Gators get it right with Mullen hire
On this Thanksgiving weekend, the Florida Gators should feel blessed they got spurned by Chip Kelly and ended up with Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen as their new head coach.
Often times — as UF athletics director Scott Stricklin will find out in the years to come — the best hires are the ones you don’t make. Or, as that noted college football analyst Garth Brooks, once observed, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”
The national perception may be that Stricklin struck out with Kelly, but I believe a more accurate depiction is that he hit a grand slam with Mullen.
The only question is, why did UF go after Kelly in the first place? Why wasn’t Mullen their first choice? Why wouldn’t they initially go after a coach who has SEC roots,
Florida bloodlines and was an instrumental cog in arguably the most successful era in Gator history?
Although Stricklin and the Gators obviously wanted to make a splashy hire with Kelly, thankfully they ended up making the right hire with Mullen.
In Mullen, Stricklin has hired a coach who actually wants the UF job and knows the UF job instead of a coach [Kelly] who obviously was stringing along the Gators until something better became available.
“I have such great memories of the championships we won during our time here and have a love for Florida,” Mullen said upon his hiring. “… We will give relentless effort in everything that we do on and off the field. Our commitment will match the passion that the Gator Nation has for this program.”
As I’ve been saying and writing all along, Kelly was never a good fit at UF and — in the end — even he realized it. Why do you think he accepted a job at UCLA — a place where there’s little pressure; where football is an afterthought; where he can win eight or nine games a year and everybody’s happy? If Kelly wasn’t completely sold on being the next coach of the Gators then why would you want him in the first place?
If the Gators couldn’t lure Scott Frost away from UCF, which apparently they couldn’t, then Mullen was my second choice — ahead of USF’s Charlie Strong, Oregon’s Willie Taggart; Memphis’ Mike Norvell and Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente. And, without question, ahead of Kelly.
Mullen, who once worked for Stricklin at Mississippi State, is an infinitely better fit at UF and checks so many more boxes than Kelly ever could have.
Why is Mullen a better hire than Kelly?
Well, let me count the ways:
1. Unlike Kelly, Mullen is somebody who truly covets and treasures the UF job. Kelly obviously didn’t want to be under the UF microscope or else why would he choose a lesser job in a weaker conference?
2. Unlike Kelly, Mullen knows the demands at UF and understands what it takes to win in the ultracompetitive SEC. He was, after all, at Florida for five years as offensive coordinator and is one of the main reasons Urban Meyer won two national titles in Gainesville.
3. Unlike Kelly, Mullen — if he wins at an acceptable rate — will be in Gainesville for a long, long time. Here’s all you need to know about Mullen’s loyalty quotient: Even though he had numerous opportunities to take other jobs, he spent nine years living in the appropriately named Starkville and coaching at Mississippi State. Give that man a medal for dedication and devotion.
4. Unlike Kelly, Mullen helped turn Tim Tebow into a Heisman Trophy winner and a cultural icon. Need we say more?
5. Unlike Kelly, Mullen has not been fired from his last two jobs. Do you really want to roll the dice on a coach who may have lost his mojo?
6. Unlike Kelly, Mullen is charismatic and outgoing and has the people skills to schmooze the boosters who stroke the $10 million checks to pay for the facilities UF so desperately needs to upgrade. In contrast, Kelly has the personality of a tilapia filet in the Publix seafood case.
7. Unlike Kelly, Mullen has never been nailed by the NCAA for a $25,000 payment made to a Houstonarea football scouting service whose operator funneled players to Oregon (when Kelly coached the Ducks).
8. Unlike Kelly, Mullen seems to actually enjoy the recruiting process and hasn’t let it be known that he prefers the NFL, where he can concentrate on watching tape and game preparation. Mullen is well aware that in the state of Florida and in the SEC, you better embrace the recruiting process or you will get devoured by recruiting dynamos such as Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher (if he stays at FSU), Mark Richt, Scott Frost and Charlie Strong.
Full disclosure, I thought Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain would succeed at UF, too, but how did that work out?
That said, the two greatest coaches in Florida history — Steve Spurrier (Duke) and Meyer (Utah) — proved themselves at nontraditional programs before taking the Florida job.
So, too, has UF’s new coach.
If Dan Mullen can put lowly Mississippi State on the map, then he ought to be able to put the Florida Gators back on top of the college football world.