's a couple of schools doing it and it's really trickling the other direction, there's high schools trying to run some of that stuff. But it won't work in a league like the SEC. And now all of a sudden you see that it not just is in the SEC, that it's spread throughout the country, running spread-style offenses, and most of the NFL game is a spread-style game now. I don't know, to stay ahead of the coaching curve, we might have to go back to getting in the I or wing T or wishbone or something like that. It's always cyclical. It's always this curve. I remember like 15 years ago we started snapping the ball to the quarterback and doing a direction run, and someone is like, boy, that looks like the Notre Dame shift or something that they ran like 60 years ago. So always just the game goes in cycles. BRONCO MENDENHALL: When you consider the run-pass option from a defensive background, myself and every other defensive coach don't like it, don't want it and want it to go back to how it was before. In terms of the advantage that it's given, the parity, the advantage that it's given the game, the parity that exists in college football right now, regardless of tier, it gives everyone a chance, regardless of what your entire roster looks like. The neutralizing of talent that the run-pass option has, and if I was an NFL team, an NFL model is based on parity where the best team has the worst draft choice or vice versa, Lamar Jackson can make a difference, and so the right quarterback with the right team, Bryce Perkins in our case, that can accelerate a program while the rest of the roster is being built. So what NFL team that might have been struggling, why not? And it seems like a faster way to remedy a lot of ills than maybe the traditional approach. Q. How has the team balanced having fun and also remaining focused? I know they did the jersey thing the other day and had a good time with that, but what's been the level of seriousness about this game? DAN MULLEN: No, I mean, our one thing I do love, our guys love to play football. They love playing. One of the things we always try to do is make the bowl game such a great reward, and I think that's one of the things that makes the bowl system so special. I mean, everybody here at the Orange Bowl gives you so much hospitality. It's such a great experience, such a great learning experience for these young guys. I mean, we're staying down at the Intercontinental Hotel and you're staying right in Miami. The opportunity to get out to the beach, to go experience all the different things that they've got to experience while they're here, we embrace that and really try to enjoy the bowl experience. The key to our team, though, the one thing is the focus while we're here, that we're here to win a football game, and then we're going to enjoy the time and the experience. And as long as you have it in that order, you don't miss out on the preparation. You know, we try as best we can to set the schedule around being a regular game week, around preparing the right way, and you know, the positive is that on a regular week, we're in classes, we have tutoring, you have all the different academic aspects of things that now, hey, let's just worry about preparing for the football game, and with the extra time we're going to go enjoy being in South Florida, enjoy Miami, enjoy having a great time as a team. Our guys have -- they understand that. They've taken advantage of it, and I think they've had a lot of fun, and they've had a great week of preparation, as well. Q. Bronco, you kind of answered this question earlier, but how have you put the Clemson game behind you? Does it come up every day? Do you want it to come up every day? BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, I don't intend to put it behind us until we rectify any of the deficiencies that were exposed. I intend to use it to leverage the program and moving forward every minute, every second until we become better. Otherwise I don't know, I don't think master teachers or parents or anyone puts things behind them that they can still learn and grow from until every possible option has been exhausted from what we can learn from that. That allows people to grow and progress. So it's one of the most valuable catalysts, I think, maybe ever that's been had for the program in football at the University of Virginia. Q. You mentioned what a great equalizer and effective RPO quarterback such as Bryce or Lamar Jackson can be. We've seen just glimpses of Brennan Armstrong. Who will we see more so next season from him? BRONCO MENDENHALL: Similar but different. The approach and the style and the advantage that a mobile quarterback gives I think, again, is a neutralizer while the rest of the roster is developed and grown to be where you can match maybe player for player against a team competing for the National Championship in our league like Clemson, and so that gives you a better chance than waiting for and developing the other 21 players to catch up. And so, yeah, similar, but Brennan is not Bryce in terms of some of the dynamic and run effect, but he does run in a manner that is a little bit more Taysom Hill like, and Taysom plays a lot of different positions for the Saints. He's part linebacker, part safety, part cornerback, part kick returner, part whatever. Brennan is a little bit more like that, so we'll just tailor the offense more in relation to that style than what Bryce is currently doing. Q. Bronco, when you were hired you talked about the state of the roster in terms of sometimes you'd have a senior and nobody behind him for a few years. Where are you in the process of getting a roster where you want in terms of succession plans? BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, so I think organizations are perfectly designed for the results they get. We're good enough right now and deep enough to win the Coastal. We're deep enough to lose to Clemson. And then the next step is how we fare in the Orange Bowl, which then leads us into Georgia. And so each specific game tells us exactly where we are to make it to the 14th game with our existing roster, Dan and I were talking the other day, it's been a challenge. There's just things that happen along the way with injuries or other, and so -- but we are certainly making progress. We are certainly deeper. We are certainly healthier, and we're in the Orange Bowl intentionally and by design. And so those are all steps in the right direction as each year has been better, and I expect it to continue that way. Q. Bronco, the Gators have all that depth and experience at wide receiver. What are the challenges of trying to deal with that? BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, they have all this depth and talent at wide receiver. That is the challenge. And