Gus to Mullen: Davidson not a dirty player

[aubiefifty 16,777]

Gus Malzahn responds to Dan Mullen: Marlon Davidson ‘not a dirty player’

Posted Oct 06, 2019

5-6 minutes

Auburn Football

 

Gus Malzahn was quick to defend the reputation of one of his players on Sunday.

A day after Florida coach Dan Mullen insinuated that Davidson made a “dirty” play when he hit Gators quarterback Kyle Trask -- subsequently resulting in a “light” MCL sprain -- in the second quarter of the teams’ top-10 matchup at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Malzahn went to bat for the senior defensive end.

“Marlon is not a dirty player,” Malzahn said Sunday when asked about Mullen’s remarks. “Matter of fact, Marlon is one of the best football players in our league. He’s probably one of the classiest, if not the classiest, in our league and we’re honored and proud he’s one of our leaders.”

Florida’s second-year head coach made the comment during the CBS broadcast of the game, when he was asked about Trask’s status as his team headed to the locker room for halftime. Mullen gave an update on Trask, who missed parts of two possessions before returning prior to the end of the second quarter, and then said he hoped the SEC “tries to keep quarterbacks safe from dirty plays.”

After the game, Mullen said he did not see the play initially and only caught the replay. He then declined to backtrack on his “dirty” comment when asked specifically if he thought there were any questionable plays by Auburn’s defense.

“Here’s my deal, is intention or not, I mean we’ve got to try to do a good job of protecting guys out there on the field,” Mullen said. “I mean, that’s what the rules are in place for. I go down and watch it on film and see what happens. I’m certainly not saying they’re trying to do that. They’re not being coached to do that. I don’t think the guy’s intent is to do that. You know what I mean? But we have rules in place to protect players and we’ll look on film to see whether or not there was a targeting (against K.J. Britt), whether there was a low hit. Hit the quarterback low, I mean, what the explanation on those is.”

Malzahn said he has not spoken to or reached out to Mullen about his remarks.

Davidson’s hit on Trask came early in the second quarter after Florida opened a drive at its own 25-yard line. On the initial play of the possession, Trask dropped back to pass and Davidson came off the left edge, where Florida left tackle Stone Forsythe got away with a blatant hold on the senior defensive end. Davidson fought through the hold and got to Trask as the quarterback unleashed a pass intended for receiver Josh Hammond.

As the ball came out of Trask’s hands, ultimately falling incomplete, Davidson inadvertently fell on the quarterback’s left leg. Trask heard a pop in his knee and remained down on the field for some time as Florida’s training staff checked him out. The redshirt junior, who feared the worst, eventually got up and walked off the field under his own power, walking to the Gators’ locker room for further examination.

He returned to the sideline later in the quarter with a left brace on his knee and, to the surprise of many, returned to the field just before halftime.

“It was just a really scary moment for me,” Trask said. "Knees are nothing to play around with. Once they told me it was a sprain, they did a really good job taking care of me… and I could go back in.”

Trask finished the game at quarterback, completing 19-of-31 passes for 234 yards and a pair of touchdowns while leading Florida to the upset win against Auburn. Afterward, Davidson -- who was admittedly shaken up when he saw Trask injured -- sought out the Gators quarterback on the field, apologized for the hit and expressed his respect for Trask’s toughness in returning to the game.

Davidson and teammate Derrick Brown both said Mullen’s remarks did not sit well with them. Brown defended his teammate’s reputation and said “freaky plays” happen in football, while Davidson said he was simply trying to make a play and had no intent of hurting Trask.

“When I’m out there to play, I always play between the rules,” Davidson said Saturday night. “I’m always out there trying to take care of each other, and they should take care of me, too. But I was devastated after that (injury to Trask). I went to the sideline and my coach had to pull me to the side and say, ‘Man, you just got to continue to play football,’ because my mind was all on him.

