UF ties close deal on coach SEC Country

In the end, Stricklin turns to choice familiar to program.

It’s not that Dan Mul

GAINESVILLE — len necessarily expected or fixated on the possibility that he’d one day return to Florida, but when the opportunity came he sure didn’t need much time to consider his decision.

Mullen, who won two national championships in his four seasons as the Gators’ offensive coordinator under

Urban Meyer, said Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin called him Friday to gauge his interest, called back Saturday to say he wanted to make it

happen and by the end of that night both sides were sold.

“I wanted to make sure I woke up Sunday morning and I was even more excited than I was Saturday night, and I was,” Mullen said Monday during his introductory news conference. “I couldn’t wait to get going, and fortunately I woke up and there was already a missed call from Scott Stricklin and he was still really excited about me

coming. We made it work.”

Chip Kelly and Scott Frost generated more buzz during the month-long coaching search, but Mullen and Florida always made a lot of sense on a number of levels — be it Mullen’s past success at Florida, Mullen’s eight years working with Stricklin at Mississippi State, or simply his established strengths in the areas of the Gators’ most glaring weaknesses.

And listening to Mullen on Monday, well, the pairing made even more sense.

Mullen, 45, will have to win games on the field to satisfy Florida’s zealous and demanding fan base, but he certainly won the introductory press conference.

From his Gator Chomping arrival at the airport earlier in the morning to his statements later in the day, he made a strong first impression in his second go-round in Gainesville.

“There’s a lot of timing in life in what goes on in your life,” he said. “I know Megan and I have worked really hard over the last nine years at a football program at building it up and we certainly were ready and excited for a new challenge. That’s something we discussed and that we talked about — that we were in a good situation but we were ready and excited for a new challenge.

“And when the opportunity comes, to come to the University of Florida, I don’t know if there’s anywhere I’d rather be than here. I don’t know if there’s a better job in America than here.”

After nine years as the head coach at Mississippi State, where he went 69-46, Mullen found an offer he couldn’t refuse, signing a six-year contract with Florida worth $6 million a year — a $1.5 million annual raise from his previous contract.

Stricklin said the deal contains a flat $12 million buyout that will decrease when the money owed to Mullen drops below that threshold. Meanwhile, Mullen would owe Florida $2 million if he chose to break the contract. The Gators also paid $500,000 to Mississippi State to satisfy Mullen’s buyout there.

As for the money owed to former coach Jim McElwain, who was ousted midway through his third season on Oct. 29, Stricklin said the separation agreement has not been signed yet therefore he could not provide financial details.

Regardless, the Gators are moving forward and Stricklin is doing it with a familiar and trusted coach. Stricklin was part of the process to bring Mullen to Mississippi State after the 2008 season while serving as an associate AD at the time, and he said there was a “personal price” for him to hire Mullen away from his alma mater and former employer.

“The only way I was going to hire Dan is if I thought he was unquestionably the best person,” Stricklin said. “When I got to that point where I realized Dan is the guy, he’s the right guy, I kind cinched my belt and said, ‘We’ve got to do this, we don’t a choice.’”

Stricklin would not get into details about how far discussions went with Kelly, who ultimately took the job at UCLA, or Frost, who is in the midst of an undefeated season at Central Florida.

Mullen, in a news conference that lasted more than 50 minutes, addressed head-on the expectations that come with coaching a program that has won three national championships since 1996 but fell to 4-7 this season.

“I can promise you that I will give relentless effort in everything I do to make sure that we return the football program to a national championship level,” he said.