What Florida interim coach Billy Gonzales said about facing No. 20 Tennessee

Everything Florida interim coach Billy Gonzales said during his weekly press conference on Monday, previewing this week’s game against No. 20 Tennessee Saturday night (7:30 Eastern Time, ABC) at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville:

Opening Statement

“… Moving forward, this will be our first home game since October 18th. We’re ready to get back into The Swamp in front of our great fans, in front of Gator Nation. We’ll be honoring Coach Meyer for his induction to the College Football Hall of Fame next month. It’s Military Appreciation Week, so we always look forward to having members of our Armed Forces come speak to the football team at the end of each practice. And then we need to continue to fight We need to continue to take accountability, both as coaches and players. Continue to focus. We need to continue to lock in. And we have to put another great week of practice. I thought preparation was much better last week. And continue to prepare, continue to fight, continue to win. And that’s the goal.” 

Urban Meyer emphasizing Florida’s rivalry games, what his approach will be this week before the Tennessee game, then against Florida State

“We talked about that in the staff (meeting) yesterday. Just talked about making sure our players stay focused and extra motivation, how the motivation comes from. And again, these players, one thing that these players understand that Tennessee, there’s a deep-rooted history, both Tennessee and the next week, but we’re focusing on this week. They’re an exceptional football team, but obviously our players understand that this game has always been a heated rivalry, so we will continue to talk to our players about it. We will continue — throughout the summer, we always show videos from rivalries, players from the past, players from our team right now, and past players making plays both offensively and defensively. So we’ll have some video looping going on just to make sure our players understand the importance of this game. 

“But as a competitor, I think we’ve sold the fact to our players and as a staff, competitors, they want to compete no matter who they’re playing against. Whether it’s again, whether it’s in front of a 100,000, whether it’s in the backyard with their uncles, their family members, if you’re an athlete and you’re a competitor, you want to win, you want to compete no matter what the stage, no matter who you’re playing. So, I’m excited, our players will be at a high level, competing at a high level, and they’ll have an opportunity to play back in The Swamp. 

“But I think that’s the one thing, if you want to talk about something that gets you fired up, the opportunity to come play back home in front of the swamp in a night game, our players will be ready to play.”

If he has one memory specially that comes to mind from past Tennessee games 

“There’s a bunch of them. From Jamalle Cornelius to Dallas Baker, making a couple plays. Trey Grimes scoring on a little screen. There’s a bunch of memories that you have. We had some great plays in last year’s game. So we just got to put it together in this game. Our players are excited, again, to have the opportunity to go compete and they’re excited to play for each other, continue that process. Our goal is to continue to keep pushing them as a coaching staff, continue to play, and continue to keep working hard.”

Tim Tebow running against Tennessee in 2006

“Well, he’s big and strong and he did plenty of that over the years, too, so (it was) special. The great thing about Tim, when we’re talking about competitors, Tim’s legacy, his competition level was elite. I still remember Jamalle Cornelius was a team captain for us and I still remember they ran stadium steps back in the day and they had a team run and Tim beat all the receivers and Cap took great pride. He was a team captain, he took great pride in being a leader, in being able to compete at a high level. And he said, Coach, he goes that guy’s different. He goes, he beat me running the stadium steps. So that just kind of tells you about what kind of competitor Tim was.”

If Urban Meyer will talk to the Florida football team at all this week 

“I haven’t talked to Coach for a couple weeks. I know we texted last week back and forth, but I’ll reach out to him. I’m not sure what day he’s coming up, and obviously that’ll be something that we talk to as a staff. I think anytime you get a great mind, a great coach, a great motivator, and have an opportunity to speak to a team, I think that’s obviously something that you look forward to.”

Florida’s run defense giving up 200 or more yards the last two games

“No, and again, I said the players, they played extremely hard. And I was talking to Coach Roberts this morning and he said, listen, we played extremely hard. If you look at the film again, the players played hard. That doesn’t mean we played well at all phases at all times. And I think we went back to the same thing again. We were talking about it this morning. We’ve got to, we had some players in position to make tackles and we didn’t make tackles, whether they didn’t grab cloth, whether they ducked their head at a time, whether we got moved out of a gap

“Again, we played hard, but as a coaching staff, we got to make sure that we’re playing well. And our players, again, that’s why I said we got to take accountability as a coaching staff and the players to go make those plays. But you’re exactly right. We got to be better, and it’s something I mentioned earlier. We’ve got to be better at stopping the run.”

