Gators’ edge over FSU starts with the coaches

The Florida Gators have found their Dan the Man whereas the Florida State Seminoles appear to have a bad case of the Willies.

With one full regular season in the books, the verdict is in — at least for now. In Dan Mullen, the Gators clearly found a better head coach than FSU did when it hired Willie Taggart.

The indisputable evidence came Saturday when the Gators destroyed Florida State 41-14 to end a five-game losing streak to the Seminoles, extend their record to 9-3 and all but clinch a spot in a major New Year’s Six bowl game while ending FSU’s own 36-year bowl streak.

Granted, this is only one season and you can’t make a determination on coaching successes and failures after a single season. Just because you have a bad first year doesn’t mean you’re a bad coach (see Bobby Bowden, who went 5-6 in his first year at Florida State). And just because you had a good first year doesn’t mean you’re a great coach (see Larry Coker, who went 12-0 in his first year at Miami).

Still, you cannot deny the eye test this season, which has shown us Mullen’s team has played much better than the sum of its parts while Taggart’s has played much worse.

And it’s not like Mullen took over a team with more talent and better players. In fact, judg-

ing by recruiting classes over the last four years, Mullen inherited a team with significantly less talent. Taggart took over for Jimbo Fisher, who bolted for Texas A&M after last year’s sub-par 7-6 campaign whereas Mullen took over after Jim McElwain was fired amid an abysmal 4-7 season.

Mullen has improved the Gators in nearly every phase of the game while Taggart’s Seminoles have digressed in nearly every phase. The most glaring example is on offense — the side of the ball in which both coaches specialize. Mullen has taken a perpetually anemic Florida offense that was ranked 109th in the country last year and had it ranked a respectable 56th coming into Saturday’s game. FSU’s offense was ranked 100th last year and is 100th this year as well.

Mullen’s Gators have looked disciplined and fundamentally sound; Taggart’s Seminoles have looked erratic and might be the most bone-headed team in college football.

It’s no wonder FSU is dead last in the nation — 129th out of 129 teams — in penalties per game. On Saturday, the Seminoles had two penalties on their first two offensive plays. There was another series late in the first quarter when the Seminoles went from third-and-1 to third-and-11 thanks to two consecutive false start penalties.

Even worse, the Seminoles cost themselves 14 points Saturday because of penalties. They had a 70-yard touchdown pass called back because of an illegal shift. And at the outset of the second half, they had Florida stopped on 3rd-and-7 in the red zone, but Stanford Samuels was called for unsportsmanlike conduct when he threw a punch at Florida running back Jordan Scarlett. The Gators scored two plays later.

“We knew they were the most undisciplined team in America, so we took advantage of it,” UF defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson said.

At one point in the first half, after FSU had to call a timeout for only having 10 men on the field during a punt, Gardner-Johnson just shook his head as he began ridiculing the Seminoles’ sideline.

Explained GardnerJohnson: “I was just teasing them and telling them, ‘How do you all expect to compete when you’re coming in unprepared? You can’t be prepared with 10 men; you have to be prepared with all 11.’ ”

Sadly, not even FSU’s players and coaches disagree with Gardner-Johnson’s assessment. It’s hard to argue when six of the Seminoles’ seven losses have come by at least 19 points and Florida State (5-7) finished with a losing record for the first time in 42 years.

“Disappointing game. Disappointing season,” Taggart said. “This is unacceptable here at Florida State. … You look at some of the games we lost and why we lost and it’s because we weren’t disciplined.”

Added tearful FSU quarterback Deondre Francois: “Mistakes; we’re just making mistakes. We have a big play and it gets called back on a stupid penalty. It just means we’re undisciplined.”

Meanwhile, Mullen has the Gators playing smart, sound football and has turned much-maligned Feleipe Franks into an improving and serviceable SEC quarterback. The Gators outgained FSU 536-293 on Saturday, with Franks completing 16 of 26 passes for 254 yards and three touchdowns.

Franks, booed unmercifully earlier this season, was cheered raucously Saturday as he left the field with UF fans serenading him with chants of, “It’s great to be a Florida Gator!” Mullen stood side-by-side with his quarterback and led the cheers, waving his visor like an orchestra conductor waving his baton.

“We’re heading in the right direction,” Mullen said. “We want to build a program that competes for SEC and national championships every year. This 9-3 season is solid and gives us a lot to build on.”

Said ecstatic UF athletics director Scott Stricklin, who hired Mullen 363 days ago:

“From where we were a year ago to where we are now, this is pretty fulfilling. It would be hard to anticipate this first year going as well as it has. I couldn’t be happier.”

With one regular season in the books, it’s clear Dan the Man has a plan.

The Seminoles, meanwhile, are in a troubling state of Willie-nilly.

Email me at mbianchi @orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on FM 96.9 and AM 740.