The dream is over, Dan.

Shot.

Just in case anyone was unaware, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart and Florida head coach Dan Mullen are not the best of friends. That puts an added layer to one of college football’s best rivalries. And looks as if Mullen threw some more kerosene on the fire Monday when he was discussing transfers.

While talking to reporters, Mullen appears to take a shot at Georgia, more specifically how everything unfolded regarding quarterback Justin Fields, who one of the most high profile players to enter the new college football transfer portal following the 2018 regular season.

“I’d think we did a poor job recruiting if guys were coming in and then immediately walking out the door because it was something different than what they thought it would be and we lied to them during recruiting, or we sold them on a dream that wasn’t true,” Mullen said, according to Thomas Goldkamp of Swamp247.

Chaser.

Florida freshman defensive back Chris Steele has entered the NCAA transfer portal, per source.

Was a top-50 recruit and the top-ranked member of Florida's 2019 recruiting class.

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) May 9, 2019

Is there such a thing as self-snarkery?  If not, there should be.

The perfect ending here would be for Georgia to sign Steele.  Don’t laugh, Warren recruited him when he was still at UF.  Listening, football gods?

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UPDATE:  Well, this isn’t good.

Florida freshman cornerback Chris Steele is transferring from the school.

The former five-star recruit has entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal. Steele met with UF coach Dan Mullen on Wednesday night and informed him, a source close to the situation told The Sun.

The decision stems from a request Steele made to the staff during his first month on campus, the source said. He asked to be moved to a different dorm because he was uncomfortable rooming with quarterback Jalon Jones, his classmate.

The staff did not plan to move Steele until the summer, which upset Steele and his parents, according to the source.

Then two female students accused Jones of sexual assault in the players’ dorm rooms on April 6. That prompted Steele to seek a transfer.

Jones has not been charged but has left the school.

Regarding Steele’s decision to transfer, the Florida football program had no official comment on Thursday.

That’s funny.  Mullen’s usually not at a loss for words.

Sounds like a slam dunk transfer waiver request, too.

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UPDATE #2:  Jesus, there are some morons on the Florida staff (Assistant Director of Player Personnel and Development).

Dude.  Dude.  Wish the kid well and STFU.

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Any day now

I discussed this post when it published back in February, but in light of yesterday’s bravado from Mike Bianchi, it’s worth revisiting.

Bianchi, you may recall, served notice to Kirby Smart that his time may be coming to an end.

Plus, it doesn’t help that Smart may have met his match in Mullen, who turned UF’s program around in one season and is starting to challenge Smart’s superiority on the recruiting trail.

Well, let’s revisit that superiority for a moment, okay?

From a recruiting perspective, Georgia is the Alabama of the SEC East. There is no competition. The Tide are quantifiably the only team in the Dawgs’ recruiting zip code, this year reclaiming the No. 1 ranking as the only team capable of topping UGA.

Georgia’s 2018 class was the first to unseat the Tide as No. 1 overall for the first time in seven years. The Tide rebounded to get the No. 1 class, but the Dawgs are No. 2. We know what Alabama’s doing is sustainable. It’s pretty clear that what Georgia’s doing is too.

But building a roster that’s Tide-level also means something else: they’re wrecking shop comparative to all of their direct rivals. And Georgia’s doing just that.

Georgia’s five-star lead over the rest of the East is 15-4 since Smart has gotten it rolling. This type of recruiting dominance is slightly different from Alabama when you compare the Tide to the SEC West. Alabama never lapped its division this way. Bama’s best three-year stretch since Texas A&M joined the league was from 2013-2015 when they signed 18 five stars. The rest of the West signed 24. That obviously includes teams like LSU and Auburn.

Alabama has dominated the West on the field even though the West has at least kept within range as far as recruiting goes with those strong recruiters. But what do you think the Dawgs are gonna do with their advantage?  [Emphasis added.]

That’s a good question for Bianchi.

By the way – and I know it’s early — a quick look at the current 247Sports Composite for 2020 shows Georgia with one five-star commit and Florida with zero.  Mullen’s challenge seems to be going swimmingly so far.

(h/t for the reminder)

They ain’t never satisfied.

Sound the alarm bells.

Here’s the only proof needed to know college football’s postseason is broken, and that major changes are needed to fix it.

In the first five years of the College Football Playoff, no team from Texas or California has earned a berth in the four-team playoff, and the best team in Florida, Central Florida, hasn’t lost a regular-season game in two years and has been stonewalled by the selection committee.

It’s circumstantial evidence of a fraudulent postseason, but also a smoking gun of a broken system.

Texas, California and Florida are the three recruiting hotbeds of the country for college football players, and represent the largest population centers of football-loving fans, yet those three states have only produced one participant in the College Football Playoff.

So much for the search for the best.  I bet you didn’t know the selection committee was supposed to factor recruiting into its rankings.  Or geography.

The thing is, I can’t even get worked up about nonsense like this.  It’s the kind of inevitable argument you expect as a sport gives up its regional appeal in search of a bigger, more generic, national market.

If you honestly believe that every region of the country deserves a participation trophy, then, yeah, talk like this matters.  And it will likely be reflected in the makeup of the quarterfinal field that will come with the next round of expansion.

Give that a few years, and somebody will find a reason to proclaim the new system is broken.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Today, in always be ‘crootin’.

I have a soft spot for goofy comments like this:

“The White Walkers were the bad dudes, man,” Saban said Wednesday on WJOX 94.5 FM’s The Roundtable. “I mean, if we were recruiting, we would go north and try to recruit some of those guys.”

I’m not sure how well they’d hold up in September SEC games, but you can’t fault a man for trying.