“Like, I hope he gets up, I hope he feels better, I hope it’s nothing serious. Because, at the end of the day, man, it’s football. You want to see everybody be great.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[twilli13 600]

Mullen is a POS. Lost all respect for him (if I had any before) after this incident. Instead of running his fat, used car salesman mouth, maybe he should shut up and be thankful for the fact his team got away with blatant holds the majority of the game (that play was a microcosm of what they got away with). I actually hope they get annihilated by UGA this year (and I never, EVER root for UGA). 

[McLoofus 35,182]

When I heard his comment live, I couldn't believe it, and I was honestly trying to come up with explanations for him. Like, maybe he just meant dirty as in it was a messy play where things broke down and unfortunate stuff happened. But, to my knowledge, he hasn't explained, apologized for or otherwise acknowledged the comment. Until he does, I don't believe I'll be wishing anything good for him or his team. 

[aubiefifty 16,777]

13 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

When I heard his comment live, I couldn't believe it, and I was honestly trying to come up with explanations for him. Like, maybe he just meant dirty as in it was a messy play where things broke down and unfortunate stuff happened. But, to my knowledge, he hasn't explained, apologized for or otherwise acknowledged the comment. Until he does, I don't believe I'll be wishing anything good for him or his team. 

he sux.....period

[Sully to Beasley 643]

Ignorance and arrogance is a sad thing. I hope LSU waxes cousin eddie and his lizards.

[keesler 5,924]

Mullen's  a piece of work, and he runs that mouth non-stop.  He's a good coach though, and he puts a decent product on the field, Todd Grantham's defense is playing lights out.

[Linayus 676]

The fact that he was unwilling to backtrack and say it wasn't dirty just pisses me off. Then he tries to twist "dirty plays" into any incidental hit that may or may not be considered a penalty.. yeah, not buying it buddy. I'm going to be a huge LSU fan this Saturday now, even if Florida getting curb stomped makes Auburn look worse.

[ChltteTiger 649]

10 minutes ago, Linayus said:

The fact that he was unwilling to backtrack and say it wasn't dirty just pisses me off. Then he tries to twist "dirty plays" into any incidental hit that may or may not be considered a penalty.. yeah, not buying it buddy. I'm going to be a huge LSU fan this Saturday now, even if Florida getting curb stomped makes Auburn look worse.

Auburn may look bad initially if UF gets stomped but we have EVERY OPPORTUNITY IN THE WORLD to vaunt back into Top 6 by shocking LSU in BR in 3 weeks. Will we do that? probably not...

[Linayus 676]

5 minutes ago, ChltteTiger said:

Auburn may look bad initially if UF gets stomped but we have EVERY OPPORTUNITY IN THE WORLD to vaunt back into Top 6 by shocking LSU in BR in 3 weeks. Will we do that? probably not...

The silver lining here is that LSU's defense is definitely NOT the same as Florida's, which is still just weird to say. My only concern is that teams are going to use Florida's defensive strategy to stall us and Gus will be Gus and not find solutions. lol

[shabby 1,958]

so despite the video evidence Mullen has so little honor he is unable to admit a mistake. God I hope Auburn and Florida rematch on Atlanta

[Bottomfeeder 244]

46 minutes ago, Linayus said:

The silver lining here is that LSU's defense is definitely NOT the same as Florida's, which is still just weird to say. My only concern is that teams are going to use Florida's defensive strategy to stall us and Gus will be Gus and not find solutions. lol

^^^THIS^^^

I don't know if Gus has solutions with information coming from the press box. On the fly is a staple for me in my line of work.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

26 minutes ago, shabby said:

so despite the video evidence Mullen has so little honor he is unable to admit a mistake. God I hope Auburn and Florida rematch on Atlanta

That would be sweet.

[auburntiger1987 759]

I hate Mullen, I think hes a terrible coach and terrible person. My hope is that wherever he coaches, he is run off. He is a rat and liar. Nothing but the worst for Cousin Eddie

[thewhiz7 273]

He should have never made such a comment from a position of ignorance. He states he did not initially see the play. How about see what happened before making judgmental comments? He absolutely should apologize. His backtracking only made him look even more ignorant. Embarrassing.

