Watch: Dan Mullen, Florida assistants discuss Gators’ status prior to fall camp

His players haven’t started fall camp quite yet, but Dan Mullen bore a mark of the hard life of a football coach on Thursday as he addressed assembled Florida Gators media members prior to the beginning of Florida’s fall practice slate on Friday with a bandage across his nose and between his eyes.

“I bumped my head on something” is about as specific as Mullen would get about the cause of the wound, though he did specify that it wasn’t a golf course-related injury — good, considering that he spent time this summer both caddying for son Canon and recording his first hole-in-one, which elicited a fantastic bit of shade from Steve Spurrier — and that he “passed concussion protocol.”

After explaining that away, Mullen also addressed the Gators’ depth, when he expects to see leadership in fall practice — hint: not on the first day — and various aspects of the Florida offense. But maybe the most interesting segment of his stint at the podium was an extended riff on playcalling sparked by a discussion of touches (as ever, obliquely about the Florida fan base’s almost embarrassing desire to see Kadarius Toney get Percy Harvin’s share of the workload) that turned into Mullen and John Hevesy — who spoke after Mullen — both talking about how the division of labor works on Florida’s sideline and what comfort with old friends and longtime coworkers can do for camaraderie and chemistry.

Hevesy also gave plenty of insight as to the status of Florida’s rebuilt offensive line, which will replace four starters in 2019 from a unit that started the year as a pain point but became one of the Gators’ strengths. While what he said is going to be most interesting to football nerds who care about some of the intricacies of offensive line play, the superficial take is that he seems to like Nick Buchanan quite a lot, and also that he has hope for what he acknowledges is a pretty green unit.

Finally, Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham took the mic, and ran down Florida’s defense in some detail. I’d characterize his comments as coolly confident — not wrong for Mullen or Hevesy, either — and note that he did a lot more talking up of his front seven than a secondary that appears to have two NFL-ready corners, though he does begin with the latter. Also, if you’ve ever wondered about Lacedrick Brunson, for whatever reason, there’s an extended discussion of him!

This is a long video, and you might want to watch it in fits and starts, so:

• Mullen appears at 0:07 and goes off mic at 46:08.
• Hevesy shows up at 51:47 and speaks until 1:13:20.
• Grantham arrives at 1:13:35 and speaks until the end of the video.