Dan Mullen shares candid thoughts on Florida, the shoe toss, his exit and more

Honestly, I assumed he wouldn’t really answer the question.

It was the final question of an hour-long interview with former Florida and Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen. The conversation dipped into a bit of everything. How much did he enjoy broadcasting with ESPN and the freedom of the calendar that comes with it? Did he want to get back into coaching? What are we in for with that new Netflix documentary on the late 2000s Florida teams?

But there was 1 other thing I had to ask Mullen as he enters his second season away from coaching — if Marco Wilson doesn’t throw a shoe against LSU in 2020, is he still at Florida?

“Probably, yes,” Mullen told SDS on a recent episode of The Saturday Down South Podcast. “Now obviously there are so many different things that go into it, but I think there’s a chance of that being the case, which is a tough deal. And who knows … I wouldn’t picture the reason I’m not there was because of that, but I think we win that game, there’s a different mindset. How we play Alabama, how the year shakes out. We might even get into the Playoffs. We get in the Playoffs, I think we have a shot.

“That domino caused a lot of different things to happen.”

To be clear, it didn’t come across as Mullen blaming Wilson for not knowing that sending an opponent’s shoe into the sky would result in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and continue a drive instead of giving the ball to Florida’s No. 1 offense for a potential game-winning drive (LSU of course later went on to kick a game-winning 57-yard field goal through The Swamp fog).

What Mullen seemed to hint at was that it would’ve totally changed the perception of the close loss against Alabama in the SEC Championship. Remember that to that point, Alabama won every game by at least 15 points. Florida, with a win vs. LSU, would’ve been in the top 6 heading into that matchup vs. the Tide. If loss No. 2 had been a nail-biter against the Tide, could it have been enough to sneak past a 1-loss Notre Dame team that got clobbered by Clemson in the ACC Championship?

At the same time, A&M had already beaten Florida that year in College Station — that prompted Mullen’s infamous postgame “pack The Swamp” comment — and was sitting there with 1 loss. With more losses and without the head-to-head advantage, it’s hard to picture a scenario in which a 2-loss Florida team could have leapfrogged A&M, which was No. 5 in the final Playoff standings.

But Mullen is right that the Wilson domino caused a lot of things to happen.

Instead of potentially playing for a top-5 finish, a 3-loss Florida team went into the bowl game with opt-outs galore. The LSU debacle was the beginning of a 2-9 stretch vs. Power 5 opponents, which ultimately was Mullen’s undoing at the end of the 2021 season.

Some might argue that Mullen receiving an extension after 2020 was a sign that he was actually in better standing than what hindsight would suggest. But while Mullen got that raise after earning 3 consecutive New Year’s 6 bowl berths to start his time at Florida, the buyout remained unchanged at $12 million. That’s eventually what Scott Stricklin agreed to fork over to Mullen when he was fired at the end of a disappointing Year 4.

Under normal circumstances, perhaps Mullen’s contract situation would’ve been resolved after Year 2. After 2019, he was the first coach to ever start at a new school with 2 New Year’s 6/BCS bowl victories. But instead of that deal getting done by spring of 2020, COVID happened and universities across the country were tasked with financial challenges.

I asked Mullen about the atypical circumstances surrounding that extension not getting done prior to Year 3. His answer was about as candid as it gets.

“I don’t know. The administration at Florida is the administration at Florida, ya know?” Mullen said. “You look at it and see now they have finally maybe caught up. They finally put together a budget, it looks like. When Billy Napier came in, they finally put together a budget that competes with other teams in the SEC. They finally finished and moved into a facility where kids can actually visit campus and it’s not, ‘Hey, our meeting is in the basement of a locker room and post-practice, how do you do recovery for your team? There’s like a trash bucket with ice in the parking lot. You know what I mean?

“They actually have technology and stuff where kids show up and are like, ‘This is a good place to come.'”

Mullen is of course referring to Florida’s new $85 million football facility that was announced in 2019 and opened in August 2022 just ahead of Napier’s debut. Could Mullen have recruited better with that at his disposal? We’ll never know.

