We’ve spent a good amount of time discussing Jeremy Pruitt’s heavy load at Tennessee, but Florida’s new coach has his own set of issues to overcome. He’s got the benefit of being a link to better times, and that’s certainly a help during the inevitable honeymoon a new coach enjoys. So this is an easy carry, as far as it goes.
Mullen is a bridge to the Gators’ last glory era as the offensive coordinator on Urban Meyer’s 2006 and 2008 national championship teams. That’s how he remembers Florida football, and that’s what he expects it to be again.
“The surprise, I think, is we’ve fallen behind a little bit in certain areas,” he said Tuesday night in Fort Lauderdale. “Whether it be facilities, whether it be crowd support, whether it be just the passion, energy and excitement I’m used to seeing from when I was here before. You’ve got to understand, for me, I’m seeing [it] back that way. I’m seeing we’re having an unbelievable crowd here tonight, we had an unbelievable crowd last night, for the spring game, I’m seeing that energy and that excitement that everyone tells me has been missing.
“So that is probably the thing that surprises me, that somehow we let — and I say we, we’re all in this together — that somehow we let our standard slip a little bit in everybody and what it is to be a Gator and our standards and expectations. But I’m really excited to see the energy and the passion and the enthusiasm everyone has to get that Gator Standard back and to get it back in a hurry.”
That standard he’s referring to there was multiple SEC and national championships in a short time frame under Corch. Yes, the coaching staff did a fine job, but let’s not forget how much of that was fueled by a combination of factors such as extraordinarily gifted talents in Tebow and Harvin, an SEC East that had fallen off and a conference that was just seeing the nascent rise of an Alabama dynasty under Nick Saban.
Needless to say, Mullen faces a very different world now. It’s all well and good to pump up the fan base with talk of a return to the good old days, but what happens if you can’t recreate them?
Get The Picture 
What happens if you can’t recreate them? Ask Boom and the Sharkhumper. That fan base is the most entitled in college sports.
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In their defense, I don’t think either Muschamp or McElwain made an explicit reach back to the Meyer days the way Mullen is.
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I see why he’s doing it. I also see them turning against him if he can’t do what Meyer (national title) or Kirby (title game appearance) did in year 2.
Good luck with those expectations, Dan.
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Year two is going to be UF against what will possibly be the best UGA team ever to grace the turf in JAX. I don’t think it’s realistic for UF to expect to win the East anytime soon. I pray that I’m right about that.
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“I don’t think either Muschamp or McElwain made an explicit reach back to the Meyer days the way Mullen Is”
Meanwhile, up in Knoxville, Pruitt doesn’t even have to reach back to embrace the glory days of Fulmer. Fulmer is delivering them with a big ‘ol smile and a slap on the back.
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Correct. The ‘We’re more moral than you’ sermon from the admins won’t work in Gainesville.
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Nostalgia for Corch? How sweet and tender.
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Heartwarming.
Perhaps they should try to bring him back as Athletic Director. 😉
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That’s a question I hope gets answered.
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Richt had the same set of circumstances as Florida in 2008…loaded team…weak conference…rising Saban. And what happened? So, I guess it WAS the coaching at Florida.I hate those guys, but lets give credit where credit is due.
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Which part of “Yes, the coaching staff did a fine job” didn’t you get?
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I don’t think there should be a “but” added in after that statement. That’s all. No reason to be a smartass.
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No reason to scold me, when I did exactly what you suggest, either.
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For a little levity, DMK’s question is a perfect opportunity for a “Blame Bobo” with a “3rd and Grantham” chaser, just sayin’.
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That would be 3rd and Willie. A little older.
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Oooooo, 3rd and Willy, that IS a good one.
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These are totally legit names for stiff drinks to be served in Athens…only after a loss.
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Agreed, though I’d be happy serving up a batch of “Third and Grantham”s at this year’s WLOCP.
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he’s good like that.
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He’s playing this smart. He understands the culture and if he can get the fans and players bought in the recruiting will be easier. If they aren’t aligned the recruiting is much harder.
At the end, they are all graded on wins and losses. But it’s your bridge building that determines the fan tolerance for the bumps in the road.
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I know this gets dismissed at times on this site, but the proof will be in the recruiting results. If Mullen starts recruiting gangbusters top 5, then they will be on the rise. The question is, can he do it in this new Saban world? Everything is different now and the road to prominence bends toward Tuscaloosa.
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It’s not only a new Saban world, it’s a new Kirby world and a new world had dawned in Miami. And, let’s not forget our friends in blue and orange down the road. Recruiting Georgia and Florida is not as easy as it used to be for the Gainesville guys.
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And the National Champs in Orlando!
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I laughed at this, but they are actually doing a good job recruiting. Don’t sleep on South Florida either. Florida is not as easy to recruit as it used to be.
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I don’t have any friends that wear blue and orange.
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I work with some of these people. As my father used to tell me, with some of the folks you work with you smile and, as far as they are concerned, you love every one of those SOBs.
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LOL..
“I work with some of these people”
Are you a warden? A criminal defense attorney?
True story, I was driving down a back road and camp up on a guy standing on the shoulder of the road, wearing an AU cap. He was holding a pole (turned out to be a “Stop” sign on one side and a “Proceed Slowly” sign on the other side.) He was holding it parallel with the road and I couldn’t see the sign. I figured it was just a surveyor’s level rod or something and drove on. Got up the road and there was construction going on. I stopped. The foreman asked me why I hadn’t stopped for his flag man. I told him there was a guy standing back there picking his nose, but he was holding the sign where you couldn’t even see it. I apologized and told him that he might want to get a GT guy to do that job. LOL..but he didn’t think it was funny.
