Mullen Magic, Fantastic Finish Make Gators Fun Again

The Gators celebrate on the field in Atlanta after winning the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Saturday. (Photo: Jason Parkhurst/UAA Communications)

Mullen Magic, Fantastic Finish Make Gators Fun Again

Monday, December 31, 2018 | Football, Scott Carter

By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In the midst of the cheerful chaos, regardless of where you turned on the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium late Saturday afternoon, scenes of victory flashed about.

The Gators had their reasons. So many.

"We did it Canon!'' fifth-year senior R.J. Raymond said to Canon Mullen, the head coach's son, as they untangled from a victory celebration.

Father Mullen beamed from the victory stage in the aftermath of Florida's 41-15 thumping of Michigan on Saturday in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. In a matchup between two top-10 teams, the Gators wrote an epilogue to their 2018 season worthy of framing.

"We got the results we wanted," Mullen said. "I'm so proud of this team and this group of guys."

Tears flowed. Teammates embraced. Selfies taken. Oh my! So many selfies. Before exiting the field, Mullen charged up a row of stairs into the Florida stands for one final double-arm thrust into the air. Citizens of Gator Nation roared their approval.

In the locker room afterward, Mullen thanked the players for buying in, for making his first season such a special one. Thirteen years after his old UF boss delivered the Gators a dose of Urban Renewal, Mullen Magic did the trick following a tumultuous 4-7 season. With a 10-3 season and top-10 finish in the national rankings secure in Mullen's first season, the Gators paid their respect to the job Mullen and his veteran staff did in not only improving the product on the field, but changing the culture of the program.

Senior tight end C'yontai Lewis interrupted Mullen's postgame address to share how he felt about Florida's transformation over the past 13 months.

"It's crazy,'' Lewis told the room. "Around last December I was thinking about quitting football. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here today."

A six-win turnaround from one year to the next is no easy task. Mullen became only the third coach in history to win 10 games in a debut season at a current Power 5 program after inheriting a team that won less than five games the previous season. The others are Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, who took the Tigers from 3-9 to 12-2 five years ago, and Stanford's Clark Shaughnessy in 1940 (from 1-7-1 to 10-0).

Mullen displayed his winning touch to the very end, including a key assist from quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson on a fourth-and-1 play in the third quarter. But more than Saturday's emotional win, more than the improvement of quarterback Feleipe Franks or Mullen's knack for calling plays or the six 40-point games on offense, his biggest impact was the energy and excitement he added to an organization that churns the daily grind.

They call it "juice" and Mullen seemed to be always plugged in despite a cough that lingered late in the season.

When the Gators have growled their loudest over the years, it's usually been fun, fun, fun. They score points. They toss barbs at opponents. They have marquee stars. Did I mention they score a lot of points? Two losing seasons and a pedestrian 34-28 record over the five previous seasons had zapped the memory of those days.

And this season didn't exactly roll out the red carpet to Atlanta. After the Gators lost Mullen's second game – a home loss to Kentucky that snapped a 31-game win streak over the Wildcats – a sense of glum hovered over Ben Hill Griffin Stadium the following week during a 48-10 win over Colorado State. Never has a 38-point home win seemed to be less fun for the home fans.

That was a message Mullen tried to instill from the start in this team. He wanted them to enjoy and celebrate wins like they should. He noticed a ho-hum attitude after the season-opening 53-6 victory over Charleston Southern. Instead of joy, Mullen sensed relief at not losing.

That's not the way he operates. Slowly, you sensed a change. The Gators won at Tennessee. They upset Mullen's previous team, Mississippi State, on the road. They came home to a deafening Swamp to defeat LSU and then stormed back from an early deficit at Vanderbilt. Suddenly, they were 6-1.
That's when trouble arrived with back-to-back losses. First to Georgia, knocking the Gators from the SEC East race, and next a homecoming loss to Missouri, which prompted home fans to boo Franks.

It was Raymond, another senior who hung around following Mullen's arrival, who stepped up with a message in the locker room following the Missouri loss that threatened to derail the season. Raymond reminded his teammates, young and old, of how he dreamed of being a Gator his entire life and what it means to represent them on the field.

Whether it was Raymond's passionate plea, Mullen's constant "Gator Standard" messaging or a team ready to fight, something clicked. The Gators reeled off four consecutive wins to close the season, coming back to defeat South Carolina at home, blowing out Idaho, defeating Florida State for the first time since 2012, and finally, beating the Wolverines for the first time.

"We were tired of losing to good teams,'' linebacker Vosean Joseph said. "All I have to say is the Gators are back."

The four-game stretch to close the season was as good as we've seen from the Gators this decade. The Gators averaged 522.8 yards and 45 points per game over that span. The pro-Gators crowd in Atlanta on Saturday knew it and hung around long after the game to bask in the celebration. They can't wait to next year.

Neither can Mullen after his team peaked at the right time.

"I don't know a lot of teams that would be lining up to play us right now,'' he said.

Ready or not, Miami has to on Aug. 31 in Orlando at Camping World Stadium. It's eight months away, but a Gators-Hurricanes season opener is like old times.

Fun, fun, fun.