What we do know is that the recruiting was a knock against Mullen, specifically with in-state talent. During his 4 full cycles (2018-21), he signed just 5 of the 40 recruits from Florida who ranked in the top 10 in their respective classes.

Whatever the case, there clearly wasn’t alignment at critical points during Mullen’s time in Gainesville.

“I don’t know what the deal was, never getting a new contract until later and then a different type of contract post-COVID. It was always a sticking point or something,” Mullen said. “The hardest one for us going into my 4th year (2021), within the program, we knew we were going to be in kind of a rebuilding year … the facility was about to be finished to help us in recruiting with kids coming in and seeing we don’t have to walk a half-mile across campus to practice. There were so many little things.

“If you’ve ever been to Florida, they were just behind. It was like, ‘Coach (Steve) Spurrier didn’t need this in the ’90s, why does anybody today need it?’ I said, ‘Well, football has changed.'”

Life has changed for Mullen. It’s much quieter at Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Ga. He visited Paris and London this offseason, which is now a true offseason from January-August (he’s not a fan of the NCAA’s recruiting calendar). He’s locked in for another season in the studio and calling some games with ESPN, which he said he’s in no hurry to stop doing if the right coaching opportunity doesn’t present itself. He’ll soon be 2 years removed from his time in Gainesville.

He roots for his players, but no, he doesn’t root for Florida on a given fall Saturday. He doesn’t have a team anymore — his buddies from the Northeast joke with him that he needs to get back into coaching so that they can have a team to root for — but of the 2 places he got to be a head coach, there’s definitely a favorite.

“You know,” Mullen said, “if you had to associate me with coaching somewhere, you say, ‘Hey, where’s, you know, what is your school? What is your school that you coached at?’ I’d say Mississippi State. That would be the school I would claim.”

You must be logged in to post a comment. Please sign in or register

I was never really convinced that Coach Mullen was someone who was gonna bleed blue and orange.

Just seemed like he was in it for himself and wanted to prove he was the best schemer in the game and nothing else mattered.

I wonder if he thought he was Meyer 2.0. Florida fans loved him for what he did while coaching under Meyer.

Yes because he was an excellent play caller and OC under Meyer but his recruiting deficiences and his hubris caught up with him as a head coach

I bet Saban could rehabilitate him.

That would be very interesting

Mullen has proven that he can do wonders with elite offensive players recruited by someone else

“That would be very interesting”

Kiffen was a very lazy coach before his time at AL. He was never focused on the long term. Once Saban whipped him into shape he turned it around as HC. I think he could do the same for Mullen.

Throwing the shoe really caused his downfall??? B.S. to that. The opt-outs in the bowl game told the real story. Mullen was not much of a head coach. Marginally better than the 2020 and 2021 version of Coach 0 (and that is intentionally a zero and not the letter “O”).

Dan Mullen left his best coaching years in Starkville, Mississippi.

And yet his lack of program culture management gave you your screen name.

Good observation.BTW, it’s orange & blue

Most coaches don’t bleed their school colors unless they attended and have a connection to the school and the team (Spurrier, Kirby) or they are there a really long time (to the point they are going to retire from there) and have a lot of success (Dooley, Paterno, Bowden, Saban, etc.). Urban Meyer was by results Florida’s most successful coach but he obviously didn’t “bleed orange and blue” and I doubt is anywhere near as beloved by the fans as Spurrier. Mullen leaned towards the Meyer mold, without the success.

He was a right defensive hire away from having something unstoppable down there IMO. The recruiting was a knock, but if the results hadn’t nose dived it wouldn’t have been a death sentence. Also, not being able to develop Emory Jones or Anthony Richardson will be held against him. Emory was there for a decade and a half and never progressed. Anthony Richardson just got drafted in the first round despite his on field production because he has that level of talent. If a guy who is supposed to be a QB guru couldn’t set him right, he might never get right. But since the jury is still out on Richardson depending on how he does in the NFL, the blame falls on Mullen and to some extent Napier as well. Mullen probably could still be a great coach somewhere, but he needs the right fit. Florida was not that for him

The results nosedived as his recruits became his starters.

