ESPN SEC Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

Back when Florida was supposedly sputtering offensively and scoring 24 and 30 points instead of 50 this season, offensive coordinator Dan Mullen drew the ire of the fans like all coordinators do when fans think something is amiss on one side of the ball.

Florida coach Urban Meyer, though, said there was never any heat on Mullen. If anything, Meyer blames himself for holding the Gators back the first month of the season.

"Certainly, there was never any time when there was any heat on [Mullen]," Meyer said. "We weren't producing very well, and I thought at times we could have done things better. But I'm right there in the middle of that with him. This offense isn't, 'Hey Dan, call the game and don't worry about it.' There's a lot of communication from myself, and [offensive line coach] Steve Addazio is very involved. We've very collective in everything we do. There was never any heat on Dan. We just had to get a little better, and we did."

What happened, according to Meyer, is that he became a little less stubborn.

That and an offensive line that is playing better than at any other time since Meyer arrived at Florida in 2005.

"Our running backs emerged," Meyer said. "That's probably my fault. I always believed in playing players a little later. If you put an athlete out there that's not ready and they lose their confidence, that usually sets them back a year. A Jeff Demps or a Chris Rainey or Moody, those kids I just didn't feel they had that look in their eye and we were kind of hanging around and hanging around and said, 'Let them go eat,' and they did."

Meyer also said the consistency of the Gators' offensive line is "like it's never been here since our staff has been at Florida."

The Gators have averaged 48.6 points during their five-game winning streak. They've punted only 28 times all season, tied for sixth lowest nationally.