Florida has potential for championships in Mullen’s 3rd year
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida coach Dan Mullen declined to release a roster, openly mocked a predicted depth chart he saw online and refused to delve too deep into his plans for any position — even quarterback.
Mullen insisted he’s merely trying to keep his players focused with so much going on around them: football practices, classes beginning, COVID-19 testing amid a global pandemic and social injustice. It might be the sensible approach. It also could be Mullen taking over-the-top precaution as the eighth-ranked Gators get ready to begin a championship-or-bust season.
“We have the potential to go compete for a championship and be a championship team,” said Mullen, who is 21-5 in two seasons in Gainesville. “We have that potential. Obviously, there’s a lot of things that go into that. But I think we have that potential, which is really good and it’s really exciting.
“A lot of things have to happen for it to play out that way, for it to end up being a championship team. In the end. there’s still a lot of other things that have to happen before that will happen. But we certainly have the potential to be.”
Florida returns both coordinators (Mullen and Todd Grantham), the Southeastern Conference’s leading returning passer (Kyle Trask), ALL-SEC tight end Kyle Pitts, bigplay receivers Trevon Grimes and Kadarius Toney, four offensive line starters and impact players on every level of defense.
The Gators have so much carryover and continuity that they might be in the better shape than most to handle the coronavirus pandemic — and take another step in Mullen’s third year in Gainesville.
Florida won 10 games in Mul
len’s first season and 11 in Year 2. A logical next step would be winning the SEC East — which likely would mean beating Georgia for the first time since 2016 — and
having a legitimate shot in November for the College Football Playoff, whatever that looks like without two major conferences playing football this fall.