” I’d say Mississippi State. That would be the school I would claim.””

Ouch. He did have success at Ms State one year with Dak. First time in MS State history they were ranked number one for a week or two. I really thought Dak would win the Heisman. Their defense was pretty good too.

In 2014 they beat LSU, TAM and AU back to back to back. Each team was ranked in the top ten. AU was ranked 2 when they beat them. They lost to Bama by 5 and should not have lost to Ole Miss. If they could have beaten Bama they’d have gone to the SEC Championship even with a loss to Ole Miss. Both Bama and Miss State would have had one loss on the regular season.

What I never understood about Mullen was how he seemed to get lazy at UF. He could have recruited the best players in Florida yet…

Hubris. He thought he could out scheme everybody else. I see he’s blaming the UF administration for some of that. Maybe he has a point but still, like you say it seemed when it came to recruiting he was lazy

Yeah but I remember your posts circa 2020. You also thought he could out scheme everyone and he was clearly the number 2 coach in the SEC

Yep I was fooled with the success he had his first two seasons but not after that when he kept Todd after the D was going downhill and by the time they forced him to replace Todd it was too late

“You also thought he could out scheme everyone and he was clearly the number 2 coach in the SEC”

Clearly he had success at Ms State which never had success like they did under Mullen. UF was capable of winning championships and getting top talent. I also thought Mullen would succeed with UF.

Wow, I expected snark but you just owned it Cojones. Respect

While he did have success at MSU, he only had one winning SEC season in 9 years. Also the only trip MSU made to the SECCG wasn’t under Mullen.

“Also the only trip MSU made to the SECCG wasn’t under Mullen.”

Neve said it was.

I’m not sure what you mean by “only had one winning season in 9 years.” MS State went to 8 bowl games under Mullen which would mean they had winning seasons.

If you’re bothering to use quotations, get them correct. He only had one winning sec season in 9 years. Only one season where they had above .500 in the sec. ONE. That should have been the red flag that kept Stricklin from hiring him.

Sparky, in fairness to Stricklin, he erroneously believed Mullen would do better vs. the SEC at UF because UF would draw better HS talent than MSU ever could. He should’ve listened to what his predecessor had to say about Mullen’s recruiting deficiencies.

One problem for Mullen at Florida was that even though it’s easier to recruit elite talent at Florida than at Mississippi State, his offensive philosophy prevented him from recruiting elite pure passer quarterbacks and wide receivers, even given his general lack of recruiting energy and salesmanship.

Mullen is a good offensive mind. But his preferred philosophy of challenging the defense with a running quarterback and its plus one blocking advantage can’t keep up with an offense that has an elite passer throwing to elite receivers. I give him credit for shelving his philosophy in 2020 and scheming to the elite passer and receivers he had on the roster.

The problem at the top level of college football is that it’s 20% structural advantages, facilities and program history, 50% recruiting energy and salesmanship, and 30% program management and coaching ability. More or less.

I think Mullen could be successful in the B1G or the ACC, but I’m not sure he wants to. As for the SEC, he’s just too interested in life outside of football to do everything it takes to get to the top. You need to be a focused workaholic… and he’s just not.

Ron…Sometimes a big contract can make a coach lazy. I believe that’s what happened to Mullen. He thought since it’s the University of Florida all the Five Stars in the State of Florida will flock to Gainesville; which obviously did not happen.

Yep, that is true.

CDM knew the facilities were coming and that they did. The difference is night and day. Mullen was very frustrated with the administration and it showed up in his weekly press conference and on the sidelines. He took his personal feelings and displayed it with every single thing he did. That’s what got him fired. You can’t do that around impressionable 18-22 year olds and then tell them to overcome adversity.

