Dan Mullen celebrates his first win over Florida State as a head coach, capping a 9-3 regular season for the Gators. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
The Right Call: Gators' Win Over FSU Caps Turnaround Season
Saturday, November 24, 2018 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In a corner booth inside the press box at Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday, Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, his family and other UF administrators watched as the Gators turned in a dominant performance.
The Gators ended five years of frustration in their heated rivalry with Florida State, beating the Seminoles 41-14 to put an exclamation point on the end of the regular season in head coach Dan Mullen's first season. And while there has never been a greater cherry on top for UF in this rivalry than its win over FSU for the 1996 national championship, Saturday's victory was served with a variety of toppings. Florida's victory was its first in the rivalry since 2012, snapped the Seminoles' historic streak of 41 consecutive winning seasons and ended the program's 36-year bowl streak.
Meanwhile, the Gators have a bowl game to play. Likely a New Year's Six bowl. Still, Saturday's victory was bigger than any bowl win right here, right now.
As Gators defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson tried to plant a team flag at midfield on FSU's logo afterward, the rivalry's intensity bubbled for a few moments as coaches and staff members separated the teams. Calmer heads prevailed, but the message was clear: Florida is back.
The Gators' return to relevancy following a dismal 4-7 season in 2017 started with a phone call on the Friday after Thanksgiving a year ago. On the previous night, Mullen finished his ninth regular season at Mississippi State with an Egg Bowl loss at home to Ole Miss.
The next day, Stricklin called his former colleague in Starkville to gauge his interest in perhaps returning to Gainesville as Florida's head coach. Mullen shared the news with his wife, Megan, and they both knew instantly.
Still, the call ended with the parties agreeing to talk more later. The next day, as he watched Florida's fifth consecutive loss to the Seminoles unfold at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Stricklin dialed Mullen again.
His message this time was direct.
"Let's make it happen,'' Stricklin recalled Saturday outside UF's victorious locker room.
The return of Mullen has been a win-win for the Gators. They finished the regular season 9-3, a five-game improvement from a year ago, which stands as the second-largest one-season improvement in the program's history behind the 1980 Gators who won eight games in Charley Pell's second season following an 0-10-1 record in '79.
A year into his tenure at Florida when he made the decision to offer Mullen the job last year, Stricklin is giddy at the program's turnaround a year into Mullen's tenure.
"Everybody is on the same page and pulling in the same direction,'' Stricklin said. "Dan got everybody in that position where we clicked. From where we were a year ago to where we are now, this is a pretty cool feeling."
The Gators put it all display Saturday. They rolled up 536 yards on offense, the third consecutive 500-yard game, which they hadn't done since Mullen was offensive coordinator a decade ago. They limited FSU to less than 300 yards, sacked quarterback Deondre Francois five times and intercepted him twice. UF quarterback Feleipe Franks, in arguably the most poised game of his career, completed 16 of 26 for 254 yards and three scores. Lamical Perine rushed for a career-high 129 yards, Jordan Scarlett added 88 and a fourth-quarter touchdown, and UF's 20 seniors finally tasted victory against their in-state rivals.
On an overcast day, the sun was shining on the visitors.
"It was a great performance offensively and defensively,'' junior linebacker David Reese said. "We just came to play."
Florida's transformation over the past year culminated with a 27-point win, the third-largest margin of victory in the program's history on Tallahassee soil.
Running back Jordan Scarlett scores in the fourth quarter in Florida's dominant performance Saturday. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Scarlett epitomizes the turnaround under Mullen. A talented runner primed for a 1,000-yard season a year ago, Scarlett, along with eight others, were suspended for the season for their involvement in a credit-card fraud case.
Scarlett had to earn his way back into the program under Mullen. The team had to buy what Mullen and his veteran coaching staff was selling.
"We just had to literally come together as a team,'' Scarlett said. "This is almost the same team as last year, missing a couple dudes, new coaching staff. These guys came in here and instilled a great thing in us. They taught us how to play football well, and you know, just be a first-class team and that's what we did."
In contrast to Scarlett, receiver Van Jefferson had no history with the program until he enrolled as a mid-year transfer from Ole Miss in search of a new opportunity due to the Rebels' NCAA sanctions.
Jefferson and fellow transfer receiver Trevon Grimes played starring roles Saturday, with Jefferson hauling in four catches for 92 yards and a touchdown. Grimes caught five passes for 118 yards and a touchdown. Following a strip-sack by defensive end Jachai Polite and fumble recovery by Cece Jefferson, the Gators struck immediately on a 22-yard scoring pass from Franks to Grimes that put the Gators ahead 27-7 late in the third quarter.
That's when Jefferson sensed this was going to be the Gators' day.
"I think it was over with then,'' he said. "They knew that we had them and they were over there panicking. They weren't hyped no more on the sideline, waving the towels. I knew we had them."
The one-year anniversary of Mullen's introduction as Florida's head coach is Tuesday. He showed up in a dark suit, light dress shirt, his hair perfectly combed and his family in tow. Early Saturday evening, Mullen's hair was a mess, drenched from a bucket of Gatorade. His son took a seat next to him at the postgame press conference in a small, sweaty interview room in the bowels of Doak Campbell Stadium.
Stricklin stood in the back at the door, the last person able to squeeze in. Much has changed over the last year, but like the day Mullen arrived, both he and Stricklin beamed at a job well done.
"It's a great rivalry game,'' Mullen said. "I mean, I've been a part of it before. I've been in the box experiencing it for the most part. To be down here on the sidelines and get a win, to finish off getting a win over your rival in Year 1, is huge."
It was Stricklin watching from the booth this time and Mullen making the calls.