[wde21 344]

I have not liked Mullen since the Cam stuff and this remark coupled with refusing to apologize to Marlon after the video showed he was wrong shows what a classless person he is! Would love a rematch in Atlanta!

[IronMan70 3,277]

Mullen asshoe (much as Hong Kong protestors refer to China).

[Mike4AU 1,739]

Mullen is scum.  Gus should have taken him apart.  The UF guy caused the hit. 

[CullmanTiger 52]

Stay classy Dan, stay classy. Hard to hide class, Davidson has more in the fingernail of his little finger than Dano has in his whole body. Also nice to see a coach who doesn't know the rules, can't challenge a targeting call Danny. Gus should have lit him up and demanded an apology. 

[Zeek 16,650]

4 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

“Here’s my deal, is intention or not, I mean we’ve got to try to do a good job of protecting guys out there on the field,” Mullen said. “I mean, that’s what the rules are in place for. I go down and watch it on film and see what happens. I’m certainly not saying they’re trying to do that. They’re not being coached to do that. I don’t think the guy’s intent is to do that. You know what I mean? But we have rules in place to protect players and we’ll look on film to see whether or not there was a targeting (against K.J. Britt), whether there was a low hit. Hit the quarterback low, I mean, what the explanation on those is.”

This is what a b**** does. He's too much of a dick to admit he was wrong so he starts spinning and twisting the original argument to some generic whiny crap.

If he wants to talk about looking at replay how about we get a committee together to investigate the **** ton of holdings the officials refused to call? Then, after the crowd got rowdy the same chicken **** refs start calling PI calls against us that weren't even there.

Let's look at the **** heads messing with Worm on his side of the field during warmups.

Screw Dan and Florida. The fans at that game were insufferable, their speakers are garbage, the stadium is "meh" and their "move back you suck" chant every time. there was a penalty/lost yards/stubbed toe was absolutely insufferable. Their whole crowd acts like a raunchy idiotic student section. 

We as fans and the players of this team deserved much better than this **** show.

[AU-24 3,072]

7 minutes ago, Zeek said:

This is what a b**** does. He's too much of a dick to admit he was wrong so he starts spinning and twisting the original argument to some generic whiny crap.

If he wants to talk about looking at replay how about we get a committee together to investigate the **** ton of holdings the officials refused to call? Then, after the crowd got rowdy the same chicken **** refs start calling PI calls against us that weren't even there.

Let's look at the **** heads messing with Worm on his side of the field during warmups.

Screw Dan and Florida. The fans at that game were insufferable, their speakers are garbage, the stadium is "meh" and their "move back you suck" chant every time. there was a penalty/lost yards/stubbed toe was absolutely insufferable. Their whole crowd acts like a raunchy idiotic student section. 

We as fans and the players of this team deserved much better than this **** show.

The stadium is down right ghetto!  My 4th time there and it just doesn't improve. 

[Zeek 16,650]

Just now, AU-24 said:

The stadium is down right ghetto! 

Yup. One jumbotron looked like when you hold a magnet to a screen and the other had a big block of pixels out.

[AU-24 3,072]

1 hour ago, Zeek said:

Yup. One jumbotron looked like when you hold a magnet to a screen and the other had a big block of pixels out.

Absolutely agree! And the entrance and exit exit tunnels are way too small for the capacity of the stadium. It’s like they added seats but did not add any more room for people traffic. Just looks very old and run down.

[keesler 5,924]

AUBURN had a perfect opportunity to shut up Dan Mullen, that raunchy student section, and that filthy fan base in their ghetto stadium.  

[SumterAubie 3,031]

First thing I noticed was the olineman pulling Davidson down with a fistful of jersey. 

[AURocketman 73]

1 hour ago, SumterAubie said:

First thing I noticed was the olineman pulling Davidson down with a fistful of jersey. 

Everybody but the referees saw the jersey pull down.