CDM is an outstanding offensive mind. He’s just not a leader and that is what successful coaches have in common. He also had a disconnect with boosters and the athletic department. I think he felt that because he was the offensive coordinator for two natties that he commanded respect and appreciation. That did not happen either.

Marsh, you’re spot on with all your points.

I would add that among the primary causes for his firing were: 1) his loyalty to his cronies, 2) his loyalty to his upper class players and 3) his disdain for the constant schmoozing required in today’s HS recruiting process.

1) On loyalty to his cronies, he resisted firing Grantham and Hevesy until it made no difference to either the Gators’ 2021 season, or his holding onto his job.

2) On loyalty to his upper class players, he resisted demoting Emory Jones in favor of AR-15, until it made no difference to either the Gators’ 2021 season. Then came no consequences for Wilson’s shoe toss.

3) On recruiting, I don’t buy his BS about lack of facilities after the Heavener Center’s construction began. His disdain for the recruiting process went so deep that the only IMG Academy recruit the Gators landed across his four classes was Kamari Wilson, who was really recruited by Napier upon taking over recruiting the 2021 class.

Worst of all (and this I really hang on Stricklin,) who can EVER forget his out-in-the-open dalliance with the NFL after the 2020 SECC loss, followed up by his complete mental no-show for the Cotton Bowl embarrassment vs. OU? Stricklin should’ve fired him on the first workday of the 2021 new year! Alas, Gator Nation had to be dragged through that farce of a season before Stricklin did what he knew he had to do.

BTW, on the last point about Stricklin being very late firing Mullen in 2021, I’m with Jeromy Foley. He famous quote, from his presser after firing Ron Zook, “That which must be done eventually, should be done immediately.”

I’m no big fan of Foley because he balanced the budgetary good of his entire athletic program on the back of the football program and drove it to its current depths. That philosophy lost him in turn BOTH Spurrier and Meyer, the two greatest HCs the Gators have ever had.

However, Foley was spot on in his comments on Mullen after the latter took the MSU job after the 2008 NC. He said Mullen had too little regard for recruiting and player discipline to ever make it as HC of a premier program such as UF back then. Truer words were never spoken!

StL, very good expansion. Foley had a great run and brought in Billy Donovan which brought in more natties. Meyer’s health problems were well documented and he had to move on. The one aspect of Foley, Meyer and Donovan that are in common is they’re ultra competitive. Perfect combination for titles.

Great points from both of you, food for thought.

I seem to recall directly prior to the game against the Gators in 2020 CDM was on tv talking about the playoff scenario for his team, they were all clearly looking ahead instead of focusing on the team they needed to beat. So much has been made of the shoe toss but at the end of the day it shouldn’t have been that close to begin with. I believe the Tigers rolled in there with 54 players available and played for 4 quarters, that 57 yard FG in the fog was pretty!

Yup. He modeled looking ahead for the players and they followed the leader.

Never forget, at the time of that game, Kyle Trask was a serious Heisman Trophy contender. A huge game vs. LSU on national TV might’ve given him the edge in the voting. Mullen instead chose to hold super stud Kyle Pitts out of that game to “save him for the SECC Game.”

We all know how things went from there. Close game in the 4th quarter, shoe toss penalty, 57 yd FG loss, close loss in SECCG, no Heisman for Trask and total no-show in the Cotton Bowl.

Nice wrap-up to a promising season! Then came what we now know followed, 6-7 followed by another 6-7.

Thanks for nothing Dan! Glad you prefer MSU. THAT is the HC level you belong in.

I’ve always thought the world of Trask for how he handled the situation. Now his work ethic and attitude has catapulted him into his role at Tampa Bay.

Back in 2016, I was a luke warm NFL fan. Then, all the kneeling started up in 2017 and I stopped watching NFL games altogether.

That kid may just make me tune into some Tampa Bay games this season. I’m dying to see him succeed at that level after all the unflattering comments made since 2020 about his arm strength and athleticism.

Mullen is an eccentric guy, he’s not from the south and he’s not an elite recruiter. I can see him preferring to be associated with Starkville, which isn’t the pressure cooker Gainesville is.

