New Coach, Same League, A Track Record to Lean On

Gators coach Dan Mullen addresses the media gathered inside the College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday at SEC Football Media Days. (Photo: Courtney Mims/UAA Communications)

New Coach, Same League, A Track Record to Lean On

Tuesday, July 17, 2018 | Football, Chris Harry

Tuesday marked Dan Mullen's 10th trip to SEC Media Days, but his first as Gators head coach.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

One of the questions put to Dan Mullen during his 30 minutes at the ballroom podium Tuesday, as Florida took its turn at Southeastern Conference Media Days, had to do with the 2017 season. Specifically, that the Gators went a disappointing 4-7 and how surprising that might have been — even from his vantage point in Starkville, Miss. — given those two national championships Mullen had a hand in as Urban Meyer's offensive coordinator a decade before?

Mullen considered the question but didn't just focus on last year when giving his answer.

He went with a larger sample size to hammer home a point.

"I look at the last four years. That, to me, is what really sticks out with the program," Mullen said. "In the last four years, Florida's had two four-win seasons and played in two SEC Championship games. That inconsistency shows me that individual teams at [Florida] right now are playing at a high level, but the program itself is not performing consistently at the level it needs to be."

The overall point was a good one, but Mullen's math was a little off.

UF actually had a pair of four-win seasons over the last five years (in 2017 and 2013). And if the time frame bracket was fanned out a little more, Mullen could have rolled an 11-win season (2012) into the equation.

"So there has to be talent here, OK? But the fact that you have a fall-off season is that there's a lack of consistency in what's going on within our performance, and that speaks to the program as a whole," he said. "Whether it's confidence, whether it's training, whether it's our actions, whether it's our discipline — it's really all of the above — but those things lead to success in a program as a whole."

And then then he put it out there, as he has since climbing off that private jet and doing his Gator chomp nearly eight months ago.

"I want us to have a great team this year. I want us to have a great season. I want us to go compete for a championship with this year's team," Mullen said. "But I also want to build a program that's going to do that every single year on a consistent basis. And that consistency really defines the program."

And that's why Mullen was at the Atlanta Omni repping the Gators in the first place.

Couldn't make the trip to Atlanta for #SECMD18?? Don't worry, we have you covered. Click the link below to watch Coach Mullen live.

📺: https://t.co/8EOGeVx0Dw #SECMD18 #GoGators pic.twitter.com/QrYXjPVuB1
— Gators Football (@GatorsFB) July 17, 2018

UF athletic director Scott Stricklin, also by way of Mississippi State, saw up close the consistency with which Mullen guided the Buildings over the last nine seasons while playing in the SEC West, college football's toughest division. Mullen's blueprint, familiarity with the league and — this is important — his Florida ties, made for a tidy fit and solid choice when he was hired last Nov. 26 to replace Jim McElwain, who was dismissed seven games into the '17 season after a 3-4 start and 42-7 loss to Georgia.

So there was Mullen, who went 69-46 at MSU and guided the Bulldogs to the program's first No. 1 ranking in 2014, back in front of the conference gaggle for the 10th straight year. Only this time, he did so as Florida's fifth head coach over the last nine seasons (counting Randy Shannon's four-game interim stint last November), and making no bones about the sky-high expectations he helped ferry after the bar was set by Steve Spurrier in the 1990s and furthered alongside Meyer and Tim Tebow.

His podium outfit included a "swagged-out" (his words) pair of sneakers and matching Jumpman lapel pin, as the Gators were set to celebrate a new Jordan Brand apparel deal with a reception at the Georgia World Congress Center later Tuesday night to cap the team's turn at the first media days ever in Atlanta. As Mullen pointed out, there was a lot new about his latest stop at the league's marquee preseason event.

New location, new city, new school.

In time came the questions about the new offense.

And there's another reason why Mullen is back in Gainesville. The Gators have been, frankly, dreadful on on the offensive side of the ball since Tebow took his final snap after the 2009 season. The drought began in Meyer's final season (the second following Mullen's departure), continued for four seasons under Will Muschamp, and truly bottomed out — UF's offense in 2017 finished last in the SEC and 112th out of 130 Division I teams — in McElwain's final season.

Squad.#SECMD18 https://t.co/ac0ih2m6IJ
— Gators Football (@GatorsFB) July 17, 2018

The 2018 Gators return 18 starters, but whether that's a positive from 4-7 remains to be seen. The program, though, oozed positive vibes from a recommitment to the offseason conditioning program under new strength coordinator Nick Savage (also from Mississippi State), which helped set a tone.

"That's been the biggest difference," junior linebacker David Reese said.

The quarterback situation, with third-year sophomore Feleipe Franks the incumbent with eight starts under his belt, will be the focal point of preseason camp, which opens Aug. 3. Whether it's Franks or Kyle Trask or true freshman Emory Jones, UF's quarterback will need better play from an offensive line that struggled mightily last season, and had its difficulties handling the Florida defense in the spring, as well.

Offensive tackle Martez Ivey has vowed his senior season will not be like the last one. There's absolutely no reason his unit — armed with seniors Fred Johnson and Tyler Jordan, juniors Jawaan Taylor and T.J. McCoy, sophomore Brett Heggie and 80 career starts among them — shouldn't make a huge leap this season.

"We could tell that people were stronger than us [last season], and I don't want to say that it was intimidating, but it just made me ask why," Ivey said. "So getting a new staff has helped, and we knew that it would be changed around. I have a feeling that we will be more physical up front, and we will be able to take control of the game and have more strength, speed and power."

Those are necessary elements, obviously. So is having good players. Mullen, as stated, believes there is talent in this program. It's his job to direct, develop and put that talent in the best position to succeed. The players believe in their coach.

This from Ivey: "Even my friends who know nothing about football knew what we were going to run. They were right about 95 percent of the time."

So, it begins. Mullen, as a Gator, that is.

He's been in this position before, and hopes what he learned the last time he stepped into a job has served him well in transitioning to his latest. In fact, Mullen criticized himself for being too much of a "control freak" when he first arrived at Mississippi State in 2009. Back then, he made it a point to get in everybody's business, instead of entrusting the people he hired to do their jobs.

"I think one of the biggest things is understanding that everybody knows what the expectations are within our program," Mullen said. "The other big one is you're always going to deal with new issues and new things that have come up, but a lot of times it won't be my first time having to deal with a certain problem or a certain issue. So you become a better decision-maker. The more opportunities you have to make decisions, usually the better decision-maker you become. Hopefully I'm a better decision-maker today than I was 10 years ago."

And, hopefully, Florida will be a better, more consistent program — with a competent offense — than its been in nearly the same time that he's been gone.