they play a lot of them at the same time. So it's one of the first things that jumps off the film when you study Florida's offense is just how many really good athletes are in space and how frequently the ball is delivered accurately and effectively in well-designed plays. It'll be a challenge for us and will require, man, a lot of innovation, a lot of coaching on our part to try to neutralize that, but that's one of our biggest tests. Q. Coach Mullen, can you kind of put Kyle Trask's season in perspective? Anything he's done that's surprised you pleasantly? And also, what conversations have you had with Emory about his role moving forward, and how has he handled that? DAN MULLEN: I think one of the things that Kyle has done an amazing job of, and it is -- what you don't see a lot in college football today is worrying about what's important, worrying about his preparation, worrying about when he's out on the field going as hard as he can every single snap. You know what, that's really hard to do. With all the noise, all the attention, with whether it's social media or everything else. I think one thing how he's handled being a guy that didn't really start in high school but played a bunch, I think that gets taken out. It's not like he never played. He played a bunch. He just wasn't the starter on his high school team. To coming in here to Florida and not being the starter but continuing to work every day, it's really hard. Most positions on the field, you get the opportunity that you're going to rotate or go play. So as you're preparing for the game, you sit there and say, I might only play 15 to 20 plays this week but if I really play well and work hard, I might get 20 to 25 next week. As the backup quarterback you're sitting there saying, hey, I don't know if I'm going to get opportunities, but I've always got to be ready just in case that happens. And one of the most impressive things he did is he continued to do that throughout his career. So when his number was called, he was completely prepared for that moment and that opportunity to go take advantage of it. I think one of the things as it comes to Emory, I think Emory really -- one of the great things he learns from is looking at a guy like Kyle and looking at how he prepared and how he continued to grow and how he continued to develop to be ready for this stage to go play at an extremely high level. And you know, they bring very different skill sets to the table, and because of that, it allows us to play both of them within the game plan, to do different things. So I think the great thing Emory looks is to say, hey, I get to learn from a guy, of how he did it to make sure that he continued to prepare and grow so that he was always ready while I continue to get opportunities to develop myself not just at practice or not just off the field but during games and in live-game situations. I think he's handled it really well. I think both guys really have handled the whole situation and the opportunity that's presented themselves -- that was presented to them, they've both handled it extremely well, and we've had a lot of success with it. Q. You've had guys like Bryce before, so how do you stop him? And also, were you able to use Emory and maybe Anthony for a few days to give you those looks? DAN MULLEN: Well, it was nice when we were in games when Anthony Richardson came in and really didn't know a whole lot on our offense but was able to go be a scout team quarterback for a week. To get a guy that could run around and give looks -- you know, the most challenging thing, obviously, when you have a quarterback that's as athletic as Bryce is, is one, the ability to run the ball, that you've got to defend all 11 players, both within the run game, and to be able to stop him. The hardest part about doing that when you do that, a lot of times you look at a guy that's more just a dropback pocket passer you don't have to defend him in the run game, you can use that extra guy to go defend in the pass game. So you have to use that extra defender to help stop the run. Then a guy like Bryce who you've watched him grow and develop and become a really good passer, even from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, you're seeing him develop and grow as a passer, to be able to hurt you with his arm, now they've created the mismatch that way. And then the scariest one is the plays that he makes after the play has broken down. You know, to sit there and say, okay, we stop the run or we stop the pass and all of a sudden he made somebody miss, he scrambled around, he got out of the pocket, he broke contain, and now you have a guy that is a great athlete in the open field making plays happen. You've got to be sound. You've got to be disciplined. You've got to understand he's going to make plays, and you just have to limit the amount that he can make. Q. Bronco, you are not as deep or as experienced at inside linebacker as you were back in training camp. Do you need Zane and Nick Jackson to be ironmen in this game, or do you have options with some of the outside guys filling? BRONCO MENDENHALL: Basically the first option. So Zane with his experience and finally his hand is out of his cast, and so that'll help the tackling and his ability to get ball carriers to the ground. And then with Nick Jackson as a first year and then Josh Ahern as a first year, that's basically our inside linebacker corps for this game. Moving anyone else, that just creates another deficit, which is all doable and we're used to it, but yeah, development of first-year players and Nick Jackson especially, Josh Ahern is the third, that's where we were. Q. Dan and Bronco, the Orange Bowl and bowls in general all kind of have their own identity, brings back certain memories, I think, for fans, media members, players, coaches. I was just curious what does the Orange Bowl mean to each of you? BRONCO MENDENHALL: Well, I think the best way to describe it, and my first recollection of the Orange Bowl, the FedEx Orange Bowl, I keep using the word destination. I think it means that you've arrived at a different stage in college football, at an elite and exceptional tier. I think it's a qualifying bowl that either your program or your staff or your players have achieved something that is remarkable, is to be enjoyed, and is exemplary. And that to me is -- it doesn't mean that while we're here there is this feeling that everything has been accomplished, but to participate in it is, yeah, I think it's an honor to be chosen, an honor to participate in, and I think it's a great accomplishment. DAN MULLEN: You know, when you look at the history of bowl games, you just go back, and it brings back memories. I remember being a young kid, New Year's Day was always one of the greatest days of the year