Jaguars head coach Mike Mularkey returns to UF in search of players for upcoming draft
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 | Football, Scott Carter
Former Gators tight end Mike Mularkey was back in familiar surroundings on Tuesday for UF's Pro Day.
Mularkey is better known these days around the Sunshine State as the new coach of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars. He was in town scouting players such as Jaye Howard, Chris Rainey and William Green as potential draft picks.
His son Patrick, a scouting assistant with the Jaguars, was with him and got a history lesson from his old man. Mularkey said as the two walked into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, he showed his son where Charley Pell broke the news to him in 1980 that he was no longer a quarterback.
“I had one day as a quarterback. I must have thrown the worst practice in the history of college football to make it one day and get moved to tight end the next practice,'' said Mularkey, who developed into a stellar tight end and later played nine seasons in the NFL. “I told my son walking over here, 'Here is about the spot where we were when he broke the news to me.' It was a little bit of a shock.”
Mularkey is a head coach for the second time. He served a two-year stint as head coach in Buffalo for the 2004-05 seasons. He is only the third coach in franchise history for Jacksonville and approached Tuesday's Pro Day hoping to find a player that might be able to help the Jaguars.
“It's like the combine,'' he said. “I come out here and try to evaluate these guys. We have some scouts here and they are doing all the numbers. I like to watch them when they are not working out and see how they prep or who they hang with – all the little things you don't have on tape or on paper that can say a lot about a player.”
As for the team he inherited, Mularkey is optimistic the Jaguars can turn it around with many of the players they already have.
“It's a great locker room,'' he said. “There is a great bunch of players in that locker room that will always give you a chance.”
He caught up with Gators coach Will Muschamp before the workouts began. He got to know Muschamp when he joined Nick Saban's staff with the Dolphins as offensive coordinator in 2006. Muschamp had just completed his only season on the Dolphins' staff as a defensive assistant and they crossed paths before Muschamp returned to college football as Auburn's defensive coordinator.
Mularkey said he is impressed by Muschamp's “body of work” and views the program in good hands. In recent years Mularkey's name has surfaced as a potential candidate to join Florida's staff as an offensive coordinator – including this past winter when Charlie Weis left – but he has spent his entire coaching career in the NFL other than his first year of coaching at Concordia College.
As he watched players work out on the same field he once played on, Mularkey recalled some good times at UF such as catching two touchdowns against FSU one season and the victory over USC in 1982 that Muschamp referenced attending as a fan when he was first hired.
“It's nice to come back and revisit the school and be on the field I was on 30 years ago and see how things have changed – not just the stadium, but the athletes that are here working out,'' Mularkey said. “A lot has changed over the years.”
The biggest change was the natural grass. When Mularkey played Florida Field was artificial turf.
“The heat would be rising 20 rows up,'' he said. “You would go over there and cool your shoes off with water.”
Prior to taking over the Jaguars, Mularkey spent four seasons as offensive coordinator in Atlanta. He witnessed a rebirth of the franchise with the arrival of quarterback Matt Ryan.
He is working to make sure the Jaguars pick up some valuable players to build their future around in next month's draft.
“Every draft class is critical for a head coach,'' Mularkey said. “I don't know if the first or second makes a difference. You want to hit a home run every time, especially that first pick. I'm looking forward to it.”
(Photo: Jacksonville Jaguars coach Mike Mularkey, left, talks to Gators coach Will Muschamp on Tuesday at Pro Day).
