SEC Teleconference: 'We’ve got to come out and play well'

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Florida head coach Dan Mullen spoke to the media Wednesday during the weekly SEC Coaches Teleconference before Saturday’s game at Missouri.

Here are the main takeaways.

• When asked about practice this week he responded with, “Our guys have had a good week of practice and are ready to go. We are ready for the challenge against a tough Missouri team. They always play really well and tough at home. We’ve got to come out and play well.”

• Veteran runningback Dameon Pierce was mentioned by the media and Mullen responded with, “I think he does a great job and an example of a guy that’s just worrying about playing hard, worrying about being the best that you can be. If you look at what he's done, from his ability coming in as a freshman and playing on special teams, playing on offense, throughout his entire career he's been an extremely consistent performer for us.”

• Quarterback’s coach Garrick McGee was brought up by the media and when asked about Emory Jones’ criticism from the Florida fanbase, and how he deals with it Mullen said, “Yeah, both 100%. Shows Emory’s character of, and maturity, of how he deals with the situation of being a quarterback here at Florida, which comes with really high expectations.”

• On Anthony Richardson: “I think he's done a great job of handling all that stuff because that's not easy. I mean I agree, Anthony, I've said this for a long time. Anthony is an extremely talented young man, still has quite a bit of development to do in every aspect of the game, but he works really hard at it. He wants to develop, and I think he wants to be a great player. So, he just continues to work, continuing to grow."

• When asked about Missouri running back Tyler Badie and how can you neutralize him this week he responded with

• “They give him the ball a lot. You look at their team and I don’t know that anybody else even gets the ball very much in the running game, in number of carries. They’re going to feed him the ball a bunch and he’s been an extremely productive player. He can run with power, and I think he has elite speed as well. You’ve gotta do a great job. You can’t let him get to that second level because he has the ability to hit a home run.”

• The Gators’ football team has been facing some backlash on social media these past few days from a video that went viral in the locker room after the win against Samford. Mullen responded with.

• “What we do is worry about what you can control and worry about the reality, not the perception. Social media is very perception-oriented. All media, that way. What you gotta do is really worry about what you can control and what your reality is.”

• On Missouri quarterback Connor Bazelak: “The one big thing I think he always brings to the table is toughness, the moxie that he has, his leadership. I think that’s such an important trait as a quarterback. When you watch him obviously, he’s not afraid to run the ball and he can. In the passing game, he’s completing a high percentage of his passes. But most importantly he has all the skill set, but I think he brings some leadership quality and some toughness, and some moxie. I think that’s a huge deal.”

• When asked about this week of practice, he responded with “Good. It’s been a good week of practice right now. We’ve had only two days of practice so far, but again our guys have had a great attitude, a great approach to the entire season. I see the same this week: guys coming out, working on the game plan, coming out with a positive mindset ready to go play.”

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WCC: Updates on everything Dan Mullen had to say can be seen HERE.