Muschamp: ‘A lot of wasted ink on the fact I played at Georgia’

Florida coach Will Muschamp has remained every bit as demonstrative on the sidelines as a head coach as he was as a defensive coordinator. (AP photo)

Florida coach Will Muschamp, a UGA football letterman (1991-94) and graduate (’94) had his weekly press conference today. It’s one of just two interview opportunities he’ll allow all week. In case you’re interested, following is a transcription provided by the UF sports communication office. . . .

Opening Statement:

“To start with an injury report, the only player that is definitely out for this game is Jeremy Brown. He just continues not to respond to treatment. We have to continue press through with that and we’re disappointed for him. John Brantley is probable for the game; he will practice today in a limited role. We feel like John will be ready to go for the game. As we progress through the week we will know more about his status. We plan on him practicing today, and everybody else should be back. We shouldn’t have anybody miss today as far as practice is concerned.

“We had a good open week. We really worked hard on fundamentals and worked on Florida. We need to improve our football team, both lines of scrimmage, working on offense, defense and special teams. I thought that our players had a great attitude. They went out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in full gear. I thought we had really good work, and started our prep on Georgia with players on Thursday and as a staff last Sunday. I think we have a good head start on where we need to go. We’ll be in full gear today and tomorrow, and then work in shells on Wednesday and Thursday as we prep to go to Jacksonville.

“Georgia has a good football team with three seniors on their offensive line. I said it last week; Aaron Murray is playing well for them. He has completed over 60% of his passes. He’s very mobile in what he can do directing his offense in his second year as a starter. Isaiah Crowell has played really well for them. Orson Charles is a threat at the tight end position – he’s a really good athlete, and a guy that does a nice job vertically down the field. Malcolm Mitchell has played really well for them as a freshman at the X position – he was out last week against Vanderbilt with a hamstring, but they expect him back. Their defense has played really well as the season has progressed as far as their points per game allowed, and they’re doing a nice job on the third down and mixing some different packages as far as over-and-under of what they’re doing with their front. They have a good football team, and I look forward to this.

“I know there will be a lot of wasted ink on the fact that I played at Georgia and now I’m coaching at Florida, but this is not the first time that I have coached against Georgia. I’m looking forward to the opportunity, and taking the Gators to Jacksonville.”

On QB John Brantley:

“Again, he didn’t necessarily practice, but through his rehab with the ankle, doing some drops and some different things, he did throw some there on the practice field. As far as partaking in practice, he didn’t do any. He was on the practice field; he did some throwing motion stuff and worked on a couple of drops here and there – just to see how the ankle took, and really to see how it felt the next day. We’re very pleased with his progress; he has worked extremely hard to get back for this week. Again, at this time, I would say that he is probable for the game on Saturday.”

On how Brantley was performing before the injury against Alabama:

“He was really playing well against a very good defense before he got hurt. He threw for almost 200 yards in the first half, on third down conversions I think we had two dropped passes that would have been conversions for third downs and hit some deep balls. He was really just playing very well, managing our team, getting us in-and-out of the right runs and if you really look at the first four-and-a-half ball games he was playing very well. Certainly, getting him back is going to be a huge psychological shock for our football team – I really believe that.”

On the quarterback rotation in practice:

“We’ll rep Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel, both. We have to give those guys turns and reps. Again, John won’t rep the whole practice today – both of those guys will take the other reps. They both had good weeks last week. We did a lot of situational work as far as one-minute, third-down periods and just different periods. We put pressure on those guys to continue to progress. Like I have said before, we need to play better around those two guys, starting up front: wide receiver, tight end, running back, we need to play better around both Jeff and Jacoby. [Today it won’t be an even 33% each split because] John will be a little limited in what he does, but as we continue to progress throughout the week, we will make a decision about who the back-up quarterback will be and go from there.”

On the importance of the bye week:

“When you have an open week, you can approach it several different ways. We took the approach that we needed some time off, and we gave them Sunday and Monday off [last week]. We came in Tuesday, had a very physical practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I thought we improved fundamentally on the things that I have identified that we need to work on, and I thought we got better, we improved. I thought we had a great attitude. The guys went out and worked. We had a team lift Friday morning, then gave them Saturday and Sunday off, coming back last night. I thought we took a step forward. You either get better or worse when you get on the field. I thought we improved our football team and continued to step forward in what we need to do in being successful.”

On the having the time to teach during the bye week:

“I think that you never want to have a bye week after a loss, and we had three. It was very frustrating from that standpoint of living through that. But, again, you need to be technical about what you have done well, and what you haven’t done well. You need to correct things that need to be correct, you need to build on the positive – which there have been some positives and continue to move forward with our team. Do I think it came at a good point? Yes. Especially from the standpoint that we were a little banged up. We needed to get some guys healthy and we needed to get some guys out of the grind of the season. It’s disappointing from the standpoint that we’re coming off of three losses, it’s always tough to have to sit through the weekend and not have an opportunity to go get it out of your mouth.”

On Brantley’s status:

“As of today, on Monday, he’s probable for the game [on Saturday]. We expect his reps to increase as the week grows. We want to get him out there today – get him out there moving around, have people around him and throw the football around a little bit. I fully expect him to continue to progress throughout the week unless we hit something that we’re not predicting. I fully expect him to be fine.”

On what you saw last week from Brantley:

“He continues to improve every day. It’s the day-to-day process of being able to get back on the ankle the next day. He continues to improve.”