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There are actually some Auburn folks who get legitimate jobs when they graduate. Hard to believe, I know.
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Mullen may do fine, better than Pruitt I expect, but the ridiculous expectations of fans among the Top 20 programs are impossible to meet on a regular basis. FU will be better than under a startlingly inept McElwain but the standards of expecting regular appearances in Atlanta and the playoffs have been met by only one program….and that has taken a great deal of good fortune and willingness to look the other way.
Florida will again become the biggest obstacle on UGA’s schedule to reach Atlanta, especially with the fall of LSU’s program. I think Taggert, Richt, and Kirby will make it tough on him to corral the talent edge Spurrier and Corch enjoyed. But I do appreciate the motivation he supplied Kirby with the cheap shot he took in January regarding UGA’s past season.
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Exactly… The Blind Squirrel comment was just dumb. And I do think that comes from a mindset of UF always beats UGA. Those days are over with. I think the FSU, Georgia, Mississippi State, LSU, South Carolina and Kentucky games are all potential losses. 6-6 or 7-5 isn’t much of a step forward. He better hope for better play from his line and QB or it’s going to be a LONG season for the Gators and watch how fast the natives get restless in Gainesville.
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Well, since we’re on the subject of angry peasants wearing orange, don’t forget that the Gus Mahlzahn recently boned his semi orange clad fanbase to the tune of 40+ and could easily go 7-5.
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Ah the good ole days when coaches were paid less than 4 mill a year and were hungrier…
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Hopefully, Kirby will return the Dooley glory years to the Gators. No SEC’s, no NC’s.
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I’m not sure the East had fallen off. 2005-2008 might have been the most competitive era overall top to bottom, as Kentucky was pretty good under Brooks, and Vandy was competitive under Steve Martin. Certainly, it was in better shape than it is right now. At least until 2009, but Mullen was at Mississippi State by then.
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SEC East teams besides Florida in the final AP Top 25
2008: One (UGA)
2007: Two (UGA and UT)
2006: Two (UGA and UT) (23rd and 25th, respectively)
2005: One (UGA)
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The division wasn’t top heavy, but that doesn’t mean it was necessarily worse than it was in 2003, when Georgia, Florida and Tennessee were pretty good, and the other three teams ranged from bad to abysmal.
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You and I have very different memories of Rich Brooks at Kentucky.
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Thinks you will see the East much like the West in the next few years…..they will be forced to recruit and compete better to keep up with UGA. Much like what happened in the West with Bama years ago.
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Their problem has always been an absurdly unrealistic standard of expectation. They’re even corch didn’t dominate enough for their liking.
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Guy says the right things and he’s a good coach… but there’s nothing magnetic about his personality when you compare him to who he competes against and nothing to suggest he’s a great closer as a recruiter. Boom was better in that regard. McElwain won his two SEC Easts largely on the backs of Muschamp’s defensive recruits.
Gator fans want to win with style, they think they should get Spurrier and Urban results but there’s nothing to indicate Mullen can do that. He can certainly make them better, even very good, but he’s not going to dominate with superior talent like Urban and Saban until he shows he can recruit at the level of those guys, along with Kirby, Dabo, Richt, Taggart, etc. He should get some very good talent just because they’re the flagship school in Florida but pulling in classes like Urban did is probably beyond him.
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Coach Acorn is a life-long, founding member of the “I am a witless tool with an EAT ME sign taped to my back” club.
Pandering by convincing Gator fans they should be glad they have hematuria because it’s really just Cherry Kool Aid. He and Grantham deserve each other.
The clown has advertised himself as running 16 GB of RAM but in fact is coasting on 2….his max.
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Mullen won’t have the benefit of Charlie Strong’s defense that carried the team to those 2 championships. Grantham is never going to build a defense like Strong’s. And just about every assistant in cfb is a better recruiter than Todd Grantham.
Corch had the benefit of Bowden dithering around for his last few years, and MIami wandering in the wilderness under Coker and Shannon. The recruiting territory is considerably tougher now.
Saban & Kirby have set a very high standard in every aspect of running a cfb program. No detail is too small or overlooked. Other coaches and schools like to think they can replicate that standard, but I think it’s incredibly hard. It’s a level of competence and dedication few coaches can match. Even a good coach like Mark Richt can’t attain or maintain that high a standard.
Mullen is a good OC, and he compares favorably when measuring against most HCs. I’m not convinced he’s surrounded himself with as good a staff as he’ll need. Recruiting is gonna be very tough. I reckon over the next 5 years we’ll see a 6 win season, a couple 7-8 win seasons, and perhaps a couple 9-10 win seasons. But don’t count on backing into the sec championship game like sharkhumper did.
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“..but what happens if you can’t recreate them?”
Gat’or Done
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I mean, UF has played in Atlanta 2 out of the last 3 seasons. It wasn’t that long ago that people considered McElwain to be a great gameday coach. I want to believe we’ve surpassed the curse, but logic says we’re still the underdog in Jacksonville. Last year can’t erase the last 25 years for me.
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The SEC East aside from UF and UGA is about in the same place during Mullen’s last stop as it is today. UGA was closer talent-wise with those Meyer UF teams than UF currently is with UGA, however. Still, the talent base UF can draw from could get things back to being competitive pretty quickly if Mullen provides some confidence that he’s got the program on the rise. All the more reason to destroy his team in Jacksonville while they are still a bit down.
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