Gators hoping to avoid trap
As scuffling Vanderbilt looms, Mullen says his team must look inward
GAINESVILLE — Unlike Nick Saban, Dan Mullen is not a big believer in trap games.
Mullen feels like the entire SEC schedule is fraught with peril, including Saturday’s visit to struggling Vanderbilt — losers to the Florida Gators in all but one season since 1988.
Coming off the program’s first win against a top-5 foe in three years, the No. 14 Gators’ toughest opponent is themselves, their coach believes.
UF (5-1, 2-1 SEC) heads to Nashville for its third road game in four weeks. This follows last Saturday’s emotional LSU win and comes before the season’s only bye week. After that, rival and reigning SEC champion Georgia awaits.
Last week, Saban called his topranked Crimson Tide’s visit to Arkansas a trap game, given the Razorbacks had lost nine of their previous 10 SEC games. Alabama coasted to a 65-31 win.
Regardless of opponent, Mullen said it requires a lot of effort and commitment from a team to make progress week to week.
“A trap game, as people define it, I guess is: OK, you’ve had several tough games in a row,” Mullen said Monday. “I can look at our guys this week and say that we’ve played three really tough games in a row and we have a bye week the following week and the mindset can be, ‘Coach, I can’t wait to catch my breath. I can’t wait to just take one play off at practice.’ That’s where a definition of that could come.
“I’ll be honest with you, more than the opponent you’re facing, is it’s yourself and your own attitude of the mental toughness of: Can we continually improve and get up every day?”
Mullen said his players gradually have improved and practiced a little bit harder with each passing week.
But if UF lets off the gas at all in preparing for Vanderbilt, it would undermine much of the work Mullen’s players have put in since a humbling loss Sept. 8 to Kentucky.
The Gators are feeling good about themselves, as are their fans. That can change quickly, especially in the world of social media, where opinions can change in real time.
“That’s the world we live in,” Mullen said. “I tell them we won, so guess what? Twitter’s gonna tell you how great you are. So if you like being told how great you are, get back to work, and let’s win again. If you like being told that you stink, then you don’t have to work very hard, and everyone will tell us we won’t win the game and they’ll tell us how bad we are.
“Everyone is patting you on the back only about six inches higher than they’re kicking you in the rear end. I like the pat on the back rather than the kick in the rear end, so let’s just keep working to keep it six inches higher.”
Krull’s big play
Mullen has heard it before. College football rosters are littered with plenty of two-sport stars from high school. Few of them still have the skills for more than football, even if they really ever did.
“Everybody tells me they can throw, right?” Mullen said.
Backup tight end Lucas Krull is an exception.
The former flamethrowing pitcher showcased his strong left arm during the Gators’ 27-19 upset of LSU. Krull’s throwback pass to quarterback Feleipe Franks to the Tigers’ 2-yard line set up a pivotal fourth-quarter touchdown.
“As you look for guys, if you’re going to do deceptive, trick plays, you look for guys with a different skill set,” Mullen said. “He’s like Liam Neeson in ‘Taken.’ He has a special set of skills that makes him really, really dangerous to defenses.”
Krull, listed at 6-foot-6, 255 pounds, certainly looks the part.
Krull caught 13 touchdowns for a state championship team in 2015. After pursuing a baseball career at Jefferson College in Missouri, the Kansas native with a fastball hovering in the mid-90s decided to return to football.
Mullen and his staff caught wind of Krull’s change of plans, knew a need existed at tight end and lured Krull to Gainesville for a visit.
“It’s just a lot of evaluation that you have to trust,” Mullen said. “Big guy, with ball skills, looks really athletic and in high school wasn’t afraid to put his face on people and go hit somebody. That’s a guy who’s worth going and taking a good chance on.”
Since he caught two passes for 33 yards during the season opener against Charleston Southern, Krull has just one reception for six yards. But during one of the most pressure-packed games of the season, Mullen found the right time to turn to Krull.
Krull took a handoff from Franks, faked a jet sweep to left, stopped and threw a pinpoint pass 20 to 25 yards to Franks.
Mullen expects the play to be just the beginning. Krull, a redshirt sophomore, is one of six other UF tight ends with catches this season, but three of them are seniors.
“I expect a lot of great things out of him,” Mullen said. “I think he’s just started growing and getting back to be a football player again.”