Mullen admits ‘it would be huge’ to beat Nick Saban in 10th try
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dan Mullen’s impressive head coaching resume has a few glaring holes.
He’s beaten national title-winning coaches Urban Meyer, Steve Spurrier, Les Miles, Gene Chizik and Ed Orgeron. He upset Florida while he was at Mississippi State and won at Mississippi State in his first year with the Gators. He has topped Mark Stoops in a shootout and Gus Malzahn in a defensive battle.
Mullen’s done everything short of winning a championship during his dozen years in the league. Well, that and knock off Alabama under coach Nick Saban.
Mullen is 0-9 as a head coach against the Crimson Tide, losing every year during his near decade in Starkville. He gets another shot — his first with the 11th-ranked Gators (8-2) — in the Southeastern Conference title game tonight in Atlanta.
“It would be huge,” Mullen said. “At Mississippi State we had a couple times we were right there, had opportunities to win in close games with them, weren’t able to pull it out at the time.”
Indeed, Mullen and the Bulldogs nearly upset Alabama in 2014 and again three years later. Top-ranked Mississippi State, which was a nine-point underdog at No. 4 Alabama in 2014, rallied from a 12-point deficit to make it 25-20 before failing to recover an onside kick in the waning seconds.
The Crimson Tide was the one that needed a comeback in 2017. No. 2 Bama scored the final 14 points on the road, including a 26-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith with 25 seconds remaining, and edged the 16th-ranked Bulldogs, 31-24.
Two weeks later, Mullen left Starkville to take over in Gainesville. Now, he’s facing the SEC’s biggest bully again and still trying to close the gap on No. 1 Alabama (10-0) — on the recruiting trail and in the win column.
“He has done a great job of establishing the program, been there a long time,” said Mullen, who did beat Saban twice as Florida’s offensive coordinator (2006, ‘08). “When you look at what he has been able to build, the program he has been able to establish through the years, the stability of it, the combination of a very well coached team on the field and they do an unbelievable job of getting great players in as well.”
It’s not like Mullen is alone in his pursuit of Saban. Alabama has won 27 in a row against teams from the SEC’s Eastern Division, every game since a 2010 loss to Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks in 2010.
Coincidentally, Spurrier has an office one floor up from Mullen inside Florida’s football facility. And the Head Ball Coach often offers plays as well as praise. He delivered two mini bottles of wine to Mullen this season, one for beating rival Georgia in early November and another for clinching the East two weeks ago at Tennessee.