Gators head coach Dan Mullen at his Monday press conference. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
Mullen Confident In Finding Solutions Following Staff Revamp
Monday, November 8, 2021 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With losses and critics piling up over the past month, Gators head coach Dan Mullen began a closer inspection of his program from top to bottom.
After Saturday's lethargic 40-17 loss at South Carolina, he realized that the Gators had hit bottom.
"We weren't where we needed to be,'' Mullen said Monday, less than 24 hours after news broke that the Gators had parted ways with defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and offensive line coach John Hevesy. "One of the ways you look and say, 'Is it a successful season?' is, are you a better team at the end of the year than you were at the beginning of the year?
"We're not better than we were earlier in the year. In fact, we're worse than we were earlier in the year."
Mullen's evaluation prompted him to make two of the most challenging decisions of his 13 seasons as a head coach in the Southeastern Conference. Mullen's dismissal of Grantham and Hevesy with three games left in the regular season was something he did not take lightly despite mounting criticism.
The Gators have lost three consecutive games and eight of 12 since starting the 2020 season 8-1. They were ranked as high as No. 10 in the AP Top 25 this season before their downward spiral began with a loss at Kentucky on Oct. 2. Florida responded with a homecoming win over Vanderbilt the following week, but in its last three games has lost at LSU, to No. 1-ranked Georgia in Jacksonville, and at South Carolina on Saturday despite entering the game as an 18-point favorite.
Grantham and Hevesy got pink slips after the Gamecocks manhandled the Gators on both lines of scrimmage. South Carolina rushed for 284 yards and held the Gators to 82 yards rushing.
"It's always hard because those guys are both friends of mine," Mullen said. "I have a lot of respect for them. Both excellent football coaches. It was obviously a really tough decision to make. It was something that was weighing on me."
On the revamped coaching staff, linebackers coach Christian Robinson will serve as defensive coordinator. Veteran college and NFL coach Paul Pasqualoni, who has served as special assistant to the head coach the last two seasons, will move into an on-field role helping with the defense. Pasqualoni has been a head coach at Syracuse, where he won 107 games from 1991-2004, and at UConn. Before joining the Gators, he served as defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. Meanwhile, graduate assistant Michael Sollenne will take over coaching the offensive line, with Mullen adding that he will help direct the unit.
Mullen said any decisions about permanent replacements on the staff will be made after the season.
Linebackers coach Christian Robinson will coordinate the defensive play calls in the wake of Todd Grantham's departure. (Photo: Isabella Marley/UAA Communications)
Mullen's reasoning for the changes was simple: his team was not maximizing its potential in his eyes.
"Our goal here is to, every season, you come in with a goal to win a championship,'' he said. "At that point, I looked, and I said we've got make some changes with what we're doing and where we're at. I thought for the health of the program, for the health of everybody, you know you're going to do it; let's make that move now and get us headed in the direction we're going into it in the future.
"It was weighing on me because you're always thinking, 'What do we need to do? How are we going to get better?' The hard part for me has been our inconsistencies throughout the year."
The Gators enter Saturday's home game against Samford 13th in the SEC in turnover margin (minus-9), third in total offense (467.4 yards per game), and eighth in total defense (352.0 ypg). Florida didn't allow an opponent to rush for 100 yards in the first three games, including then-No. 1 Alabama. However, five opponents have rushed for 137 or more yards over the past six games, including two for more than 200 (LSU for 321 and South Carolina).
Mullen said while he discussed various scenarios with UF athletic director Scott Stricklin, the decision to cut loose Grantham and Hevesy "was mine."
In his fourth season at UF after nine seasons as head coach at Mississippi State, the 49-year-old Mullen said he plans to be Florida's coach next season. He said his discussions with Stricklin have focused on the program's future beyond the final three games.
"Scott is he is pretty confident that we're going to get this fixed," Mullen said. "I can't speak for him on that deal, but within his confidence, it wasn't about this year and next year; it was a long-term picture of where we want this program to be in many years to come."
He remains determined to turn the program around amidst calls from some fans for the Gators to start fresh.
Mullen has led the Gators to three consecutive New Year's Six bowl games and has a 33-14 record. Florida needs to win two of its final three regular-season games to become bowl eligible.
"I'm the head coach, so I bear all of it. It's on my shoulders,'' he said of the team's current predicament. "I'm the one that's responsible for this program. I'm the one that's responsible for this team and how we got to perform. That's your job here as the head coach is to take on that responsibility. And my job is to make sure we go perform, that this team plays to the Gator Standard, which we're not doing right now. It's my responsibility to find a way to fix that.
"I'm pretty confident in myself, and I've won a lot of football games as a head coach, won championships here. What I'm pretty confident in is finding the solution."