But the premise of the story is flawed. If there was one single thing that cost Florida that game (and there wasn’t just one), it wasn’t the shoe toss. It was holding Pitts out of the game.

Pitta was a beast, especially in the red zone! I couldn’t believe they kept him out

Agree,

They punched their ticket to ATL for SECCG the week before in beating Tennessee, that the home re-scheduled LSU game was inconsequential in his mind. Keeping Pitts out was clearly because of that.

The shoe toss was inexcusable, and LSU came to play that night, but we shouldn’t have been in that situation late in 4th to begin with.

Spot on Nash! That decision not only cost the Gators that game, it cost Kyle Trask the Heisman Trophy.

He had a good thing going at MS State. Had he stayed there with the direction the program was slowly heading, in a tough place to recruit/win, he would still be there. He was getting MS State to a bowl game annually. He turned the culture from “yeah 6 wins is enough” to the fans and students believing they had a chance to win every week. I spent time there during that run, you could feel the culture shift. He never should have left for the pressure cooker that UF was/is.

Coaches are competitive though. They want to win it all and Florida is certainly a place that a coach can accomplish that. If he realized it was highly unlikely he was ever going to get Mississippi State over the hump it was only natural he was going to bolt for somewhere that he felt he could.

I agree with this.

I always thought Mullen seemed a little in over his head at Florida. Personality wise. He has a great football mind.The kick in that dense fog to win the game was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen on a football field.

I submit if a coach thinks one play controls or defines the destiny of a program or his career – he is a poor example of a coach and his destiny is failure.

Does 2nd and 26 define Kirby Smart or UGA football in 2023?Does the fake punt in the 2018 SECCG or fake field goals from the 2018 season define Kirby Smart and UGA football in 2023?Does recruiting then losing Justin Fields define Kirby Smart and UGA football in 2023?

What defines mullet and his tenure at UF – making asinine comments about UGA before ever conducting a single practice, allowing a recruit to commit 2 s@xual assaults and losing the top recruit before addressing an obvious problem, allowing a player multiple assault incidents against tuTors, wrist bands, allowing the States Attorney (an alum) to step in an address player issues and do damage control, subpar recruiting across the board, not only holding onto but defending a mediocre DC, allowing the best QB on the team to ride the bench until a project QB gets hurt, looking like a fool “dancing up” the QB, allowing your wife to play MILF with the football team, starting a riot at an opposing teams field, dressing up like a Star Wars character for a post-game presser etc etc etc

mullet is a man-child and his coaching “prowess” was a false sports media narrative. When mullet got on the big stage, the bright lights came and it was do or die time – mullet couldn’t spin or run from who he is.

mullet was par for the course for UF coaching hires; funny how the smartest people in the World just can’t get it right

Good lord .. point to the spot on the doll where Mullen touched you little boy!!!

lol, the point is how stupid and lame turd nation is. It’s not that mullet is a freak show, most knowledge football fans knew mullet wasn’t anything special, that’s why he was at Miss St so long before UF made him a rich man-child.

I’m not the one that was “touched” by mullet; and mullet definitely did more than “touch” UF and turd nation. mullet bent UF and all of turd nation over and gave you one of the worse bugger’ings in the history of S0dom and G0mm0r@h!

And sunbelt billy is licking his lips and dropping his trousers as we speak.

LOL

Lipo, dumbs is having a fantasy moment. Let him have his attention and then he will settle down.

Pure nirvana…I love it. Trying to put this part to memory:What defines mullet and his tenure at UF – making asinine comments about UGA before ever conducting a single practice, allowing a recruit to commit 2 s@xual assaults and losing the top recruit before addressing an obvious problem, allowing a player multiple assault incidents against tuTors, wrist bands, allowing the States Attorney (an alum) to step in an address player issues and do damage control, subpar recruiting across the board, not only holding onto but defending a mediocre DC, allowing the best QB on the team to ride the bench until a project QB gets hurt, looking like a fool “dancing up” the QB, allowing your wife to play MILF with the football team, starting a riot at an opposing teams field, dressing up like a Star Wars character for a post-game presser…

If Bob Euker were here he would read that and say “The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.”