On improving the play around the quarterback:

“I think more than anything, pad-level up front, hand placement, coming off – everything we did was good-on-good. We didn’t do any scout work as far as that was concerned. We went fast-ball tempo and playing blocks on defense, playing blocks up front. We really worked in a lot of skel periods as far as throwing the football, getting better timing in the throwing game and identifying some things that we’re doing well. We really minimized the things that we’re doing offensively to help the young quarterbacks, especially.”

On Ronald Powell returning to start after missing last game due to injury:

“We’ll determine that through practice, but he’s good to go. He’s back off his injury. He practiced Thursday full go, so he should be fine. Whoever practices best will play, that’s how we do it each week.”

On Brantley’s presence on the field:

“I said it earlier, psychologically; having him in the huddle will be a huge asset. He’s a leader of our team and is a guy that has been very productive. Obviously, when he was not in the game, the production went down. You have to give our opponents some credit on that as well. There is no question that he certainly gives us a psychological boost for our football team, on offense and defense too because that affects how the defense plays at times. That’s where we have to grow stronger mentally as a football team from that. You can’t let one thing affect you so much to where it affects how you play. That’s what I’ve really challenged the players, don’t let the circumstances around you control how you are. You control who you are. You play the game regardless of the situation. You play with a relentless attitude regardless of the situation. Those are things that we need to continue to grow on.”

On personnel changes:

“We’ve looked at some guys at some different spots. We’ll continue to move forward with that at this point.”

On battling for the back-up quarterback spot:

“We haven’t decided at this time. Both Jacoby and Jeff practiced really well last week. We put them in a lot of situations, and we’re going to continue to do that today. We’ll give John some early reps in practice, and then get those guys in some good-on-good work versus the defense. Whoever continues to progress and play well in those situations will be the back-up quarterback.”

On Brantley’s eagerness to return:

“John, when he had his injury, was very disappointed, hurt and down. Back then, he told me that ‘I want get back for Georgia’ – it’s important to John. His dad and uncle were both Gators, they understand the importance of this game. There is no question that he has really pin-pointed trying to get back for this game.”

On Dan Wenger’s status:

“Dan should be fine. He’ll practice today. Everybody should be back on the field today practicing”

On Georgia’s offense:

“Orson Charles is a guy that can really stretch the field vertically. They do a nice job of play-actions off of that and getting vertical down the field. Tavarres King, Malcolm Mitchell: a lot of guys have contributed for them outside. Isaiah Crowell has done a nice job, and Richard Samuel has done a nice job carrying the football for them. They have some guys and some weapons that you certainly have to take advantage of. You have to control the line of scrimmage. They’re going to take their 10 or 12 shots down the field and you have to defend their shots.”

On SEC East race:

“When you come to the University of Florida, you play to go to Atlanta. That’s part of the deal here, and I understand that. Each week, I’m trying to remove all the external circumstances of why you want to play hard. You ought to want to play hard because you play for Florida; you play for your teammates. To me, that ought to be motivating enough. Certainly, winning the SEC East is great – that’s what we want to do, we want to beat Georgia, and in order to do that we have to take care of business this weekend.”

On coaching against Georgia:

“Wherever I played has no bearing on this game at all. Every game is important, they’re all important games. It’s a SEC East opponent, it’s a big rival, it’s important to the University of Florida so it’s important to me.”

On the tradition of the Georgia-Florida game:

“You get charged when you come over that bridge and you see all the RV’s, the passion and the tradition of the game. Growing up in the South, you understand the impact of that game. There is no question that when you come over that bridge, it charges you up. You get goose bumps talking about it.”

On preparing the underclassmen for the atmosphere in Jacksonville:

“We have talked to our team about it, especially to the young guys, and we’ve had the older guys talk about it a little bit as far as this game is concerned. That’s how you try to prepare your team for what they’re walking into.”

On approaching the game as a former Georgia player:

“This profession is different than a lot of professions. You do your job for the school that you’re working for. It’s my job to do a great job for the University of Florida, and that’s what I’m trying to do. Again, I talked about it earlier, I don’t mean disrespect to anybody, but I’m loyal to people, not places. I work for Jeremy Foley and Dr. Bernie Machen, and those are the people I need to do a good job for and this football team and staff. That’s how I view things. I’ve worked at Auburn, LSU and Texas – I’ve worked a lot of different places, and this isn’t the first time I’ve played against Georgia.”

On the secondary:

“You’re going to get 10-12 shots in the game where they’re going to stretch the field vertically, and you have to defend those balls. There’s no question that this game will be a little different from the ones we’ve seen in the last two weeks especially, as far as what people are trying to down the field, vertically. They have some guys that are talented outside. They do a nice job as far as six- and seven-man protections, so as far as pressure is concerned it’s a lot of what I call turn-protection. It’s hard to get there, so you have to defend the ball. You have to defend the ball down the field.”

On the offensive line improvements:

“I think we made some improvements on the offensive line during the open week, and hopefully we’ll see that on Saturday. We have to continue to progress there as far as finding different ways to run the football, maintain balance for both our offense and quarterback and maintain possession of the ball.”

On the secondary improving:

“In the secondary, I really didn’t think that we played very well against Auburn. We’ve really challenged our guys after that game. Some opportunities that we had, we had opportunities to make plays and we didn’t finish some things down the field. Against this football team that we’re playing this Saturday that is something that we’re going to need to do.”

On creating turnovers:

“We’re minus-7for the season, so we’re last in the SEC. We have to create some positive momentum for our team, whether it’s on special teams or on defense. We need to continue to eliminate turnovers offensively, and get some turnovers on defense.”