Familiarity eases Mullen’s transition

It’s a Friday night in late February and Dan Mullen finds himself at a hotel in Orlando.

In a few hours, Mullen will step into a cavernous ballroom and speak to a near-capacity crowd of high school football coaches, each eager to hear what the new Florida Gators coach has to say.

It’s been a whirlwind couple of months for the 45-year-old Mullen, who has had little to no rest after being hired away from Mississippi State in late November. The flurry of ensuing activities following his jump to UF includes immediately hitting the road to recruit ahead of the early signing period and National Signing Day. The grind still weighs on Mullen, who made the trek from Gainesville to Orlando to participate in the Nike Coach of the Year Clinic.

“It’s been nonstop,” said Mullen. “My wife and I are going to take a couple of days off during spring break.”

But even fatigue can’t dampen Mullen’s enthusiasm.

“I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be back. I love Florida,” he said.

Mullen previously spent three seasons with the Gators as the offensive coordinator under head coach Urban Meyer before spending nine seasons in charge of the Bulldogs. Mullen’s SEC and head coaching experience have helped him handle the challenges he faced immediately after returning to Gainesville.

“I think fortunately I’ve COMMENTARY been a head coach in the SEC for quite a while, so a lot of things that would be crazy shocking or ‘Holy Cow’ to deal with, I’ve dealt with it before and have experience dealing with those sort of things,” he said. “I think that helps within the transition.

“I remember doing this nine years ago as a firsttime head coach and you kind of freak out. You’re like, ‘What do I do? How do I handle this?’ Having done this before, you manage what you need to manage.”

Luckily for Mullen, he also has a familiar face in Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin. The pair worked closely in Starkville before Stricklin left last year to take the UF job.

“There’s not that feelingout stage, if that makes sense,” Mullen said of his interaction with Stricklin. “We were talking about something the other day and he said, ‘It sounds like a conversation we had six years ago,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds about right.’

“I think there’s a comfort level. We’re past all of that and into the working relationship and I think that helps.”

Mullen leaned on another friend when it came time for him to decide on whether to take the Florida job, this time speaking with Meyer, his former boss.

“I just called him and I just wanted to get his input and his thought on it,” Mullen said. “Even having been here, I still wasn’t the head coach. What would be his hesitations, if there are any? I want to know that. He didn’t need to sell me on all of the positives of the University of Florida. Just things that he thought were important.”

The rest, they say, is history.

And for Mullen, it’s as if nothing’s changed.

“The academic counselors were the same academic counselors. When you go down to the equipment room, there are familiar faces down there. You go into compliance and you’ve worked with the compliance people before. Even on recruiting weekends, at least I kind of know my way around campus a little bit,” Mullen said with a laugh.

Mullen is eager to build on all those connections that will be the key to his success.

He saw the Nike clinic that drew close to 1,000 coaches from around the state as one more opportunity to get back in touch with his Florida roots.

“It’s an opportunity for me to come down here and get around the coaches and see the coaches that you know. Just get to reconnect with everyone. To get out and see everybody and invite them to come see us,” he said.