Mullen aims to improve after public relations miscues
Few can match UF coach Dan Mullen’s Xs and Os ability, but when it comes to public relations, the 48-year-old admits he has a thing or two to learn.
The 2020 season ended on a sour note for the Gators, who were in the thick of the College Football Playoff race until three losses to end the season.
Before his team’s late-season stumbles on the field, Mullen made some missteps off it that were criticized.
“There are probably some times I said things that, you know, may be regrettable, maybe didn’t come off the right way, maybe got interpreted a different way and probably in the time and the light maybe, got legs of its own,” Mullen said Tuesday, two days prior to the start of Gators’ spring practices.
Mullen’s calls to pack the Swamp following an Oct. 10 loss at Texas A&M were viewed as tone-deaf and dangerous amid the COVID19 pandemic. Three days later, the Gators shut down the program for two weeks due to a virus outbreak infecting players and coaches, including Mullen himself.
Upon the team’s Oct. 31 return at home against Missouri, Mullen was at the center of a benches-clearing shoving match following a late hit on quarterback Kyle Trask. Mullen then showed up for his postgame news conference dressed as Darth Vader, one of Hollywood’s great villains.
Mullen’s players appreciated their coach standing up for Trask and his Halloween costume choice. To those outside the program, Mullen’s bizarre antics were becoming an uncomfortable pattern.
The optics didn’t help when the NCAA hit Mullen’s program with the school’s first probation in 30 years due to impermissible in-person contact with players. Three days after a narrow Dec. 19 loss to Alabama in the SEC title game, the NCAA announced Mullen received a one-year show-cause penalty and a variety of other restrictions for his program.
A somber, seemingly disengaged Mullen then downplayed the Gators’ 55-20 Dec. 30 Cotton Bowl loss to Oklahoma. He declared the “last game for the 2020 team was 11 days ago” and said the Gators’
“scout team players” performed well against the Sooners.
Mullen said he evaluated his performance during the 2020 season and vowed to work on his messaging.
“You’re always trying to improve, always trying to get better and look at that,” he said. “I think one of the things to do is as you look back, reflect and say, ‘Hey, at that moment is that the right way to approach something?’ ”
Mullen might seek some advice or soften his edges a bit, but does not plan to change who he is at his core.
“I don’t know. I’m still trying to be pretty friendly with everybody and all of you guys,” he told reporters during a videoconference. “I’m still pretty open, I haven’t gone to the one-word answers yet to kinda change that aspect of it and maybe not put my foot in my mouth or anything like that. But we’ll see. I’m gonna try to keep a positive message, I guess, and keep us on path for where we need to be as a team.”