Defending Tennessee’s high-tempo offense

“Tennessee, I’m just looking at some notes here. Tennessee, offensively this season, second in the nation in scoring offense. Second in total offense. Third in first-down offense. Third in passing offense, 14th in passing yards. So, they’re definitely a high-powered offense. Will be another challenge for our defense. I’m expecting the defense to come out and do exactly what they did the last couple weeks or last couple games that we’ve played. Go out and compete. This is a little different.

“They do throw the ball a little bit more than they do run, but they do have a solid run game, as well. I looked at their pass game and run game as far as what they’re doing per game; runs per game they’re averaging 37, pass per game they’re 35. But they’re explosive. They do take some shots downfield like I got done talking about what we need to continue to do. And then they’ve got a quarterback that’s come in and done a fantastic job for them this year.”

The availability of Florida DL Caleb Banks

“Yeah, he’s been cleared. So obviously, the return to play aspect of it is going to be based on his body and how he comes through and performs this week at practice. But everybody’s a little different. It takes some players a little bit further, a longer time to come back after the return to play. But I know as far as his attitude and willingness and eagerness to come back, he wants to come back immediately. So he wanted to play this past week. So it’ll be nice to get him back, another big body up front to come help us in that run game, as well.

If you just throw Banks back in

“No, he started practicing last week. So he went through, I want to say, I was talking with Coach about this, I think he got 25, I think he had some around 25 reps or so last Wednesday in that return to play area. So again, the plan is to get him those reps, get him in Saturday. He wanted to warm up. We wanted to get some reps of him warming up. And now we’ll go out, obviously, we’ll monitor how he’s doing throughout practice to make sure that we’re putting him in a proper position so he’s healthy.”

The availability of Florida WR Vernell Brown III

“Same thing, you know, obviously, VB is a tough character, as well. He got hurt a couple weeks ago, came back, gave it a shot, sat out, gave it a chance, came back and played. He’s a tough young man and tried to go again this week. He was just sore and one of the things from a receiver coach, you want to make sure if a receiver can’t lift his hands up consistently and go get the ball, then you just got to make sure that you’re taking care of him, try to get him healthy for the next game. Same thing, same plan for him is to continue to try to get out there. Every player is different, again, their bodies respond. Some players can get back a little quicker, but every individual player knows their body and when he’s healthy, he’ll come back.”

The play of Florida RB Jadan Baugh

“Well, he’s the guy to stop as far as the run game for us. He’s done a great job. A big, strong running back, broke out last year for us, is putting together, like you said, quietly putting together a really solid year. But the other part that you got to remember is he’s an exceptional pass catcher and I think he’s done a great job coming out of the backfield for us. He’s a kick returner for us, he’s a punt returner for us, he’s been handling some of those duties, as well. It kind of tells you what kind of athlete he is. We depend on him and we’re going to depend on him for the next two games, as well.”

Saturday being the first home game since October 18, his message to Florida fans

“Continue to come support. This is the University of Florida and it’s a special place. I’ve said this before, it’s a special place.  It’s a special university. One of the great traditions that we have is selling out The Swamp here. The atmosphere in the middle of the fourth quarter, it’s going to be pretty cool again. You get a night game. So I think that’s something that I know our players look forward to, the excitement and the fans and the energy that they bring. So our players will play off that as well, too. But no, we’re looking forward to having an opportunity to come compete against a high-level team in The Swamp.”

His message to Florida QB DJ Lagway

“Reset, refocus. Continue to reset, refocus. After the press conference, after he had done the press conference, he was sitting in the locker room. I was going in to change before we got on the bus. Again, same thing, I told you a couple weeks ago, I sat with Dallas on the bus when he got injured. I saw DJ sitting there in the locker room and I sat down, put my arm around him, told him I loved him, told him, listen, this is just a minor thing we got to continue to work through. I got nothing but tons of respect. I think you’re a heck of a football player and to hold your chin up, continue to hold your chin up.

“And again, I watched it again where he said it starts with me and I don’t want him to think that. I want him to understand that I want him to just to relax and go play. The decision process is, yeah, we’ve got to continue to work on making great decisions. But go be a great player and that’s your weapon. Go be a great player. You do that naturally. But I want him to make sure he understands that we love him, we care about him and again, he’s done a fantastic job. He put us in a position to be where we needed to be in the fourth quarter. Again, it takes a team to be able to finish it, not just one individual.”

DJ Lagway’s dual-threat ability, if he’s finally healthy

“Well, I think that pairs when you start looking at, is he healthy? What kind of run game is he doing? He’s a willing runner and I think that’s the first and foremost when you talk about quarterbacks that can run the ball, are they willing? He’s more than willing. He’s big, he’s powerful, he’s strong and then it adds another dimension to our offense when you have a quarterback that can run. So I look forward to him continuing that process but yes, he has been healthy.”