Pure Nirvana? Just wondering if you and your buddy Dumbs plan on seeing Adam Anderson at his new home away from home?

Not a good look for you.

I completely forgot about the wristbands, thus my Mullet nirvana moment…

Leave it to obssessed Georgia trolls to “define Mullen’s tenure” by a meaningless, off-handed snarky comment about Georgia.

That would be like defining Spurrier’s tenure at Florida in the 1990s by his comment about Georgia that, “I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended.”

The riot I’m thinking of he started with Missouri’s roster at Florida’s home field. Am I forgetting another one or mis-remembering

“Dan Mullen incites chaos, brawl in Florida-Missouri Game”

www DOT youtube DOT com/watch?v=pma8QNC-WLg

You are correct, It was at the I-75 Truck Stop and not CoMO.

Even the most ardent Gator fan would have to admit that LSU game winning 57 yard FG by Cade York into the fog was a beautiful sight to behold!

That was the craziest football game I’ve seen in a long time.

Geaux…That shoe incident, followed by the field goal in a very dense fog was just unreal. I waited to see if there were any penalties on that play and none.

You must really have to be a sorry recruiter to not be able to get a solid class year in and year out if you head the Flagship school in the State of Florida.

Mullen doomed himself when he hired and then retained the rancid deformity known as Todd Exotic.

It sounds like he’s still the exact same guy that he was at UF. It’s always the fault of someone else. Even when we were beat by KY, he pointed out that we had more yards. And if I only had 2 jobs, I would probably claim the one that I didn’t get fired from too :)

i guess we owe Wilson a big thank you

This article makes me glad he’s gone and I was a big fan when he arrived. This is like a textbook example of poor leadership. Doesn’t accept accountability for the lack of discipline on the team, nor the facilities development, recruiting or play on the field. Everting is someone else’s issue. Bye Felicia!

I miss Dan Mullen, Gus Malzahn, & most of all, Mike Leach as SEC Coaches. They all had colorful snarky takes on their jobs that made watching & listening to what they had to say interesting to me.

Then, you must really miss Steve Spurrier. NOT!

LOL!!!

He was just an easy guy to hate. Don’t get me wrong, I hated Spurrier when he was there, but I respected him. He was a great coach and the guy loved the Gators. Never felt the same for Mullen.

Kirby would never, Sideshow Dan the Clown.

Kirby would never.

Who is Dan Mullen? One answer is “The coach who started a bar-room donniebrook on his own home field right before halftime when his guests were just trying to get to the locker room he had blocked ( he knew the TV people controlled the time allocated ).

How do you keep a Head Coach who does stuff like this very often?

If you are shooting yourself in the foot a lot, you could try carrying water pistols!!!

Mullen needs to work where HIS skills are competitive and Napier hasn’t proven Florida is an easy job to manage either. History is a double edged switch-blade.

Give Napier a couple of more years to clean up Mullen’s mess.

This was an interesting article and interesting view points from Mullen, but unfortunately, he still doesn’t get the issues that led to his dismissal.Yes, one can argue the shoe toss was the start of his fall, but what he doesn’t mention was that Wilson did not receive any punishment for costing the team the game.Yes the facilities were outdated, but there were other internal organizational issues with his recruiting structure – instances of disorganization of recruiting visits, etc.Mullen has a great football mind and is a fantastic OC, but his lack of organizational/communication skills makes him a less than ideal head coach.

Oh kudos to O’Gara AND Mullen for doing this story. This is one of those opportunities they both needed to make the most of. Honestly I’m going to have to read it again, and maybe even see what Mullen does ultimately to make a judgment on this? But just having the target to do it is something. And few writers would know how to get this story at it’s best.

Agreed.