because of the football on. This was before ESPN. So you'd sit there and there would be games on all day long, but it would always cap at night, you'd be watching the Orange Bowl at night, and with the halftime show and -- I grew up in New Hampshire so usually it was snowing outside and here they come from sunny Miami with the Orange Bowl. You know, and to grow up and watch the history of the game was so special. It's a tradition that makes college football so special. To see that. And then for me personally, the Orange Bowl is the first bowl game that I was ever a part of as a grad assistant at Syracuse. You know, I think it just brings back so many memories and is such a special game from just watching it growing up to also having the honor for me -- it's special for me to be my first bowl game. Q. Bronco, when did you learn you wouldn't have Jordan Mack and talk about the sadness at having lost him twice this year? BRONCO MENDENHALL: After our game against Clemson, so that was the third game in a row where Jordan really wasn't practicing until Thursday. He would move around some and then try to have -- try to rebound well enough to contribute somehow in the game. And with each successive week, he just wasn't able to perform even to the level he did the previous week. So it became clear that he wasn't going to be effective in this game, and it also became clear what can I do and what can the program do to help and advise him to have an opportunity to have the surgery or to recover in time for other opportunities that might arise for football. And so right after the Clemson game, he and I had a discussion, and he was tormented by trying to decide. But the clear decision was it was best for him, it was best for our team at the same time to add some clarity to his recovery, his future, and getting his health back. Jordan gave everything he had and still is, to helping our program, but we'll be without him for this game. Q. Dan, a few of your players mentioned being very aware of the blitz frequency from Virginia. What challenge does that present? And where are they strongest in terms of bringing those pressures? DAN MULLEN: You know, well, they bring it from everywhere, so they're pretty strong in any different direction they come from. I think when you asked about the RPO game earlier, and I think just throughout your career as an offensive guy, you sit there and you learn early on to really study what causes issues for the defense, more than, hey, I just like this play, how do we put conflict and put the defense in issues, and I think one thing that Bronco does a great job within their scheme is the numbers of issues they cause the offense. You know, from playing him a long time ago even until now, and especially the quarterback position, if you want to conflict a position you start with the quarterback on the offense if you want to put somebody -- to have those issues, and I think one of the things they do is they do a great job disguising pressures, bringing them from different directions and giving you a great variety of pressures, and then complementary ones, as well. It's one thing, so they affect your protection and they can affect you in the run game while giving the confusing looks for the quarterback, and if you can get the quarterback to hesitate, I think to be honest with you, when you're blitzing, from the time the ball snaps you get approximately 1.8 seconds until you have to make a decision to throw the football at the quarterback position. The more that you can conflict and confuse that quarterback in that 1.8 seconds, the more difficult you are to prepare for and to go play against, and I think the defensive scheme that Bronco runs at the University of Virginia is such an aggressive attacking scheme that conflicts the quarterback and puts him in tough decision-making positions. Q. The unbroken growth you've talked about a lot this year, how much can be credited to those veteran guys who have been in this for the long haul with you? BRONCO MENDENHALL: I think they deserve all the credit. I had them stand in the team meeting a few days ago before we left Charlottesville, and each one that stood, they're the pioneers of this era of UVA football. Yeah, they were part of 2-10. They were part of the first bowl game or going to the first bowl game anyone on our roster had been to when we played against Navy. They were part of the win versus South Carolina last year, in that bowl game, and now they're part of the Orange Bowl. I think they're part of their accomplishments, but I've also heard comments to them, to our first years, of it's not right that you're starting with the Orange Bowl and we started 2-10. (Laughter.) There's a message that's being sent to them like they're soft because they're not having to go through what they went through, but they're saying it in a teasing way, and in also like a self-confirming way that we've helped this to where you don't have to go through that phase. So they're proud of it, but they're leveraging it, as well, with the young players. I hear comments all the time. Q. Bronco, 11 bowls at BYU, two previous with UVA. Is there a common theme that you have found in terms of preparation that then translates to the best performance on game day? BRONCO MENDENHALL: Yeah, clearly. Dan talked about it a little bit, how much the team likes football by the end of the year, and do they like it enough to get in to whatever setting they go to and have that be their primary focus, and that doesn't mean not have a good time with everything else that's possible, but is the primary focus to go win the game. Is that really important to that team and the team's leadership, and they control it more than the coaches. And the teams that really want to go and prepare well and win, they play well every time. And they also are able to have a good time because the primary focus has already been established. The ones that come and they're uncertain about how much they really want to play and it has been a long season or whatever else, those are the teams that usually have lackluster performances in relation to what each team is capable of. And sometimes it doesn't mean winning or losing, it means in relation to your team, this is not as good as they could have played. And player leadership to me in the previous question determines the outcome. Q. Bronco, I believe that someone asked Coach Mullen what it would mean for his team to win. What would it mean for you guys to get that 10th win and get an Orange Bowl victory? What would it mean in terms of a step for this program? BRONCO MENDENHALL: The University of Virginia has one 10-win season in 130 years of football. (Laughter.) FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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