There are a lot of good comments here, and I wanted to reply directly to some of them, but for some reason I am unable to do so.So just a couple comments for now:From StLGator:

(1) “I’m no big fan of Foley because he balanced the budgetary good of his entire athletic program on the back of the football program and drove it to its current depths.”

Yes, but this is the model for all athletic departments at all schools.The revenue-generating sports support the non-revenue generating sports.It could be argued that the athletic department under Foley was the best in the country.

(2) “…Spurrier and Meyer, the two greatest HCs the Gators have ever had. ”

Meyer is in no way in the same class as Spurrier.Spurrier left the football in good shape, and Meyer destroyed the program – even by his own admission.The current problems with the program can be traced all the way back to Meyer.I still feel sorry for Muschamp since he was put in a difficult situation and did clean up some of Meyer’s mess, but he was unfortunately not able to also deal with the shortcomings of the offense, so he was dismissed.

drumlin…Muschamp was a horrible head coach at Florida and South Carolina. He’s a Defensive Coordinator, nothing else involving college football.

The shoe heard round the SEC.

Mullen’s candor regarding potentially sensitive topics is interesting and refreshing. Maybe in the end, he should have stayed at MSU (though I don’t know how the fans would feel about that). He had a good thing going at MSU and when he left they potentially had the roster to make some noise (which seemed to be squandered by Moorehead). Unless a truly golden opportunity opens up, my money would be on Mullen remaining an announcer and having a lengthy off season and no recruiting to worry about.

He would still be at MSU had he stayed, and the 2018 team would have been the school’s best ever. Nasty defense, ball control offense with Nick Fitzgerald.

Sorry, but I don’t think the “REPLY” link works for me, so I will reply this way ….

From AFan:

“drumlin…Muschamp was a horrible head coach at Florida and South Carolina. He’s a Defensive Coordinator, nothing else involving college football.”

Yes, he did not show any great results in his to HC stops.I don’t think he had a chance at SC, and he again showed is lack of offensive aptitude there, as he did at Florida.I’m just wondering how things would have worked out for him had Meyer not left the program in such a mess.Certain players felt entitled, and the offense did go downhill after Mullen left for MSU.He was (and still is) a top recruiter, which is important, but he was just hired into two bad situations.He may have failed eventually, but he was never given a good chance.You are correct about him being a DC, and I think that was part of his problem at Florida – he had that high emotional temperament which did not really fit a HC.He seems to have cooled off a little, but I think that is what hurt him the most at Florida.

I remember that before the LSU game, Mullen gave the public impression that it didn’t matter if Florida won or lost that game. Nothing helps recruiting like winning and if the coach isn’t all in, the players won’t be either.

Clearly the shoe toss itself didn’t cause CDM’s downfall; rather, the most proximal cause was the cumulative level of indiscipline that he permitted as Head Coach that made the shoe toss a reality at a critical juncture in an important game. Associated with that, I would suggest that over-loyalty to underperforming subordinates was also a factor. Thirdly, to behave himself like a petulant child and clearly lose interest in coaching left the AD with little choice but to relieve him. The lethargic performance of the team beyond that point bore that out in spades.

Detractors who recognized his stubbornness early on – which a lot of us overlooked – were vindicated in the end. Recruiting disinterest notwithstanding, it could have been different …. but one can never out-run one’s personality in the end.

I always appreciate your thoughts Doc, very insightful.

I’m impressed, for the most part this comment thread had some good, civil conversations!

“if Marco Wilson doesn’t throw a shoe against LSU in 2020, is he still at Florida?” “Probably, yes,”

Shhhhht, I never looked at it that way…Marco, you frgn idjut!

Lots of surprising comments above. I was shocked that even some of the rival fans (except a couple of the usual obsessed idiots) were civil and level headed in making good football comments on Mullen.

He’s a Yankee from the Northeast and will never be a good fit in the south as a HC. Mostly due to his attitude, immaturity and lack of ownership of his failures. After he received that extension he was destined only to be coaching to get himself removed from coaching.